Laura’s four-ingredient date balls unite dark chocolate, dates, and peanut butter perfectly with a crunchy peanut coating – if you like those infamous peanut butter cups, you’re going to love these!
You are in for a real treat today!! This is the first time I’m posting a recipe by another vegan blogger on my website. And I’m really excited to share these tasty Chocolate Peanut Butter Date Balls – a plant-based recipe by Laura Rose Cooks. These decadent treats were just released in her new Kindle cookbook, available on Amazon, Laura Rose Cooks! Delicious vegan recipes for a healthy lifestyle. Her cookbook contains an array of vegan breakfasts, lunches, dinners, sides, sauces and spreads, and sweet treats.
After scanning through the recipes listed in her book, these Chocolate Peanut Butter Date Balls immediately called out to me. As Laura explains, these Chocolate Peanut Butter Date Balls were inspired by her sister, who got the idea to try stuffing dates with peanut butter and dipping them in chocolate. She then tweaked the process a bit, and came up with these lovely treats. (Laura Rose Cooks!)
And that they are! After making these decadent treats, my husband and I are thrilled to report that they taste a great deal like chocolate-covered peanut butter cups (the kind I used to eat a lot, especially while passing out candy to adorable trick-or-treaters), except that they are made with nutritious dates, peanuts, and dark chocolate! Three delicious things on their own; but superbly decadent when combined together.
As I made these Chocolate Peanut Butter Date Balls, I was surprised by a few things. For starters, this is a very simple and straight-forward recipe. It only contains four ingredients – three are one hundred percent whole plant-based foods – dates, peanut butter, and unsalted roasted peanuts. I love incorporating whole plant foods in our diet. And this sometimes proves more difficult since I have a massive sweet tooth, no matter how healthy I try to be.
The fourth ingredient can be as healthy or sinful as you want it to be. I like purchasing non-dairy dark chocolate chunks at Aldi. First, I love chocolate. And this chocolate comes from Belgium. Yum. And second, I love that it doesn’t cost me an arm and a leg for good quality imported chocolate. And third, these dark chocolate chunks don’t contain any milk.
Another great thing that surprised me about this recipe is that it contains shelf-stable pantry staples. And guess what! I had all of them, just ready to go. It’s as if the stars were aligned. Destiny wanted me to make these delicious nuggets of goodness.
Third, I am surprised at how large the end product is. Laura says this recipe should make sixteen Chocolate Peanut Butter Date Balls. Her directions state to shape the date-peanuts butter dough into one to two inch round balls. Since I’m not very good at creating uniform balls all the same size, I opted to use my handy-dandy kitchen scale.
I weighed a little dough out at one ounce, which ultimately produced twenty round Chocolate Peanut Butter Date Balls. They looked to be about an inch to inch and a half big. But like I said, this is not one of my strengths. So, I figured it was close enough. And boy, am I glad I left them as is. These little dough balls are deceptively smaller than the final results!
As I coated each ball in the chocolate and then the peanuts, these little guys morphed into something almost twice their size. I was amazed and impressed then, and still remain a little in awe now. Don’t get me wrong. I love these Chocolate Peanut Butter Date Balls just as they are – they are perfect in every way. I will continue to use the one-ounce size when I make these in the future though since I know it makes twenty large balls.
And finally, I fully admit that I had a very hard time believing that I would use two whole cups of crushed peanuts. But surprisingly, two cups of crushed peanuts is the exact amount needed to roll all of the balls in the peanut coating. In fact, it was the perfect amount of chocolate coating, too. This recipes is fantastic as written and tastes even better than I imagined. They store well in the freezer and make great gifts or holiday treats.
I hope you enjoy these Chocolate Peanut Butter Date Balls as much as we do.
Laura and I would love to see your results. Please leave a comment and rate it down below or at laurarosecooks.com, tag a picture @pebblesandtoast and @laurarosecooks, and #pebblesandtoast and #laurarosecooks on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook! And do consider grabbing a copy of her new cookbook, Laura Rose Cooks! Delicious vegan recipes for a healthy lifestyle.
Enjoy!!
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Ingredients
- 16 ounces pitted dates
- ¾ cup all-natural creamy peanut butter
- 10 ounces vegan dark chocolate chips
- 2 cups dry roasted unsalted peanuts
Instructions
- Line a baking pan with parchment paper.
- Pulse the dates and peanut butter in a food processor, until crumbly, sticky, dough-like mixture forms. Once the dough comes together, transfer it to a mixing bowl, and break off little pieces to roll into 1” – 2” round balls. Place the balls on the parchment lined pan, and store in the freezer.
- Pulse the peanuts in the food processor, until they are chopped into small pieces, being careful not to over-pulse, so it doesn’t turn into peanut butter. Transfer the peanuts to a large bowl.
- Melt the chocolate in a double broiler over low to medium heat, stirring often with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula as it melts.
- Once it is all melted, turn the heat to low, and remove the peanut butter date balls from the freezer.
- One at a time, gently dip each ball in the chocolate, using a pair of forks to turn them over, ensuring that the whole ball is coated. Lift up the chocolate peanut butter date ball with one fork, and let the excess chocolate drip off the ball before placing it in the bowl of peanuts. Roll each chocolate peanut butter date ball in the chopped peanuts, before returning to the parchment line pan.
- Once all the balls have been dipped, put the pan back in the freezer for a few minutes, to make sure everything has solidified. Transfer the date balls into a freezer storage back and keep in the freezer until ready to serve.
Notes
The peanut butter date balls don’t need to be in the freezer too long prior to coating with chocolate and peanuts, but they should feel solid. Although it doesn’t take that long, they can be made a day ahead of time, and left in the freezer overnight.
When ready to serve, let them sit on the counter for a minute or two to soften a bit before eating.
This recipe was posted with permission by Laura Rose Cooks. These decadent treats were just released in her new Kindle cookbook, available on Amazon, Laura Rose Cooks! Delicious vegan recipes for a healthy lifestyle.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Date Balls
Equipment
- stove or microwave
- freezer
Ingredients
- 16 ounces pitted dates
- ¾ cup all-natural creamy peanut butter
- 10 ounces vegan dark chocolate chips
- 2 cups dry roasted unsalted peanuts
Instructions
- Line a baking pan with parchment paper.
- Pulse the dates and peanut butter in a food processor, until crumbly, sticky, dough-like mixture forms. Once the dough comes together, transfer it to a mixing bowl, and break off little pieces to roll into 1” – 2” round balls. Place the balls on the parchment lined pan, and store in the freezer.
- Pulse the peanuts in the food processor, until they are chopped into small pieces, being careful not to over-pulse, so it doesn’t turn into peanut butter. Transfer the peanuts to a large bowl.
- Melt the chocolate in a double broiler over low to medium heat, stirring often with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula as it melts. Once it is all melted, turn the heat to low, and remove the peanut butter date balls from the freezer.
- One at a time, gently dip each ball in the chocolate, using a pair of forks to turn them over, ensuring that the whole ball is coated. Lift up the chocolate peanut butter date ball with one fork, and let the excess chocolate drip off the ball before placing it in the bowl of peanuts. Roll each chocolate peanut butter date ball in the chopped peanuts, before returning to the parchment line pan. Once all the balls have been dipped, put the pan back in the freezer for a few minutes, to make sure everything has solidified. Transfer the date balls into a freezer storage back and keep in the freezer until ready to serve.
Thank you for sharing this! I’m so glad you liked them! I’m always amazed at how big they end up by the time they’re finished, too.
Laura, I really enjoyed making them. They’re absolutely delicious!! Thank you for sharing your recipe with us.