Healthy Real Food Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles are a fun, protein-packed, festive treat for the holidays – with better ingredients than Buckeyes or Peanut Butter Balls.
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Real food chocolate peanut butter truffles – yes please!
You can call them Buckeyes or Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls … but my family prefers to call these bad boys Healthy Real Food Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles.
Truffles are such a fun treat for the holidays! My family has been enjoying the tradition of making these healthy real food chocolate peanut butter truffles every year for Christmas. My husband and Little Love are HUGE fans of these delectable truffles.
But here’s the thing … the traditional version of this candy is full of refined sugar. I know, it’s just a once a year treat. By all means, go for it and use powdered sugar if you want to.
Since my family loves to make lots of treats for Christmas like gluten free gingerbread cookies, grain free chocolate crinkles, grain free ginger molasses cookies, fudge AND Instant Pot peppermint cheesecake, I do my best to make recipes a bit healthier without refined sugars.
For starters, I swap out the traditional powdered sugar for unrefined maple sugar. I LOVE the way maple sugar tastes plus it adds such a delicious flavor. I also make my own homemade chocolate coating {but I’ve included the tradition chocolate chip coating version in the recipe too}.
I also add collagen! Why? For a few reasons. Collagen adds extra protein to the recipe, and that’s a huge bonus in my book. The brand I use is 10 grams of protein per scoop. This recipe calls for 2 scoops, so you get a good dose of protein in these healthy real food chocolate peanut butter truffles.
Some other awesome things about collagen – it’s known for helping support digestion and gut health, helps support bone and joint health, helps build and restore muscle, helps support metabolism plus so much more. I only recommend using a quality grass-fed collagen.
Knowing the source and where the collagen comes from is very important. My favorite brand is Perfect Supplements. I am so impressed with their collagen and their customer service.
BONUS: Perfect Supplements has a 10% off your entire order coupon code just for Recipes to Nourish readers! Just follow the link here and enter NOURISH10 at checkout.
My whole family takes Perfect Supplements Hydrolyzed Collagen daily. My husband loves it for pre and post workouts. I love it for it’s gut health support.
I also love that I can sneak it into any drink, smoothie and lots of recipes so my oldest daughter won’t know. Those of you who have followed me for a while know my oldest doesn’t eat as well as the rest of the family. Whenever I can get some collagen into her diet, I feel a sense of relief.
But back to this fun holiday treat …
Healthy real food chocolate peanut butter truffles are so fun to make plus super easy too. This is a recipe that your kids can easily help with.
My family loves to eat them right out of the freezer … they have the best texture when they’re still frozen. So yummy!
Happy Holidays from my family to yours!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles
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YOU WILL NEED: Unbleached Parchment Paper, Baking Sheet {that can be placed in the freezer}, Large Mixing Bowl, Handheld Mixer, Small Saucepan
Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles
Yield 22 medium size truffles
Healthy Real Food Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles are a fun, protein-packed, festive treat for the holidays - with better ingredients than Buckeyes or Peanut Butter Balls.
YOU WILL NEED: Unbleached Parchment Paper, Baking Sheet {that can be placed in the freezer}, Large Mixing Bowl, Handheld Mixer, Small Saucepan
Ingredients
For the Peanut Butter Filling:
- 1 cup organic creamy peanut butter
- 1/4 cup pasture butter, softened
- 1/2 cup maple sugar* {See Notes}
- 1/2 cup arrowroot flour, sprouted brown rice flour or gluten free oat flour
- 2 scoops hydrolyzed collagen
- 1 teaspoon organic vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
For a Chocolate Coating - WITH chocolate chips:
- 8 oz. allergy friendly chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon pasture butter or ghee
- 1/16 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
For a Chocolate Coating - WITHOUT chocolate chips:
- 1/2 cup raw cacao butter
- 1/4 cup raw cacao powder, sifted
- 2 tablespoons light colored honey
- 1/16 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
Instructions
To Make the Peanut Butter Truffles:
- In a large mixing bowl, add peanut butter, softened butter, maple sugar, your choice of flour, collagen, vanilla extract and sea salt.
- Stir using a handheld mixer until fully incorporated.
- Cover peanut butter truffle mixture and place in the freezer for at least 30 minutes to firm up.
- Prep a large baking sheet {that can be placed in the freezer} and line with unbleached parchment paper. Set aside.
- After peanut butter truffle mixture has fully chilled, scoop out tablespoonfuls, roll into balls and place truffles on lined baking sheet. You hands will get messy - take care not to roll the mixture too much or it will cause it to melt.
- Place truffles on baking sheet in the freezer for about 30 minutes to get firm again.
- While the truffles set up and chill in the freezer, make the chocolate coating.
Chocolate Coating WITH Chocolate Chips:
- In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add chocolate chips, butter and sea salt and allow to melt - stirring often. Remove from heat as soon as chocolate chips are melted.
Chocolate Coating WITHOUT Chocolate Chips:
- In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add cacao butter and allow to melt - about 2 minutes.
- Remove from heat and add cacao powder, honey and sea salt, whisking until fully incorporated and forms a syrup.
To Coat the Peanut Butter Truffles:
- Remove truffles from the freezer. Insert a toothpick into one truffle and dip into the liquid chocolate, gently moving around unit fully coated {if you don't have a toothpick, you can also do this by sitting the truffle on the tines of a fork and using a spoon to help coat the truffle}. Allow truffle to slightly drip off the excess chocolate coating. Use another toothpick or tines of a fork to gently remove the chocolate truffle onto the same chilled lined baking sheet. Repeat until all truffles are coated.
- Place chocolate coated truffles back into the freezer for about 5-10 minutes until chocolate coating has set.
To Make the Optional Chocolate Drizzle:
- Once the chocolate coating has set, remove from the freezer. Using the tines of a fork, dip the fork in the remaining liquid chocolate and quickly move the fork back and forth in the air above the truffles to make chocolate drizzles.
Notes
Storage: I store the truffles in an airtight container in the freezer so they keep longer. They're delicious right out of the freezer.
*A note on the maple sugar - I prefer to use this unrefined sugar and it tastes delicious! You can use the traditional powdered sugar instead. You could also use coconut sugar or sucanat, but if you choose to use them, make sure to grind it up a bit in a food processor first so it becomes more of a fine powder.
Are you on Pinterest? I pin lots of yummy real food recipes + more there. I have a board just for Gluten Free Treats and one for Winter Favorites + Christmas too. Come follow along.
MORE RECIPES YOU MIGHT ENJOY
Nourishing Honey Sweetened Hot Chocolate
Grain Free Ginger Molasses Cookies
Instant Pot Grain Free Peppermint Cheesecake
Gluten Free Gingerbread Cookies
Hydrolyzed Collagen, Desiccated Liver, Coconut Oil, Liver Detox Support, Ancient Minerals + more!
I so *love* this recipe and that you give a coating recipe alternative for those who can’t have chocolate chips!! 🙂 I can’t wait to make these for my kids and ME! xx
Thanks so much Megan! These are so much fun and a nice alternative to the traditional ones. I hope you get to make them for your family. Happy holidays! xo
My mouth is watering! These sound so good!
Thank you Renee! They’re so delicious 🙂
Wow. These are gorgeous! All that drizzled chocolate! You should call them Amaze Balls!
LOL thanks Linda! xo
Definitely going on my menu… 😉
I hope you get to make some! 🙂
I’ve never tried truffles before! I can’t wait. We use almond butter but that should work perfectly as well. Thank you!
I’m sure any nut butter would be delicious. 🙂 I don’t do so well with peanut butter, but my husband and daughter love it. So I make these for them.
These sound amazing! One question. Can you eat raw flour?
Thanks! Yes you can, just like raw cookie dough 🙂
I COULD NEVER EVER EVER HAVE THESE IN MY HOUSE – LOL! I wouldn’t be able to STOP eating them!
LOL they are pretty addictive 🙂 Luckily they’re much healthier + they’ve got some gut healing protein in them 😉
Ohh these look amazing! I love the chocolate shell and drizzle. It makes them look so professional like they belong in a fancy shop!
Aww thanks Tash! Such kinds words 🙂
I remember last year wanting to make peanut butter truffles like this and then realizing that you have to use a ton of powdered sugar. I figured I’d make them anyways and just share because it was a special occasion, but they ended up being waaaaay too sweet for me because I wasn’t used to having so much sugar anymore. That being said – I can’t wait to try there – I just need to find some maple sugar and I’m all over it!
The powered sugar ones are yummy too, just a bit more sugar than I’m wanting 🙂 I LOVE the maple sugar and it adds such a nice flavor. I hope you get to make some!
What a special treat, we will just love your Peanut Butter Truffles. Thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday and hope you are having a great holiday season!
Come Back Soon,
Miz Helen
Thank you Miz Helen! Hope you’re enjoying the holiday season too.
Emily, Can you please give measurements for the collagen? Mine doesn’t have a scoop. Thanks! Can’t wait to make these.
Hi Shari, it will end up being about 1/4 cup. Enjoy them! 🙂
Any chance these could be made dairy free? Not sure if coconut oil is too soft… maybe palm shortening?
Coconut oil could possibly work, but will change the flavor a bit. I would assume palm shortening could work better, but I haven’t tried it. My body doesn’t do well with coconut oil so I haven’t tried it that way. I hope you get to make them. 🙂