Hey everyone! As promised, this post marks the start of me going back to sharing sweet treat recipes (partly because I miss creating them and partly because coming up with a new smoothie every week is surprisingly difficult). I’m really excited to share these two energy ball recipes with you!

Over the past few weeks I have fallen in love with two different chocolate hazelnut energy ball recipes that I’ve created and I’ve been struggling to decide which one to share, so I decided that as they both have similar base ingredients I would share them both in the same post so you can decide which recipe you want to try most.

For those of you who count calories, recipe one is 120kcals per ball and recipe two is 69.5kcals per ball. Recipe one is a slight edit on my Gluten-free, indulgent but healthy “Ferrero Rocher” from last Christmas – I decided to slightly edit it because although those balls taste absolutely amazing, they do take a little while to make, so I’ve changed a few things to make them more like an ‘everyday’ energy ball (if you know what I mean).

Recipe two contains a Linwoods milled mix (not an ad – I just found it in Tesco and loved it) so those balls contain more fabulous nutrients but less calories. So it’s up to you whether you fancy a slightly more indulgent energy ball or one that still tastes delicious but isn’t quite as chocolatey.

Both recipes are ridiculously tasty and I struggled not to eat them all in one go. If you try either of them please let me know what you think!

Recipe 1: Chocolate Fudge Hazelnut Energy Balls

Spot the half eaten ball. 😉 I just couldn’t wait!

Makes 12 balls

Ingredients:

For the balls:

30g cashew nuts

100g Medjool dates

1 tbsp agave nectar

10g cacao powder

15g Nutristrength pea protein roasted cocoa

30g hazelnuts

For the coating:

30g cacao butter

10g cacao powder

(If you don’t have cacao butter to make raw chocolate with, you can melt some 85% chocolate instead)

1 tbsp agave nectar

45g hazelnuts

Method:

Mill the cashew nuts in a Nutribullet (or in a food processor) and place in a food processor. Then add the dates, agave nectar, cacao powder, protein powder and hazelnuts to the food processor and blitz until combined.

The mixture should hold together when squeezed.

Take a small amount of the mixture (about 3/4 of a ping pong ball size) and roll into a ball before placing on a plate. Repeat to make a total of 12 small balls and place to one side.

Then place the topping hazelnuts into the food processor and blitz until crushed into small chunks and place in a small bowl.

Half fill a small saucepan with boiling water and put on the hob with a bowl on top of the saucepan. Melt the cacao butter in the bowl and then remove the bowl from the saucepan (obviously carefully) before adding the cacao powder and agave nectar.

Whisk the chocolate mixture until smooth and slightly cooled so not too hot to handle, then remove the balls from the freezer.

Place one ball in the chocolate mixture and coat it with the chocolate (using a spoon if you don’t want to get too messy). Then roll it in the hazelnut chunks before placing to one side. Repeat with the remaining balls.

Then place the balls in the freezer for about 10 minutes before moving them to the fridge…and enjoy!!

Macros per ball:

Kcals: 120

Carbs: 9.8g

Fat: 7.8g

Protein: 2.9g

Fibre: 1.2g

Recipe 2: Hazelnut Chocolate Energy Balls

Makes 9 balls

Ingredients:

25g hazelnuts

60g Medjool dates

1 tbsp agave nectar

10g cacao powder

20g Linwoods milled flax, sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds and goji berries (it’s a single packet that costs about £6 for 425g)

10g Nutristrength pea protein roasted cocoa

1tsp vanilla extract

10g cashew nuts

1tbsp coconut milk

Method:

Mill the cashew nuts and hazelnuts in a Nutribullet (or in a food processor), then pour into a bowl and put to one side for a minute.

Place the dates and coconut milk in a food processor (or blender) and blitz until smooth-ish (if they don’t completely blend don’t worry – it will add to the texture). Then add the milled nuts and all other ingredients to the food processor and blitz until combined.

The mixture should hold together when squeezed.

Take a small amount of the mixture (about a ping pong ball size) and roll into a ball before placing on a plate. Repeat to make a total of 9 small balls, then place the balls in the fridge…and enjoy!!