Supercharged Maca & Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Balls

If simple, nutrient dense snacks are your thing, you’re gonna love these mini “cookie dough” bites. Just throw together some heart-healthy, protein-rich natural peanut butter, a good amount of liver-cleansing LSA (pre-mixed coarsely ground linseeds [flaxseeds], sunflower seeds and almonds), a dash of hormone-regulating maca powder, and some honey, flaky sea salt, chocolate chips and vanilla extract for a flavour boost. Sound tasty? They definitely are!

This is the easiest recipe EVER. All you need is one bowl to mix everything in. Super minimal cleaning! And yeah, this recipe makes quite a number of choc-studded peanut buttery balls and you’re probably wondering “if I make a batch of this stuff, who’s gonna help me eat them all?!”. Well, fear not! They can be stored in the fridge for a long while so you’ll be able to snack on them for days!

If you’re feeling creative and are up for a little experimenting, you can substitute the chocolate chips with a whole range of other add-ins such as cacao nibs (Melbourne-based company Loving Earth offers some great certified organic raw cacao nibs from the Peruvian Amazon, among other health foods), chopped nuts (roasted almonds or hazelnuts would probably taste great here) or maybe even some carob chips. Pretty much whatever you think would go well with peanut butter.

I should probably mention how these taste. In one word? Phenomenal. Plush and doughy, the rich peanut butter gives these honey-sweetened “cookie dough” balls a luxuriously dense consistency with a firm and heavy mouthfeel reminiscent of actual cookie dough. The occasional crunch from the chocolate chips and the grittiness of the ground linseeds, sunflower seeds and almonds make for interesting textural additions. Personally, I much prefer them when they’ve been left in the fridge to chill and firm up – best summer snack ever!

Supercharged Maca & Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Balls
adapted from Pheebs Foods’ peanut butter cookie dough balls.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup LSA (ground linseeds, sunflower seeds & almonds)
1 tablespoon maca powder*
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
a generous pinch of sea salt
1 cup natural peanut butter**
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* I used Nature’s Way’s Super Maca Organic Powder in this recipe. Known as the “Peruvian Ginseng”, maca is supercharged with vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids.
** Be sure to use a peanut butter that is made of nothing but 100% peanuts. I used Sanitarium’s Natural Crunchy Peanut Butter. No added sugar, salt, preservatives or stabilisers!

Preparation:

1. Combine the LSA, maca powder, sea salt and chocolate chips in a bowl. Mix well.
2. Add the peanut butter, honey and vanilla extract to the dry ingredients and combine thoroughly. The dough will be quite stiff – use your fingers to mix if you prefer. If the dough is too sticky, just add more LSA.
3. Roll out into balls. They’re rich little morsels so a tablespoon of dough per ball is plenty. I find dampening my hands with some water before rolling them will help to keep the stickiness at bay.
4. Store in the fridge to keep keep them from softening. They’re lovely cold and firm.