Vanilla chai-spiced fat balls made with almonds, pecans, pumpkin seeds, coconut butter, pure maple syrup, and warm spices for a palate-pleasing snack.
It’s the return of the fat ball!
This one’s warmly spiced with vanilla and chai flavors! A perfect snack to enjoy throughout the fall and winter.
You may remember the macro concept from my Keto Fat Balls: protein, fat, and low sugar.
The idea here is to formulate a low-carb snack for those between-meal times to tide you over, without spiking your blood sugar.
I changed things up a bit from my first fat ball recipe, using coconut butter (also known as coconut manna) versus coconut oil.
I enjoy either option, but enjoy the smooth texture and naturally sweet flavor of the coconut butter.
Mixing it with nuts forms a sort of nut chocolate essence, you feel?
These fat balls can also easily be used as dessert, because their lightly sweet fatiness is ultra satisfying.
If you want to get real naughty about it, you can drizzle these with melted dark (or white…no shame, no harm, no foul) chocolate.
These Vanilla Chai Fat Balls are so easy to throw together at a moment’s notice.
All you need to do is throw all of the ingredients (in no particular order) in a food processor and process.
Recipe Tips:
After the the ingredients have been blended together and the mixture is nice and sticky, I recommend transferring it to a seal-able container and refrigerating it for a couple hours, as chilling it will make ball formation easier.
If you’re like me and have a difficult time digesting raw nuts, you can lightly roast the nuts before making the balls. To do so, spread the nuts and pumpkin seeds on a baking sheet and roast at 375 degrees F for 3 minutes. They don’t need to go for a full roast – just long enough to get them nice and puffy.
A note about the vanilla portion of this recipe: To keep the recipe cost-effective and easy, I used a quality pure vanilla extract, but I was tempted to use an actual vanilla bean.
If you have a vanilla bean on hand and would like to put it to use, feel free to open ‘er up and scrape out the beans – a legit vanilla bean would make the flavor on these beauties soar!
If not, I do recommend using a quality alcohol-free pure vanilla extract so that the balls have a nice warm vanilla flavor versus that bite that comes with some extracts.
How to Store Energy Balls:
I store the fat balls in the freezer, but you can also store them in the fridge.
They don’t need much time at all to thaw if you keep them in the freezer, as the fat keeps them nice and soft. Whenever the hankering hits (often), I just pull one out of the freezer and bite into it.
Recipe Adaptations:
- Change it up by using different nuts, spices, and extracts.
- Consider substituting all of the spices for pumpkin pie spice if you have it on hand in order to shorten the ingredients list.
- You can also add dried fruit for some tang.
You may remember my Cranberry Bliss Protein Balls from last year – adding some dried cranberries can make these balls a nice festive treat.
Vanilla Chai Fat Balls
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw almonds
- 2/3 cup raw pecans
- 1/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds
- 1/2 cup coconut butter softened and packed
- 1 whole vanilla bean scraped, see note*
- 5 tablespoons pure maple syrup see note**
- 1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 pinch ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a food processor and process until well-combined and a dough-like mixture forms. Taste mixture for flavor and add more pure maple syrup and/or spices to taste
- Transfer fat ball mixture to a sealable container and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
- Form balls out of the fat ball mixture and enjoy! You can store the fat balls in a zip lock bag in the refrigerator or freezer.
Thank you! These sound yummy!
Do you happen to have the buteitionals for these and your cranberry bliss balls?
Can’t wait to make these!
Thanks again!
Hi there! Thanks for sharing this great recipe. Do you have any suggestions for replacing the maple syrup with dates?
Absolutely! I use 5 large pitted medjool dates and add a few tablespoons of almond milk. Hope you love the balls!
Hey! Can I use a blender for this recipe or does it have to be a food processor?
Hi Claire,
I’ve never tried making fat balls using a blender but my guess is it would work. I would keep it on a low setting, especially at the beginning, to chop the nuts (basically mimicking the “pulse” of the food processor). Let me know how it goes! xo
I’ve never tried fat balls but the flavors in these sounds incredible! I need to whip some up for afternoon snacks because lately I’ve been stuffing my face with sweet potato chips or whatever random packaged good I can find…eeesh.
Yummy! I will make these with the grand kids this weekend. Thank you for the recipe.