Apple Pie Energy Balls are a delicious and healthy vegan and gluten-free snack made without any added sugar. Made with just a few ingredients and a food processor, they come together in a matter of minutes. Perfect to satisfy your sweet tooth or to add to a cheese platter.
This blog post is sponsored by Ontario Apple Growers. All opinions are my own.
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I like apples eaten raw as snacks or in pies, cakes, pastries, baked with nuts, stuffed inside chicken or duck, cooked along side pork, or added to stuffing. Basically, give me an apple and if I don’t feel like munching on it, I will find a way to cook with it.
Whenever I buy produce (or meat), I try to buy local. I don’t mean the 100-mile diet type of local but I try to get Canadian grown if not something from Ontario. Apples are no exception.
I love buying Ontario Apples and supporting local farmers. When I am grocery shopping I always look for the Foodland logo to make sure that I am buying Ontario grown apples. Check out my delicious Apple Meringue Tart made with Ontario Apples!
Apple a day
Ontario Apples are one of the best snacks. Just throw an apple or two in your bag and have them whenever you have a craving for something sweet and crunchy. Apples are sturdy enough that you don’t have to worry about wrapping them into anything or refrigerating them throughout the day.
If raisins are nature’s candy then apples are nature’s energy bars! At only 70 calories per average apple, it has 10% of your daily fibre. Oh, and also Ontario Apples are DE-LI-CIOUS!!!
I love energy balls. They are often called balls, bites, truffles, or even brownies. Regardless of the name they are delicious. Most energy balls/bites/truffles/brownies (you choose) are made with Medjool dates as the base.
I, however, love mixing both the Medjool dates and also prunes to create the base. In my Apple Pie Energy Balls I do just that. I mix dates and prunes to add a little bit of tang to the flavour. Prunes add an extra flavour complexity to these Apple Pie Energy Balls making them a bit more unique and multi-dimensional.
Besides the dates and prunes, the rest of the ingredients are what you’d find in an apple pie, they are also healthy and wholesome: walnuts, oats, cinnamon, and, of course, apples!
These energy balls are a perfect healthy snack. Because they are made with fresh apples they need to be kept in the fridge where they’ll last for about 4-5 days. Just pop one or two in your mouth whenever you crave something sweet and you’ll be amazed at how satisfied your sweet tooth will be.
How to make Apple Pie Energy Balls
Apple Pie Energy Balls are not only a delicious and healthy vegan and gluten-free snack made without any added sugar but are also very easy and fast to make. Just add all the ingredients except the apple to a food processor and pulse until very finely chopped.
Grate a whole apple to the nut-oat-prune-date mixture, add a bit more oats for texture, and pulse a couple more times. Chill, shape, eat.
I like to use the grater attachment for the food processor to grate the apples, this way I don’t have to do anything by hand. Easy-peasy!
I use delicious Ambrosia apples for the Apple Pie Energy Balls. Ambrosia is sweet and juicy and just a perfect apple to make these delicious energy bites.
Cheese platter and Apple Pie Energy Balls
And now for a totally delicious trick, tip, hack? I am not even sure what to call it but it’s genius (I know, I know, I’m not very modest here). These Apple Pie Energy Balls are AMAZING with cheese!
I discovered this flavour combination by accident when I had a couple of these energy balls left and just wanted to finish them to clean out the container, so I ate them while I was having my mid-afternoon cheese snack (that’s a thing, right?). It was so good that I had to go and make another batch of these apple energy balls right away.
It makes sense actually. Cheese is very commonly served with jam or chutney. Dates, nuts, and apples are a frequent accompaniment to cheese platters. So, these little Apple Pie Energy Balls made with dates, walnuts, and apples are just absolutely perfect with cheese. Also, much healthier than jam!
So, go ahead, get all the ingredients out of your pantry because you most likely already have everything on your shelves. Add a juicy Ontario Apple and make these delicious Apple Pie Energy Balls to last you throughout the week. Easy, healthy, delicious!
Apple Pie Energy Balls
Ingredients
- 4 Medjool dates, pitted (1/2 cup, 90 g)
- 10 prunes, pitted (1/2 cup, 100g)
- 1 cup walnuts (100g)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3/4 cup rolled oats (divided)
- 1 Ambrosia Ontario Apple (150 g)
Instructions
- Roughly chop the Medjool dates and add them to the food processor.
- Add the prunes, walnuts, cinnamon, and 1/2 cup rolled oats.
- Pulse for about 1-2 minutes until everything is very finely chopped.
- Core the apple (no need to peel it) and grate into the mixture. I just use the grating attachment for my food processor.
- Pulse the food processor a few times to mix in the apple.
- Mix in the rest (1/4 cup) of the rolled oats by hand. This is done to add a bit more texture to the Apple Pie Energy balls. However, if you'd like a more smooth texture then feel free to just add all the oats to the food processor in the beginning.
- Cover the mixture and chill in the fridge for about 30-40 minutes.
- Once chilled, roll into walnut size balls.
- Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for about 4-5 days.
Nutrition
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Amanda says
January 18, 2018 at 10:07 pmI am so loving the idea of serving these with a cheese board! It wouldn’t have occurred to me immediately, but it makes total sense with the dates, nuts, and fruit. These would be so good with Brie, Cambozola, or even my favorite Drunken Goat cheese! I think I need to make myself a little cheeseboard just to try this recipe. 🙂
Joseph says
January 16, 2018 at 8:36 pmsounds great, what can I substitute for the oats? I have an allergy to oats, thanks
Julia says
January 16, 2018 at 8:46 pmI haven’t tried myself but I think ground almonds would work great. The texture will be different though
Nicole | What She Ate says
January 15, 2018 at 3:44 pmYou can never go wrong with energy balls. These sound great – like a raw apple crisp in ball form. Yum!
Julia says
January 15, 2018 at 4:07 pmI totally agree! So delicious and healthy!