While visiting my parents for the holidays, we drove past my old high school on our way back from our favorite brunch restaurant. As the traffic lights changed, my mom turned around and asked my brother and I in the backseat, “Do you have mostly happy memories from high school?”
My brother paused, but I immediately answered yes, definitely! Despite the long days (from 7 am until 3 pm) and at least 4 hours of homework every night, I rarely hated it. Classes lasted less than an hour; I spent time with my band friends before school, during orchestra, and at lunch; and my electives of French and photography were a breeze.
Besides… We had snack time! The school tacked on an extra 15 minutes to the start of 3rd period, originally intended for the video production class to present a daily bulletin, but almost all of the teachers allowed us to eat during that segment. I always looked forward to that!
Nearly every day, I found a granola bar in my brown bag lunch, usually a toss-up between Quaker’s chewy bars and Nutri-Grain fruity ones. Although my friends normally plowed through their snacks at light speed, I slowly nibbled on mine to make them last the full 15 minutes. It was one of my favorite routines for all 4 years of high school!
Now that I work from home, any time is snack time, which can be a little dangerous with so many cookies lying around! So to start the New Year off on the right foot, I mixed up a batch of these Dark Chocolate Strawberry Energy Bites. They’re so rich that they practically taste like little balls of pure dark chocolate!
This simple recipe contains only 4 ingredients, most of which you probably stash in your pantry already. As opposed to other energy bite recipes, these are actually packed with protein and held together with pure fruit, not peanut or almond butter. So yes, they’re nut-free!
The base starts with a touch of oats, a generous amount of cocoa powder, and a lot of protein powder. I prefer Plan Fusion Vanilla Bean (no, this isn’t a sponsored post—I just really, really love it!). It’s gluten-free and vegan, and it doesn’t have any strange flavors. If you’re sensitive to the taste of whey like me, I guarantee you’ll like this better!
Note: Not all protein powders absorb liquids equally. I’ve only tested these energy bites with Plan Fusion; if you use a different protein powder, the texture may vary.
I used frozen strawberries as the “glue” to hold together the dry ingredients. Just thaw them in the microwave, drain off any liquid, and purée them. You want to make the purée as smooth as possible because that will ensure that the bites are moist and fudgy. No big chunks please!
Note: The strawberries old hold together the bites. You can’t really taste them because the chocolate flavor is so rich.
Oh my goodness, you guys… I snuck one of these Dark Chocolate Strawberry Energy Bites nearly every time I walked into the kitchen! Which was a lot more frequently than I care to admit. They didn’t last more than a day or two… Especially since they tasted so rich and fudgy!
| Dark Chocolate Strawberry Energy Bites | | Print |
- 2 scoops (60g) Plant Fusion Vanilla Bean protein powder
- ¾ c (60g) unsweetened cocoa powder (measured correctly)
- ½ c (50g) old-fashioned oats (measured correctly and gluten-free if needed)
- 1 ½ c (210g) frozen unsweetened strawberries, thawed and drained
- In a large bowl, mix together the protein powder, cocoa powder, and oats.
- Purée the strawberries until completely smooth. Add the purée to the cocoa mixture, and stir until all of the dry ingredients have been incorporated. (If necessary, stir in 1 teaspoon of water at a time if the mixture is too dry to hold together.) Shape into 30 small balls. Place in an airtight container, and refrigerate until ready to eat.
The strawberries merely act as the “glue” to hold together the dry ingredients. You can’t actually taste them.
These are meant to taste very dark, similar to 72% dark chocolate. If you prefer a sweeter taste, add your preferred granulated (or solid) sweetener to taste.
{gluten-free, vegan, clean eating, low fat, low calorie, high protein}
Chocolate covered strawberries, but in a healthy energy-inducing bite?! You win today. Also, your high school snack hour sounded much healthier than my half a loaf of french bread dipped in ranch dressing (yes, I ate that…almost every day of 9th grade)…
Thanks Sarah! There were plenty of days where I came home from school and had half a loaf of french bread too… Just sans Ranch. 😉
I know my family will love these! I’d like to find some that are non chocolate any suggestions on a replacement for the cocoa powder?
Thanks Cindy! I haven’t tried a non-chocolate version of these, but I do have Oatmeal Raisin Energy Bites that remind me of oatmeal raisin cookies. You could probably substitute about half or 3/4 of the strawberry purée for the raisin paste if you wanted!
SO simple, yet so lovely!! I loved your Pinterest photo set up of these.
Thank you so much Brittany!
Anything is a good time for a snack!! Let’s see.. I have my breakfast, my after breakfast snack, my mid morning snack, my almost lunch time snack, and then lunch…hehe 🙂
That sounds exactly like my day Beth! Snack attacks happen nearly every hour… 😉
I love chocolate and strawberries! These would last me no time at all. I would eat them for snacks as well as breakfast and lunch.
That’s just about exactly what I did Jen! They disappear way too quickly… 😉
Love the sound of these.. Found the mixture to be too runny to roll balls. Must have done something wrong? I measured everything with scales. Can I thicken it with anything. Or am I meant to part freeze them so I can role them into small balls of yum!
I’m sorry the texture wasn’t right Bonnie; that must’ve been disappointing. I explain what to do in the Notes section beneath the recipe if that happens, but my guess is it’s because of the protein powder that you used. Sometimes other protein powders don’t soak up as much liquid as Plant Fusion, so if you used a different brand, that’s likely to be the culprit. I love your idea of freezing them though!
Hi Amy,
Can i substitute the protein powder with something else, like more oats or whole wheat flour, or maybe ground almonds?
Thanks!
Sneha
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Sneha! This recipe really does work best with protein powder, and I can’t vouch for whether it’ll work without. However, I think that ground almonds or oat flour could potentially work! The amount of either of those will probably be different that the amount of protein powder since they absorb liquids differently. Try starting with ¼ cup and increase as necessary until the mixture comes together and can be shaped into spheres. 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of them!