How to Make a Healthier Nut Butter Buckeye Ball

Join Me In The Experimental Kitchen

This recipe was an experimental attempt to come up with a healthier version of the tradtional peanut butter buckeye ball. In order to accomplish this, we must replace some of the "ethyl methyl bad stuff" that is contained in the traditonal recipe with some healthier choices. We decided that we would replace the peanut butter with less fatty almond butter, and the choice was MaraNatha brand No-Stir Almond Butter.

Confectioner's sugar and butter is what is used in the original recipe to hold everything together, and we decided because coconut flour is naturally sweet, we would use that instead along with some Y.S Farms Raw Organic Honey. Instead of a chocolate coating melted in Crisco, we decided we would do sweet carob chips melted in coconut oil.

Overall, the end result got mixed reviews, but mostly good as far as flavor goes. The main comment was that cookie dough texture was something that is needed to get used to. In the next iteration of this recipe, we will attempt to reduce the amount of coconut flour, in order to try to attain a texture that more accurately reproduces the texture of the original peanut butter buckeye balls recipe. Stay tuned for more to come later.

The First Step to Making a Healthier Nut Butter Buckeye Ball is Finding Healthier Ingredients

This is an experimental effort to create a nut butter buckeye ball that has less sugar, less saturated fat, less trans fat, and less cholesterol than the traditional Peanut Butter Buckeye Ball recipe. The first steps have been to evaluate some alternative ingredients and come up with viable replacements.

The first item on the replacement list is confectioners sugar. After doing much reading and research, I believe that coconut flour may be a viable alternative; however, due to its greater affinity for moisture, it will take some experimentation to figure out how to get the right consistency for our nut butter mix.

We are also going to eliminate butter from the recipe, and replace it with a little honey. Although peanut butter is somewhat nutritious, we are going to go with an alternative of Almond Nut butter instead. We've also decided to replace the chocolate coating with a carob coating, and instead of using Crisco to melt the chocolate, we will be using coconut oil to melt the carob chunks.

This is the basic outline of what we are going to try to accomplish, and subsequently we will make a list of the exact quantities required of each ingredient to make a buckeye ball that is similar in consistency to the traditional peanut butter buckeye ball.

Carob Coated Coconut-Almond Cookie Dough Buckeye Balls (1st Iteration)

This was the first experimental batch of healthier buckeye balls, and the filling is more like a cookie dough than an over-sweet candy. Further refinements will hopefully balance out the ingredients to achieve a more candy-like center, but if you'd like to have a go at the first trial recipe, here it is.

• 1 17 ounce jar of Maranatha No-Stir Almond Butter
• 1 Cup Coconut Flour
• 1 1/2 Tbs Back Bay Almond Flavoring
• 1 1/2 Cups of Y.S. Bee Farms raw organic honey (loosen lid and heat in hot water-not boiling, until honey is liquified)
• Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix with a non-stick spatula, spoon, electric mixer with dough attachment, or your bare hands until batter becomes stiff like cookie dough.
• Line a 9" X 12" cookie sheet with wax paper or aluminum foil.
• Roll dough into balls about 1" in diameter.
• Put toothpicks into the top of each ball.
• Put balls into freezer for about 1 hour.
• After 1 hour, start preparing carob coating.
• Melt 1/4 cup coconut oil in a double boiler.
• Add sweetened (no milk added) carob chips slowly.
• Melted carob chips should be about the consistency of honey when you have added enough.
• See the helpful video on how to melt chocolate in a double boiler. Melting carob chips is essentially the same procedure.
• Dip frozen balls about 3/4 to 7/8 of the way into the melted carob and swirl as you lift out to remove any excess carob coating.
• Put coated balls back on cookie sheet.
• Put back in freezer for 1/2 hour to an hour.
• Take balls out of the freezer and remove tooth picks.
• Store in container if refrigerator until ready to serve.
• Bon Apetite

Final Analysis:Carob Coated Coconut Almond Butter Cookie Dough Buckeye Balls

This is iteration #1. The resulting outcome met with the approval of my test audience (ie my Thanksgiving 2013 family dinner). These buckeye balls have a bit more of the texture of cookie dough than the creamy texture of traditional peanut butter buckeyes. However; one must keep in mind that these buckeyes contain no confectioner's sugar or butter as the traditional recipe does. In iteration #2, I hope to improve the texture to come a bit closer to the creaminess of the traditional buckeye ball, still with no confectioner's sugar or butter.

Also, take note that when these first come out of the refrigerator or freezer, if you try them immediately, you will notice the flavor of the coconut flour outweighs the taste of almond. After they have been in the refrigerator overnight, the almond flavor will become more prominent after the Back Bay Natural Almond Flavoring and the almond butter have a chance to be in each other's company for awhile.

Ultimately, if you don't mind the more cookie doughish texture of this recipe, they aren't bad. I decided it might be a good idea to cut these buckeye balls into small chunks and mix them with vanilla ice cream (because it's kinda like chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream).

After experimental iteration #2 has been evaluated by the target test audience (my co-workers' annual Christmas pot-luck luncheon), I will write a new Hub based on the outcome. Please stay tuned.