In my younger years… let me tell you, I could eat some cookie dough. As often as humanly possible. Make that any kind of dough or batter really… brownie batter? YES! Cake batter? YES! Icing from the bowl? Strong YES. Taking away refined sugar and grains really put a damper on things but I’ve become more and more creative. Such as using garbonzo beans in my now famous cookie recipe ;). I’m also a huge fan of maple syrup or honey in place of white sugar. I’m well aware that both of those have lots of sugar but they are gifts from mother nature and should be treated as such! Full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. I have tried the weird sugar alcohol substitutes such as erythritol and other things I can’t pronounce and I am just not into them. They are unappetizing at best and honestly I’d rather just not have something sweet, than eat something with that in it. Generally speaking I don’t eat many sweets but when I do … I use maple syrup or honey. Even when making one of my absolute favorites, pecan pie!!!!! Ok, back to the balls. These are GOOD. Sinful even. To be honest, I probably won’t make them again for a long time because I legit wanted to eat the entire bowl in one sitting. After letting my kids try one they finished them off for me ;). The ingredients are so super simple and I can see the potential for lots of add-ins if anyone wanted to experiment. I have always been a super weird person and prefer my chocolate chip cookies sans the chocolate chips. I would fully prefer chopped walnuts or pecans. I can see if you like chocolate chips though these would be so great with mini chocolate chips or maybe even rolled in sprinkles for a fun treat for your kids. I would not call these a ‘healthy snack’ by any means but absolutely a healthy alternative to a regular cookie. Full of protein, some fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants… so its a win!

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups blanched almond flour
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• pinch sea salt
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 3 or 4 tablespoons butter
• add ins – chocolate chips, walnuts, pecans, cinnamon, sprinkles, m&ms etc

In a medium sized mixing bowl add flour, vanilla, sea salt, maple syrup and any add-ins you might be using, I used 1/2 cup chopped walnuts for this batch. In a small sauce pan melt the butter over medium high heat stirring frequently until it is light brown and fragrant like hazelnuts and heaven. You can just melt the butter and not brown it but I have to say it takes the balls up about 100 notches if you use the browned butter. Once the butter is ready add to the mixing bowl and mix well. Roll into several gumball sized sized balls using your hands. Arrange on a plate and put in freezer until cold. Than transfer to a storage container and keep in fridge. Makes about 16 balls.