Today I'm showing you how to make my favorite, portable, energy boosting snack: Vegan Cookie Dough Balls or bliss balls. These little balls are no-bake, come together in 10 minutes in the bowl of your food processor and are absolutely delicious!
People always ask me about my favorite snacks. I love snacking as much as the next person, but truth be told, I rarely make homemade snacks. If I'm snacking its typically store bought snacks with a few exceptions. One of the exceptions are these Vegan Cookie Dough Balls. These little bliss balls are SO easy to make. And they are a quick portable energy boost. And they are absolutely delicious.
Ingredients and Substitutions for Vegan Cookie Dough Balls
These cookie dough energy balls only have a few basic ingredients and are pretty much fool proof. Lets hop into what you will need.
Old Fashioned Rolled Oats: Rolled oats are the bulk of this recipe. Oats are a staple for me. Specifically old fashioned rolled oats because I think they are the most versatile. I use them for making granola, for cookies, for breakfast and today I'm using them for bliss balls.
You can get away with quick oats here, but don't use instant. It will skew the volume measurement too much.
Peanut Butter: Peanut butter is one of my all time favorite foods. Its creamy, salty and somehow good on everything?
Any nut butter will work in this recipe, though! Feel free to substitute almond butter, sunflower seed butter or cashew butter.
Apple Sauce: I use apple sauce as a binder here. I didn't want to make these Vegan Cookie Dough Balls too sweet by adding a ton of agave. So some store bought apple sauce did the trick. There is no detectable apple flavor in the finished product.
Agave Nectar: Agave sweetens and binds these little bliss balls together. Maple syrup will also work here.
Chocolate: I prefer to use finely chopped chocolate, here. But MINI chocolate chips work well here. Don't use regular sized chips though, as they will be too large for these little bliss balls. Enjoy Life has mini vegan chips!
How to Make Bliss Balls
These Vegan Cookie Dough Balls are done right in the bowl of your food processor in about 10 minutes.
First things first: process the oats until they are a coarse meal. This takes a minute or so. See photo for texture reference.
Next add peanut butter, apple sauce and agave nectar and process until the mixture forms a ball.
Then add the chocolate and pulse until distributed. And thats it! The Vegan Cookie Dough Bliss Balls are done.
Then simply scoop, roll and store them.
Texture of the processed oats. 
Texture of the finished dough
How to Store Vegan Cookie Dough Balls
I recommend storing these Vegan Cookie Dough Balls in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They will still be super soft and chewy straight from the fridge.
They will not melt or get sticky at room temperature, though. You can toss a few in a small container and into your bag to have as snacks throughout day.
Looking for More Vegan Snack Ideas?
Vegan Cookie Dough Balls
Equipment
- Food Processor
- Spatula
- Small Cookie Scoop
- Measuring Cups and Spoons
Ingredients
- 1 ⅔ Cups Rolled Oats
- ½ Cup Nut Butter Of Choice I used Peanut Butter
- ¼ Cup Applesauce
- 3 tablespoon Agave
- Pinch Salt
- ¼ Cup Finely Chopped Chocolate Or mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Place rollled oats into the bowl of a food processor. Process the oats until they are the texture of coarse meal. See photo for reference.
- Add nut butter, apple sauce, agave and salt into the food processor. Blend until a dough forms.
- Add chocolate and pulse a few times to distribute.
- Scoop the mixture into heaped Tablespoon portions. You should get 12-15 portions.
- Roll each portion of dough between the palms of your hands to make balls. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Let me know how this recipe worked for you and if there is anything you'd like to see me make next!
Jess Hall
These look delicious!! I’ve made something similar to these, but I didn’t grind my oats. I also added coconut and flaxseed. Great on the go snack, but they’re dangerously addictive!
Megan Calipari
YUM! I bet so many variations of these would be so delicious!
Jess Hall
These look delicious!! I’ve made something similar to these, but I didn’t grind my oats. I also added coconut and flaxseed. Great on the go snack, but they’re dangerously addictive!
Megan Calipari
YUM! I bet so many variations of these would be so delicious!
Chris Dobson
Hey Megan,
If I wanted to do the nutritional facts on these I guess I could just take each ingredient, add those together and divide by the servings? Is that how you would do it? Thanks so much & go Cats!
Megan Calipari
Yeah that's how I'd do it!