The Best Home Made Energy Balls

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Over recent years it has become difficult to keep up with the different health food movements however protein/energy balls have stayed around. Many different brands sell them and most health food books have recipes for us to try at home. So that is what I decided to do. How easy is it to make them at home and are they just as tasty?

I am quite a collector/hoarder, what ever you may want to call it, of food related books so I had a few options to try out. The first one I tested was *The Australian Women’s Weekly Low Carb Book. They had a small selection of energy balls to choose from but I needed to try the cacao and hazelnut balls. These were easy to make, just throw it all in your blender and blitz then mould into balls and chill. Even after chilling these balls are very soft but oh so tasty. They were almost indulgent in taste, like, ‘how can these be good for you?’. They have a light sweetness along with the chocolatey taste and these would definitely keep you happy when chocolate cravings come around.

The second energy ball came from *Get the Glow by Madeleine Shaw. These also tasted great but had a very different texture. They were almost chewy when taken straight out the fridge but the bite was good. Also due to the firmer texture they help you feel quite full. They tasted mostly of the coconut oil used along with whatever nut butter you choose. I chose almond butter and this works great. Even though I didn’t eat these after a workout I would recommend them for a tasty snack just to keep you going.

The third option was the Mango Balls from the book *Honestly Healthy by Natasha Corrett and Vicki Edgson. I couldn’t stand these. I had never had a mango before and now don’t want to ever. Even though the lemon flavours comes through a lot it still very much tastes like the tropics, in a bad way. I know that a strong dislike of the mango flavour may make me biased so I’ll let you know that I made my boyfriend take these to his work and they were loved there. Someone even ordered the book so she could make them. Conclusion, Only for Mango Lovers.

The mango balls didn’t put me off and I carried on with my trials via the *Honestly Healthy for Life book also by Natasha Corrett and Vicki Edgson. These went better and were very fun to make. I thought these would be made in the blender like the last three but it was a all-in-one bowl job. This process will take you back to your childhood when you made chocolate crispy cakes. Even though they were fun to make they just taste like tahini which I don’t enjoy, so these weren’t for me. I also had trouble with the texture, it didn’t want to come together but this may have been down to me having to make my own tahini as I was out.

After all the sweet options I wanted to try something more savoury and found goats cheese truffles in the *Power Snacks book by LoveFood. These would make a good party nibble but I don’t think of these as an everyday snack even though I do love goats cheese. They are nice but the goats cheese overwhelms the other ingredients with its strong flavour. If you are making your own add a little extra of the other ingredients.

My last energy ball batch was from *SuperFoods by Julie Montagu. It was the Matcha and Oat Truffles which I made with wheat-grass instead. My superfood section of my cupboard was much less empty than I thought it was. I followed the instructions but found it very difficult for the mix to come together. I had to add extra honey. The texture on the inside is OK but I would recommend chopping your macadamia nuts. The recipe doesn’t ask for this but using whole ones just gives the balls a weird shape and ruins the texture. When adding powder to the outside make sure it’s a flavour you love as the wheat-grass really stuck to these and hits you in the face when you bite into them.

My experimenting with energy balls/truffles may not have worked as well as hoped but I did love a couple recipes. My top options were the cacao and hazelnut from The Australian Women’s Weekly Low Carb and the post workout balls from the book Get the Glow by Madeleine Shaw.

I usually buy the almond Bounce balls but having discovered how easy they are to make I’m more likely to make these. I would also recommend others to make their own as it’s easy and more cost effective. I would also be interested in experimenting more and adapting these recipes to my tastes. When I come up with my own recipes I will share these with you.

Have any of these tempted you to make more healthy snacks? If you have a recipe you love share it in the comments. I would love to discover more recipes.