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I know these little tasters look just like donut holes, but, surprise! They’re actually energy balls. Not only are they energy balls, but they are holiday themed energy balls because I know that this is just what your December is missing! It’s what my December was missing anyway.

In truth, I created this recipe with the thought that maybe someone out there is looking for their holiday baking fix, but maybe they don’t want to consume a billion calories in the form of four dozen cookies. That’s fair. With these energy balls, you can keep them covered in the fridge and eat one or two as your holiday cookie cravings hit. I actually like these Snickerdoodle Energy Balls more than I like actual Snickerdoodle cookies. I took two to work every day and ate them as my gym snack around 4:00 pm. I can safely say that these energy balls are my favorite gym snack to date!

It’s kind of hard to believe that Christmas is already next week. We’ve had a surprising amount of snow so early in the season and still it doesn’t feel like Christmas to me. I wonder if it ever will! So far this holiday season I’ve watched all my favorite holiday movies, done a little holiday cooking and baking (admittedly, mostly for the blog), gotten a good chunk of my holiday shopping done, went to a Christmas party hosted by one of our good friends, and went to a Pentatonix Christmas concert! It’s been an awesome couple of weeks but it sure is flying by. I was also thinking to myself how relaxed I’ve felt this December so far. I can’t pinpoint what exactly I’m doing differently this year, but I mean to keep it up!

Mike and I are having some trouble deciding what we’re going to do during our Christmas break. For the first time since we’ve been together, we both have the same exact holiday break! We went to Montreal in April and we love it there so much we were thinking about going back the weekend after Christmas. Hotels in downtown Montreal are dirt cheap so we thought that was a good option. Part of me wants to go somewhere we haven’t been yet. And the frugal grandma in me tells me to stay put at home because we have a lot of travel planned for 2020 that we could put that money toward instead. Decisions, decisions! I’ll tell you one thing, though. If we do stay home I’m making a triple batch of these bad boys and eating them all week. It would still be less calories than my favorite Montreal dessert restaurant, C’ChoColat. If I’m being honest, about 95% of the reason I want to go back to Montreal so soon is so that I can have dessert at that restaurant every night again. I’m an addict!

thehungryhungryhiker

Snickerdoodle Energy Balls

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Prep Time 15 minutes
Chilling time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Servings: 12 balls
Course: Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: American
Ingredients Equipment Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 tsp cinnamon, divided
  • 3 tbsp maple sugar, divided
  • 1 cup cashews
  • 8 dates pitted
  • ¼ cup collagen peptides sub any protein powder that you like the taste of
  • 3 tbsp butter melted
  • pinch sea salt
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Equipment

  • Food processor

Method
 

  1. Line a small sheet pan with wax paper.
  2. Add ½ tsp cinnamon and 2 tbsp maple sugar to a small bowl and whisk with a fork to combine. Set aside.
  3. Add the cashews, dates, collagen peptides, butter, sea salt, vanilla extract, ½ tsp cinnamon, and 1 tbsp maple sugar to a food processor. Turn the food processor on and run until nuts have broken down and mixture is combined.
  4. Use your hands or a cookie scoop to form the mixture into balls. If you find the mixture is too dry, add in a little more melted butter and pulse to combine. As each ball is formed, roll it in the small bowl with the cinnamon and maple sugar. Place the coated energy balls in a single layer on the wax paper lined sheet pan. Chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour. To serve, you can either eat them chilled or you can let them warm up for 10 minutes or so. Enjoy!