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935 Dessert

Healthy Cookie Dough Balls

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These Healthy Cookie Dough Balls are a healthy snack and take minutes to make. They are filled with nut butter, sweetened with honey, and only five ingredients total.

cookie dough on plate

If there’s one thing I know about myself, it’s that I need a snack in between lunch and dinner or else I will become hangry, and no one likes hangry Erin.

That’s where these healthy cookie dough balls step in and not only satisfy my mid afternoon hunger craving, but also my hankering for something sweet.

How to make healthy cookie dough balls video

cookie dough in bowl
cookie dough balls in scoop

I always wonder how people can make it from when they eat lunch at around noon until when they eat dinner at around six without any snacks in between, and I mean I typically am eating a filling lunch with carbs, protein, and fat, and while that keeps me full till about 3 or 3:30, I always start to hear my stomach rumble in the afternoon.

When I worked in corporate America (I say that as if it was years ago..) I was the queen of afternoon snacking. I remember my colleagues always making fun of me because I would always have some form or homemade protein ball or granola bar in the afternoon, and then would pair it with an orange or a peach.

Snacks are life. And so are these balls.

bite into cookie dough ball

They are filling. They fuel me through the remainder of the day. They taste good alone or paired with something else.

So many pre-packaged grab and go options are filled with gross ingredients and packed with sugar, so that’s why I always prefer homemade.

I want to be able to control what goes in them and while that isn’t always the case and there are tons of brands of snack bars and bites that I absolutely love (RxBars, Emmys Cookies, Larabar), I really prefer to make everything homemade. 

Plus they are super simple to make and you can make them ahead of time to have for the entire week. It’s a win-win.

This recipe for healthy cookie dough balls only calls for five basic ingredients.

If you don’t have oat flour (which you can buy at any grocery store and it is wicked cheap), you can make your own by pulsing rolled oats in a food processor or Vitamix until completely fine and flour-like consistency.

For the nut butter, I prefer using peanut butter because I am obsessed with all things peanut butter flavored, but you can easily use any other type of nut butter. Cashew butter works great, almond butter will work great, even sunflower butter will work too!

All you need is one bowl, about five minutes, and some refrigeration time and you’ve got yourself the best little healthy cookie dough balls ever.

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healthy cookie dough balls
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bite into cookie dough ball

Healthy Cookie Dough Balls

★★★★★

4.6 from 17 reviews
  • Author: Erin Lives Whole
  • Prep Time: 5
  • Total Time: 5
  • Yield: 12 balls 1x
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Description

These Healthy Cookie Dough Balls are a healthy snack and take minutes to make. They are filled with nut butter, sweetened with honey, and only five ingredients total.

Scale

Ingredients

  • 1 cup + 2 tbsp oat flour 
  • 1/2 cup nut butter, I prefer salted peanut butter or cashew butter.
  • 3 Tbsp honey
  • 1 Tbsp coconut oil melted (add more if needed)
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • Pinch of salt if none in nut butter
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used mini)

Instructions

  1. Mix together all ingredients in a bowl until well combined.
  2. If too wet to roll into balls, chill in fridge for 30 minutes.
  3. Roll into balls and store in fridge or freezer. If freezer, defrost for a few minutes before eating.
  • Category: gluten-free, snack, dairy-free

Keywords: healthy snacks, protein balls, healthy peanut butter snacks, gluten free snacks, peanut butter snacks

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  6. Claire says

    These look so good, are these ok for someone who is lactose free? I’ve only recently found out I’m lactose free so still getting to grips with what I can and can’t have.

    Claire

    Reply

    • Erin says

      Hm… its at the bottom of the recipe just like all of my recipes! If you still can’t seem to find it, please let me know.

      Reply

  13. Cláudia says

    Dear Erin,

    I have just came across your website and I am loving these recipes! I struggle so hard to find healthier alternatives to candys and deserts, and now I can start venturing around, I see your recipes are very simple and they look delicious!

    What I wanted to know is, considering a see a lot of coconut oil in your recipes and I have a very troubled relationship with anything related with coconut, what kind of oil do you think would be able to replace the coconut one in most of these recipes?

    Thank you so much!

    Reply

    • Erin says

      Hi Claudia! Thanks for the amazing words. One oil that I love to use in place of coconut oil is avocado oil. Most grocery stores carry it now. You can also really use any oil you want (olive may be too strong..so stay away from that, but I would suggest avocado)

      Reply

  14. Sarah says

    What a tasty snack! I really like them out of the freezer! Also can’t wait to try with the banana ice cream! ?

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  15. Morgan says

    Hi. I’ve made these a few times now but mine always come out a little dry and chalky. Should I add more coconut oil? They are very good but want to get the correct level of moist next time.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  16. Kay says

    Hi! I wanted to make these, but swap in oatmeal for the chocolate chips. Would you recommend any other changes to the recipe, and/or do you have a recommendation of the right proportion of oats to add in? Thanks– these look amazing!

    Reply

    • Erin says

      Since oats are drier, I would add in a little more coconut oil, honey and peanut butter. Try out like 1/2 cup oats! This recipe is very forgiving and can be flexible with many ingredients. Too dry, add more liquid. Too wet, add more dry.

      Reply

  18. Emily says

    Hi! I’m so sorry, but I don’t have any coconut oil, do you know of anything I can substitute for this? Thank you so much!

    Reply

  20. Alysha M. says

    I would love to try this cookie dough ball recipe, but have to make a few substitutions. I can’t have coconut oil/anything coconut, but I also can’t have oats/oat flour. I saw that you recommended almond or cassava flour to someone in an earlier comment. Do you have any idea what amount I would need to use in place of the oat flour (would it be a 1 to 1 swap)? Thanks!!

    Reply

  22. Rachel says

    recipe is alright but tastes very heavily of flour and I’d recommend adding more vanilla to combat this

    ★★★

    Reply

  23. Angela says

    I love this recipe. It is very forgiving and you can switch it up to be any of you yr favorite cookie dough. I made oat flour from oatmeal and it wasn’t as fine but it just makes it seem more like a monster cookie dough and would be great with mini chocolate chips.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  25. Nicole says

    I have made these 2x now and my family loves them! They are a great treat for nursing mamas in the middle of the night too! Maybe a little too good..??

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  26. Tallinna says

    This is amazeballs👌🏼so good!!! you need to have them in the fridge. Erin you are helping me save money buying less snacks🙏🏼

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  27. Katarina says

    These were so good! Perfectly sweet and super satisfying if you’re craving something sweet as a pick me up or for desert. Will definitely be making again. I used almond butter instead of pb because that’s what i had at home and really liked it!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  29. Laura says

    Hi! Love these so much! Quick question, at the top it says makes 12 but then the nutritional facts say 14. Just wondering which it should be! Thanks!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  30. Carrie says

    You are a genius! These are so yummy! Finally, I can eat cookie dough without the guilt, lol. I used cashew butter because it’s more neural and I didn’t want PB cookie dough. I added a couple Tbs. of stevia based sweetener because I used a sugar-free fake honey, which isn’t as sweet as regular honey. Mine was a little dryer but that’s probably because it wasn’t real honey. I just needed it to be sugar free. They turned out great! Thank you so much for sharing!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  32. Emily M. says

    I used tahini as my ‘nut’ butter, maple syrup (out of honey for quarantine), and replaced the oil with a splash of almond milk. I also used the Bake Believe sugar free chocolate chips from Walmart and chopped them into chunks to stretch them further.
    The bites came together beautifully and my husband immediately scarfed a few down. A great healthy snack!! 🙂

    ★★★★★

    Reply

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