Hazelnut Energy Balls
on Feb 04, 2020, Updated Sep 19, 2024
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These raw and vegan hazelnut energy balls are made with just 4 nutritious ingredients: dates, almond butter, cacao nibs and hazelnuts!
About the Recipe
These delicious energy bites are easy to make in 10 minutes with just 4 simple ingredients. They’re perfect for snacking on-the-go or a sweet treat any time of day.
If you’ve never had raw cacao, it has a strong, bitter, unsweetened chocolate flavour, however paired with the almond butter, dates and hazelnut, the crunchy bites of rich dark chocolate are delicious. Though if you don’t enjoy cacao, these can be made with chocolate chips too!
Homemade energy balls are so fun and easy to make and a great way to include more nutritious ingredients in your diet! For more variations, try these Cranberry Sunflower Seed Energy Balls, Peanut Chocolate Chip Energy Balls, No-Bake Cinnamon Energy Balls and No-Bake Carrot Cake Energy Balls.
Ingredient Notes
- Cacao nibs. Cacao nibs are readily available online, in natural health food stores and in some well-stocked grocery stores. Sub chocolate chips or finely chopped dark chocolate.
- Hazelnuts. Look for plain hazelnuts or filberts with no added oil or salt. Dry roasted is okay though! For a variation, this recipe can be made with any other nuts. If you have extra, use them in these Vegan Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles.
- Dates. I like sayer or medjool dates best for recipes like this but since we’ll be soaking them first, any variety will do. If your dates are already soft and moist, you should be able to skip soaking.
- Almond butter. You’ll need just a little almond butter to add some creaminess to the recipe. You can also use tahini, cashew butter, sunflower seed butter or peanut butter.
I also add salt to the recipe as well. Although not required, it really enhances the flavour of the cacao.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: If your dates are dry or hard, start by soaking them. Add them to a bowl, cover with hot water and soak for 10-15 minutes.
Drain them well before using them in the recipe. Totally fine to add them to the food processor wet though. No need to dry them, just drain off the excess water.
You can skip this step if your dates are soft and moist. If you skip the soaking and the dough isn’t coming together, no problem, just add a few teaspoons of warm water until it does.
Step 2: Add all of the ingredients to a food processor and blend into a sticky dough.
Step 3: Use your hands to roll the dough into balls.
More Energy Balls
- Coconut Goji Berry Balls
- Chocolate Superfood Balls
- Raw Vegan Gingerbread Bites
- Maca Mocha Energy Bites
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Hazelnut Energy Balls
Ingredients
- 1 cup packed, pitted dates, 220 g
- 1 cup hazelnuts or filberts, 145 g
- 1/2 cup cacao nibs, 65 g
- 1 tbsp almond butter, 15 g
- 1/2 tsp sea salt, optional
Instructions
- If your dates are hard or dry, place dates in a bowl, cover with hot water and soak for 15 minutes. If using soft and moist medjool dates, you can skip soaking. Drain well. It's okay if they're a bit wet when you add them to the food processor. Just be sure to drain off all the excess water.
- While the dates are soaking, add the cacao nibs and hazelnuts to a food processor and process on high for about 30 seconds until it resembles a coarse, grainy meal.
- Add the almond butter and soaked, drained dates to the food processor with the hazelnut cacao mixture and mix into a thick, sticky dough. If the dough isn't sticking together, add 1-2 tsp warm water and process until it does, however, if you soaked the dates it should be perfect.
- Use your hands to roll the dough into 14 balls.
