Carob Almond Energy Balls Vegan Gluten-Free Date-Sweetened
A healthy homemade alternative to pricey processed energy bars, these fudgy gluten-free baked treats are made with chickpea flour and dried cranberries. Plant powered protein-packed snacking doesn’t get any more satisfying!
Equipment
- Cookie Sheet
- Parchment Paper
- small saucepan or skillet
- medium bowl
- Food Processor (refer to BLENDER METHOD section in main recipe text if you need to use a blender instead)
- silicon spatula
- Wooden Spoon (optional)
Ingredients
- 1 cup chickpea flour*
- ½ cup almond flour*
- ½ cup carob powder
- 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed*
- 1 tsp pumpkin spice*
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup dates, chopped and well packed**
- ½ cup apple sauce
- ½ tsp almond extract*
- ½ cup dried cranberries,* un-clumped
- 2 Tbsp whole raw almonds* (or 1 almond for each of the 16 to 18 energy balls)
Instructions
Prep for Baking
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Preheat oven to 350 ℉ (175 ℃)
Toast Chickpea Flour
- Place saucepan or skillet over medium heat. Add chickpea flour and stir constantly for 5 to 10 minutes until the chickpea flour becomes golden. As soon as the chickpea flour is toasted, transfer it into a medium size bowl.
Mix Dry Ingredients
- To the chickpea flour in the bowl add the almond flour, carob powder, ground flaxseed, pumpkin spice, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix ingredients until they are evenly distributed and set aside.
Create Sweet Date Paste
- If you're using a blender instead of a food processor, please read the BLENDER METHOD section in the main recipe text.
- Place chopped dates, apple sauce and almond extract in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the dates have broken down into tiny pieces. You can pulse until completely smooth if you like, but it's not necessary.
Create the Dough
- Add the mixed dry ingredients to the sweet date paste in the food processor and pulse until a dough forms. You will probably need to open the food processor and push the sides down once or twice to get everything evenly incorporated.
- Carefully remove the blade from the bowl of the food processor while leaving all of the dough in the bowl.
- After checking to make sure none of the dried cranberries tare stuck together, fold them into the dough using a firm silicon spatula or wooden spoon.
Shape Energy Balls
- Make 16 or 18 equally sized balls and place them on the parchment paper lined cookie sheet. To get this many balls they need to be about 1½ to 1¾ inches in diameter (3.8 to 4.4 cm) in diameter. The dough will be sticky. You can refrigerate it for a while or wet your hands while you work with it to make it more manageable if you like though I don't find it necessary to do either of those things.
- Push a whole raw almond into each ball, sinking the almond ¼ inch so that it doesn't pop out during or after baking. Be careful not to flatten out the ball too much when you push in the almond.
Bake
- Bake at 350 ℉ (175 ℃) for 10 minutes.
Serve or Store
- You can serve energy balls immediately out of the oven, but they're better after they've cooled down.
- After the energy balls have cooled down completely they can be stored in a sealed container at room temperature or in the fridge, and can also be kept frozen and thawed as needed.
Notes
*Refer to the last section of the main recipe text for substitutions.
**Be sure to remove stems and hidden pits.
Tried this recipe? Let me know how it was!