Nutritious, wholesome, full of goodness AND TASTES LIKE COOKIE DOUGH. No Bake Cookie Dough Energy Bites for the win! Love these little bites!
Cookie Dough Energy Bites
Nutritious little bites of goodness, also known as energy bites, are pretty much always a yes. So what about when they are conveniently little energy bites that taste like peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough?
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These cookie dough balls are a weekly go to for me! They’re the perfect afternoon snack + coffee pick me up!
Erica Price
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These energy bites are MY ENTIRE LIFE right now.
Like many other good recipes in my life including these Chicken Tinga Tacos which I make reeeeligiously, these energy bites came into my life by way of the Minimalist Kitchen cookbook – and so many positive reviews to prove it on Amazon!
These are energy bites, but also they are kind of cookie dough. I mean, let’s be real – these aren’t the butter and sugar kind of cookie dough, and I am all about that goodness in my life, too. But being that I’m pregnant, I can’t / probably shouldn’t eat cookie dough right now, and these energy bites are just checking all the flavor/texture/nutrition/convenience boxes for me while also reminding me of peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough.
Best Things About These Energy Bites:
- Main ingredients are always on hand: oats, coconut, peanut butter, honey, chocolate chips.
- NUTRITIOUS.
- But not, like, grossly nutritious, you know? They still taste really good and can stand in for dessert.
- Amazing texture. Just the right amount of squish and chunkiness.
- Excellent with coffee for a mid-morning snack.
- Two-bite.
- No-bake.
- No dates!!! I repeat: NO DATES. I love dates as a base for energy bites and healthy desserts, but sometimes it’s nice to take a break.
How To Make Cookie Dough Energy Bites In Two Shakes:
First. Grind up your oats and your unsweetened coconut.
Now add your extras – and this is where you can have a little fun. I normally use honey, peanut butter, chocolate chips, and chia seeds (HEALTH, obviously).
But you can also use almond butter, maple syrup, no chocolate chips, hemp or flax or something else altogether. You get the idea.
Then, you are basically done.
Just roll up that “dough” into little balls and pop it into the freezer so they get nice and solid.
Once they are individually frozen, I like to store them in the fridge in a container with a lid. When I need a snack…
Pop goes the top, and there is my nutritious, bite-sized, cookie-dough-like energy bite!
I am making a batch of these little guys every 1-2 weeks, and it’s just my favorite thing about life right now.
Cookie dough foreverrrr!
Watch How To Make Our Cookie Dough Energy Bites:
Cookie Dough Energy Bites
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 30 1x
Description
These nutritious little energy bites taste a whole lot like cookie dough! This recipe was adapted from the Minimalist Kitchen cookbook! The major changes that I made were omitting the dried fruit, using peanut butter instead of almond butter, and swapping chia for hemp.
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 2 cups flaked unsweetened coconut
- 1/2 cup peanut butter (extra as needed)
- 1/2 cup honey (extra as needed)
- 1/4 cup chia seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Pulse the oats and the coconut until coarsely ground.
- Add peanut butter, honey, chia seeds, salt, vanilla, and chocolate chips. Pulse again until well-mixed and the chocolate chips are cut into smaller pieces.
- Roll into balls. (If it’s too dry, just add a little more honey / peanut butter and mix again – I usually just eyeball the amounts until it gets sticky enough).
- Freeze until solid. Store in freezer or refrigerator.
Notes
I have made anywhere from 20-40 bites with this recipe – it all just depends on how big you want them. 20 for a larger size, 30 for a medium size, and 40 for a smaller size.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Snack
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: cookie dough energy bites, energy bites recipe, healthy cookie dough energy bites
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our best healthy-ish recipes page. Check it out!
Filed Under: All Recipes Baking Breakfast Chocolate Cookies Dairy-Free Desserts Gluten-Free Healthy Snacks Spring Stovetop Sugar-Free Summer
June 25, 2018
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
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I Just made your soft chocolate chip cookies yesterday, but my kiddos have been asking for “peanut butter balls”. These look great! I hope you and baby girl are feeling well.
Best thing about this recipe is no DATES! I avoid recipes with dates like the plague. My husband does the grocery shopping. If he’s sent to the grocery store for dates, he’ll spend an hour, not find them and somehow end up buying tools at Home Depot instead! With 3 kids home for the summer I need every bit of energy out there that can be mustered up!
So happy these are date-less! I try and try to like the date bars/balls but they’re just so sweet and can’t get behind the texture. Definitely working these into the snack rotation!
Hooray for no dates! They’re way too sweet for my taste, especially when paired with chocolate. I’ll definitely be making these ASAP.
didn’t mean to use my last name…can you please delete? thanks!
On it! 🙂
Yum! And so easy!! Energy bites are some of my favorite snacks!
These look amazeballs! (Pun intended) Love how you didn’t add any dates. Now I can make energy bites even when I run out of dates. 🙂
These look amazing! If I wanted to leave out the chia seeds, do I need to make any adjustments? (They tend to upset my stomach.)
Hi Jamie! I’d maybe sub in more oats or coconut, just to ensure you still have the right dry to wet ratio.
These look delish! Would natural, drippier peanut butter work for this or do I need to go the Jif route?
I have been using the jif-style stuff (of various brands) but I bet you could work with a runnier version! Just play with it – if it’s too wet, stick the dough in the fridge, or add more oats, etc.
annnd, accidentally gave a 5-star rating on my own recipe. I mean, I do think they’re 5-star, so whatever. 🙂
Hey Dani! You could give it a shot, but we’d recommend a thicker/less runny peanut butter.
I made these as soon as I saw this recipe. They are SO delicious!!!!! And I had to stop my kids from eating all of them:)
Do you have nutritional info for this recipe? The energy balls look tasty!
Thanks!
I am obsessed with energy bites…especially ones that taste like cookie dough! Can’t wait to make these for a healthier meal-prep snack option throughout the week 🙂
Hope you enjoy them, Brittany!
I made this twice and they are delicious. The only thing is that they harden really badly. Am I doing something wrong?
Hi, Stéphanie! These energy bites get pretty solid when freezing, so you could let them come to room temperature on the counter for a few minutes before munching on them or you could store them in the fridge. Hope this helps!
Could i substitute coconut for something else? Not a huge fan of coconuts texture
I was wondering the same thing! I found a couple other date-free oat-based energy bite recipes that did not have coconut, and it looks like you just have to adjust the amount of oats. (E.g.,
(Even more similar: https://www.yummytoddlerfood.com/recipes/snacks-recipes/oatmeal-raisin-peanut-butter-energy-balls/
You could sub in more oats!
Yum! I love that there are actual chocolate chips in this!
Kari
http://sweetteasweetie.com/beer-bread-for-dad/
Have you tried to add protein power?
I can’t wait to make these! Can I use a high speed blender if I don’t have a food processor?
Same question as one below, but what should I sub for coconut? Any ideas? Thanks! (My hubby now loves anything I make from POY!)
I was wondering the same thing! I found a couple other date-free oat-based energy bite recipes that did not have coconut, and it looks like you just have to adjust the amount of oats. (E.g.,
(Even more similar: https://www.yummytoddlerfood.com/recipes/snacks-recipes/oatmeal-raisin-peanut-butter-energy-balls/
You could try subbing it with more oats!
If you want to sub out coconut or chia why not add ground linseed instead? Super healthy and surprisingly yummy.
LOVE! Want to make stat. Curious to sub honey for maple syrup? Thoughts?
Xx
Yep, maple syrup would be a great sub!
Your recipes are great! Could you substitute the peanut butter? Nut allergy. .
Yep! Sun Butter could work!
I used Sunbutter! I would classify it as a “drippier” nut butter per above discussion, but I was making other subs too that made the mix drier, and it all worked out. I think it works better to start with less dry stuff and add more until you get the right consistency, since the recipe can’t possibly cover all possible wet components (sweet + nut butter).
what could I use instead of honey? it makes me sick :/
Maple syrup could work as well!
That looks like the ideal post- treadmill cardio snack for stabilizing natural sugar levels. If I had a few of those around after I got off the treadmill, I think I would munch all of them at once ! L 😛 L
These are so incredible! I am obsessed!
I have never made energy ball or bars before but I have all these ingredients so I really want to give these a go as eating healthy is so important and if I tell the family these involve Cookie Dough I’m sure they’ll not feel short changed:-)
Loved these! Made a half batch because we have a small food processor. They were still a little crumbly, so maybe needed a bit more nut butter or honey? But so delicious!
These are amazing!! So quick to put together! I put them in my freezer for about an hour and they were ready. I had 2 yesterday in place of my afternoon coffee and really do feel like it gave me the afternoon energy boost I needed!! Thank you, POY!!!!
btw I used my Vitamixer since I don’t have a food processor and they came out perfect!
So glad to hear that, Melisa!
Made these last night with maple syrup instead of honey and they were just a tad crumblier than I had expected. Once frozen, they held together pretty well though and most importantly, they taste great! I’ll make them with honey next time to see if that makes any difference.
Thanks for the comment, Lauren!
Yum, these sound so good and the best part – for me – is that there are no dates in it. I just don’t get why everyone is using them. Ugh.
I will try them although I will be using gluten-free oats. Thank you for sharing this recipe with us! <3
E || OH LA LATKES
It look delicious!
Can I use a biscuit shape instead of balls?
Can I eat them from the freezer directly?
Hi Lidia! They might not hold together as well in a biscuit shape, but you can definitely give it a try. You’ll need to let them defrost for just a bit before eating!
My toddler and I eat them directly from freezer to mouth – we had to take a break because we could’t help ourselves….so yummy!