When I followed the vegan diet for a week I was craving sweets in a bad way. I mean, I am pregnant and I need chocolate. However, I was good and avoided pretty much anything sweet until day 6 when I couldn’t take it anymore. I stared into our pantry hoping that something animal-free would jump out at me for dessert. I came up with these treats and I’m hooked….and they aren’t really that sweet with the only added sweetener being 1/4 cup syrup per batch, you can definitely feel good about eating these or giving them to your kids as snacks.
5 simple ingredients including some vegan basics- oatmeal and peanut butter. I will be making these on a weekly basis for a healthy treat for me and the kids…oh and of course my peanut butter-loving husband. LOVE them. Surprisingly one treat is very satisfying. Especially with a cup of soy milk. Yum.
There is another treat I make similar to these (more of a dessert though) that uses rolled oats, however the quick cooking oats work best with this one. They combine well with the peanut butter creating a “peanut butter cookie” flavor. Best part- NO BAKING required!!
Enjoy these simple oatmeal peanut butter balls for a quick satisfying snack!
- ⅔ cup peanut butter (I use ⅓ cup creamy and ⅓ cup chunky)
- 1 cup quick cooking oats, uncooked
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- 2 full graham crackers, finely crushed
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Combine all ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Stir well with a spoon. Once mixture starts coming together, use your hands to work the mixture until it's all combined (it helps to spray hands with cooking spray first because it is sticky).
- Divide peanut butter mixture with your hands into four equal sections (you will make 3 balls out of each section). Spoon out a heaping Tablespoon and roll in hands to form a 1½" ball (use more cooking spray on hands if mixture is too sticky). Place all peanut butter balls on a plate, cover and refrigerate for a couple hours. Store in refrigerator.
Question: Do you have a favorite no-bake treat?
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OMG – I would LOVE these! Pinning this to make this weekend!
These look so great! Thanks for sharing.
Bree
Great for lunch boxes too. My kids have had a similar recipe in their lunch all week.
Hi Melanie,
This is my first time commenting but I have been following for awhile. I LOVE your blog! Thanks for all of the tips, tricks and great recipes. I am so excited about this one because, while I love to follow cooking blogs, I am not much of a cook – and I LOVE peanut butter. One question – do you use natural PB for this recipe? I only eat natural PB now but haven’t tried it in any recipes. So, I was just wondering how it would work …
Thanks again,
Jen
Thanks for the comment Jen! We have a buffet of PB in our house, but I do prefer the natural on sandwiches. In this instance I actually used the 1/3 cup of chunky that was natural and 1/3 creamy that was not (that is just what I had in the house). Since there is enough oatmeal and they balls stay refrigerated, I bet using all natural will be fine (you know how even the natural firms up in the fridge). You could always cut the recipe in half to try it before committing to the whole batch. Thanks for following! I appreciate it!
hi melanie. i would like to ask about the quick cooking oats and the 2 full graham crackers ;p i may sound absurd, but i’d really wanted to know about them (silly)
– the quick cooking oats are “uncooked” right? my daughter is not really a fan of oats (sadly) is it ok to use “instant” instead?
– for the graham crackers, is it 2 whole pieces of graham crackers?
thanks in advance for your response. i’d really like to try this one… i love the fact that “no cooking” is required! yey!!!
No- good questions! Yes, oatmeal is uncooked- I think instant would work fine. Yes, graham crackers are two full sheets. Good luck and thanks for following!
I think of you every time I make the “original PB balls”… now I’ll have to give these a try and I think I’ll dip them in chocolate like your original recipe 🙂
Oh my these are amazing! I have to make these, for my and my son (my daughter for some reason does not like PB!!!)…I crave something sweet after dinner and these would be perfect with a glass of milk or tea.
Hope you are doing well!
Whoa!! I found your blog through foodgawker because of this yummy picture… I just finished making these and wow! I will totally be making them again. I dipped some of them in chocolate because I knew my husband would like them better that way but I love them plain too. Thanks for an easy recipe!
Thanks for visiting Hannah! I make another version in chocolate that is hard to beat, but these definitely make me feel less guilty. Thanks for the comment. 🙂
I am trying these tonight! Thanks for the recipe!
how long should you leave them in the fridge before eating ?
Hi Jordan,
I usually leave them in the fridge for a couple hours but I’d think an hour would be the minimum for them to hold together like they should.
Just made some! They are delicious! I used old fashioned oats so they are super crunchy…
Hey, these sound perfect but do you think I might be able to use honey instead of maple syrup?? (i would imagine that it would stick even better) guess I could always half the recipe and try it out 😛 THanks for the delicious sounding recipe!!
Yes honey would work great! Yes this comment went to spam so I am just now finding it. A little late, sorry! lol
Only late by a year or so!:) and thank you….these look fantastic.
Yum!!!! Just made these and they are delicious!
For the calorie counters–could you post the calories in each of these?
These have 130 calories per snack ball. I don’t typically calculate calories due to the time involved but enough people asked 😉
I do not have any maple syrup. Could you use pure honey instead?
Yes, honey would work! Enjoy!
Do you know the calorie count for these bad boys?
Hi Nikki, These have 130 calories per snack ball. I don’t typically calculate calories due to the time involved but enough people asked 😉
What can be used in place of the crackers? Would like to make these gluten free. Thanks!
Have a batch in the refrigerator but I licked the bowl. YUM. This is a keeper
Hi! I just made these and we’ve no peanut butter in our house right now, so I substituted PB2 and my girls love them! (did you know the refrigeration part can be omitted?)I don’t know that mine will even get to the fridge!