Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Balls
on Apr 21, 2025
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These easy no-bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Balls combine creamy peanut butter, oats, cocoa, and protein powder for a delicious energy-boosting treat that satisfies sweet cravings—perfect for breakfast, snacks, or lunchboxes!
🍽️ Energy bites are such a perfect snack for making ahead—just whip up a batch, store them in the fridge for up to a couple weeks or freeze for longer-lasting convenience!
2 Best Tips For Making Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Balls
- Perfect Texture: The consistency of your mixture is crucial for easily forming balls that hold their shape. If your mixture is too sticky, let it rest for 5-10 minutes to allow the dry bits to absorb some moisture. If it’s still too wet, add a tablespoon of oats at a time until you reach the desired consistency. Too dry? Add a little more peanut butter or honey.
- No-Stick Rolling: A little trick I’ve found helpful is chilling the mixture in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes before rolling. This makes the mixture less sticky and easier to handle, resulting in perfectly round protein balls with minimal mess on your hands. I also wet my hand and shake them off so they’re just a bit moist. The mixture doesn’t stick at all using these two tips!
🩷 Melissa
These chocolate-peanut butter bites are perfect for breakfasts, snacks, or even desserts when you want something less sweet and super filling.
They’re easy to customize so there’s basically a never ending line of options — mix in mini chocolate chips, chia seeds, chopped nuts, dried fruit, or even a dash of cinnamon for extra flavor and texture!
Make a bunch ahead on the weekend or even just once a month because these bites keep well in the fridge for a couple of weeks and in the freezer for 3 months.
No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Balls
Ingredients
- 1 cup peanut butter, creamy or crunchy
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 cup quick oats
- 4 tablespoons unflavored protein powder
- 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons chia seeds
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the peanut butter and honey until smooth and well combined.
- Add the oats, protein powder, cocoa powder, chia seeds, vanilla, and salt to the bowl.
- Mix everything together until fully combined. The mixture should be thick and easy to roll—if it’s too sticky, let it sit for a few minutes so the oats and chia seeds absorb some moisture.
- Use your hands or a cookie scoop to roll the mixture into 1.5-inch balls.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week, or freeze for longer storage.
Notes
- Sub the peanut butter for any other nut or seed butter you like. I like to use the runnier natural peanut butter for this recipe.
- You can omit the chia seeds if you don’t have them or sub them for ground flax meal. I like to add them for fiber.
- Swap out the unflavored protein for a chocolate protein powder if you’d like. I generally cut down the honey a little if I use a sweetened protein powder.
- You can use old-fashioned oats instead of the quick oats if that’s what you like or have on hand.
- Feel free to add 1/4 to 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips for even more chocolate flavor.
- Or add 1/4 cup chopped nuts!
- Using a natural peanut butter is helpful because it generally has more liquid and helps the dry ingredients stick together.
- You may also need to add a little more honey and/or peanut butter to your mixture, up to a few more tablespoons.
- Letting the mixture sit for 5 minutes before rolling into balls will help the dry ingredients soak up the moisture so it will stick together better.
Nutrition
Recipe FAQs
Yes, you can! If you don’t have protein powder on hand, you can replace it with an equal amount of ground flaxseed or additional oats. The texture might be slightly different, but they’ll still be delicious.
This recipe works beautifully with almond butter, cashew butter, or sunflower seed butter if you need a nut-free option. Just keep in mind that different nut butters have varying consistencies, so you might need to adjust the amount of dry ingredients to wet slightly to get the perfect texture for rolling.
When stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator, these protein balls will stay fresh for up to a 2 weeks. For longer storage, you can freeze them for up to 3 months. I like to place them in a single layer on a parchment-lined plate to freeze initially, then transfer to a freezer bag once solid.
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