Testimony of the Day
Photo Testimony: ““Good morning, First I’d like to thank you, this way of eating has definitely changed my life, I discovered gluten/dairy/artificial additive free many years ago when I had some fertility issues, which were corrected when I stopped eating like everyone else; my son, Luca is now 8 yrs old. Since moving to Italy I have been on the slippery slope, until 3 months ago, when my daughter took a rare full length photo of me. I wasn’t overweight, but I was the biggest I’ve been in my life, 69kg (152lbs). I decided that I had to do something and immediately stopped eating gluten, which helped but not much. I then found your site and bought your book. I read it completely on a train journey to Rome and then reread it 2 days later on the return journey.
It made sense to me, I know about SCD, BED, Atkins and Paleo so understood most of the science behind it already. Long story short I’m now down to 60kg (132lbs), but the amazing thing is my menstrual migraines have changed. The first month it was normal and vice-like on the left side of my head/face/jaw for 4/5 days. The second month it moved to the right and was only in my face and jaw and lasted 3 days. This month right side again, but far less vice like and mainly in my jaw for 1 day.
Thank you again and keep up the good work.” – Dawn
Click HERE to become the happy and healthy person you deserve to be!
NOTE: THIS RECIPE WAS UPDATE 12/14. I got up at 5:30am to test it again.
Buck-Eye Balls
Ingredients
- 1 18 oz. jar natural almond butter or peanut butter
- 1 cup Natural Sweetener or 1 tsp stevia glycerite
- 1/2 cup organic butter
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- CHOCOLATE COATING:
- 1 cups heavy cream or full-fat coconut milk if dairy sensitive
- 1/2 cup Natural Sweetener
- 1 tsp stevia glycerite
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or other extract like cherry
- 3 oz unsweetened baking chocolate chopped fine
Instructions
- Drain off any oil on the top of the peanut/almond butter.
- In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat (heat until it turns brown, not black).
- Add natural sweeteners until sweeteners dissolve and the mixture bubbles just a little.
- Using a hand mixer on low speed, add in extract and peanut butter.
- Mix until combined.
- Place in the freezer or fridge to chill completely.
- Line a baking sheet with wax paper/parchment paper or foil. Make 1 inch balls out of the pb mixture and put on the wax paper. set in freezer for 5-7 minutes to chill for easier dipping.
- While balls are chilling make the chocolate coating.
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, stir together the heavy cream, natural sweeteners and extract. Bring to a light simmer then remove from heat and add the finely chopped chocolate. Stir until smooth and the chocolate is totally melted.
- Remove balls from freezer. Insert toothpick or wooden skewer into a ball and then dip into the chocolate turning quickly to cover the ball (can leave some almond butter ball showing...don't have to cover the whole ball if you don't want) Place onto a 2nd tray that has also been lined with wax paper/parchment paper or foil. Let sit to dry or refrigerate for faster drying.
Notes
Traditional Balls= 100 calories, 6g fat, 2g protein, 11g carbs, 0g fiber
"Healthified" Balls= 100 calories, 8.5g fat, 3.8g protein, 2.8g carb, 1g fiber 75% fat, 15% protein, 11% carbs
Find lots of delicious treats in my combined cookbook, The Art of Healthy Eating.
Thank you for your love and support!
NOTE: If your peanut butter mixture is too wet (due to not draining off the oil first or peanut butter that is thinner). Place peanut butter mixture into mini muffin tins or an 8 x 8 baking dish and top with chocolate. make mini peanut butter cups! 🙂
I would like to try these, but have been avoiding heavy cream because I have been unable to find it without the added carrageenan. Half and half is easy enough to come by without it, but so far no luck with the heavy stuff. Do you have an opinion on the whole “carrageenan” hoopla?
Well, I do try to avoid it. But it can be hard to completely avoid.
Hi Mariah,
I have long been an advocate of your diet, indeed I have all your books and it has proved wonders for myself, I was just wondering as I am from London, they don’t sell Swerve for sweetener here, but Xylitol and Stevia, I assume these would be the transatlantic preferences, but was just slightly worried as although these are natural and contain no sugar or calories, they are pure carbohydrate. So am slightly nervous about putting say, 1 cup of that in a dessert. Just wondering your thoughts of that? Many thanks
Both are good options. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol and is mostly digestible. So it will have a minimal effect of blood sugar. 🙂
If you have a Whole Foods nearby, their 365 brand of heavy cream does not contain carrageenan – the only solution I’ve found short of getting a cow!
Awesome! Thanks for the tip! 🙂
Absolutely LOVE this healthy version of Buckeyes! Candy of my home state 🙂
You forgot the nutritional comparison, Maria!
I updated it above. 🙂
Thank you for this recipe. It will be nice to have candy that we can have for us that is healthy. Can’t wait to try.
I don’t see where you added the vanilla in the peanut butter mixture. The recipe looks delicious!
I fixed it above. Thanks!
I am loving Swerve these days !!
I love Swerve too! And those candies and cookies look super yummy!
My husband and kids love these. I am constantly trying your recipes and this one is a keeper! I also had to add 1 cup of almond flour to get them to roll. I had even drained the oil of of my nut butter. I will not add the coconut oil next time.
Awesome! Thanks!
This ended up being a total bust for me… I used natural peanut butter and it ended up being a big waste of ingredients:( I added guar gum to try to get a thicker consistency but I was still unable to make balls and they ended up tasting less than desirable ..
The oil must have been too hot. It should just be softened. Let it cool and it should be fine.
These look great. I’ll definitely be making these this weekend for me and the boys. I just wanted to thank you again for helping me get my former self back, Maria. You’re a star, darling xxx
Awesome! Thanks!
The other day I saw that someone asked for a substitution for the cream cheese. I’ve made these very successfully dairy free by whipping solid coconut oil with beaters until fluffy like whipped cream and then beating in powdered Swerve, peanut flour and a pinch of salt and vanilla. Add enough peanut flour until it is a good consistency to roll. It might help to refrigerate it a little first before rolling into balls. This version was a big hit with my husband and kids–who are regular “foodies” and have no allergies or sensitivities.
Awesome! Thanks for the tip! 🙂
I actually have my own dairy free cream cheese recipe in my new cookbook! 🙂
http://mariamindbodyhealth.com/ketogenic-cookbook/
Oops. I just looked and either I was recalling a different recipe or it has been updated and changed from a few days ago. My ingredients are almost the same as Maria’s, except using the peanut flour instead of peanut butter. I keep it dairy free by melting Lint 90% chocolate to dip the balls in.
I can’t get it crumbly. I used room temp butter. It is smooth and creamy. Help?!
I updated the recipe above. Also posted a photo. 🙂
My chocolate coating was really runny and didn’t seem to stick at all, I used whipping cream (35%). I had to add in like 8oz more to get it to thicken up. I also had trouble getting the peanut butter filling to firm up. Ended up adding in some whey protein powder and it still wouldn’t hold a ball shape. Not sure what I did wrong.
Hi, Maria! Thanks you so much! I love your recipes and am so glad to see a buckeye recipe! I just made the peanut butter base, but it just has the consistency of peanut butter. I don’t know how to make it “roll-able.”
Make sure it fully cools. 🙂
Thanks, Maria! Mine has been in the fridge for 24 hours and it still has a peanut butter/sticky consistency.
I recently updated the recipe. Make sure to re-read it. 🙂
Do you have a recipe for the toffee looking bark in the photo above? Were planning on making these buck eyes tonight! YUM!
That toffee recipe will be in my new cookbook. 😉
http://astore.amazon.com/marisnutran05-20/detail/1628600780
I made these for the second time following the updated recipe. I still had to add 1 cup of almond meal, they were so runny I made them into bars. They taste wonderful but are not as pretty. These are a favorite in our house.
Am in the middle of making these right now. Being a “Buckeye” girl….buckeye’s have been in our recipe collection for years and years. These were too runny – but, not to worry. I added 4 heaping tablespoons of peanut flour. Also, had to add quite a bit more stevia glycerite and even some vanilla stevia drops to get it sweetened just right. And biggest notation is to DEFINITELY use the Swerve Confectioners. I tried my powdered erythritol and it wouldn’t melt. The Swerve did – again, it the POWDERED SWERVE (CONFECTIONERS). Easy to miss that part and it’s important.
In the refrig getting cold. Will be dipping them next and storing in the freezer. THANK YOU MARIA!
Made these last night and they are delicious! I’m so glad that the peanut butter I chose (Natural Smucker’s Peanut Butter) was thick after draining the oil off first. I have a couple of questions. First, when I first started Wheat Belly, one of the natural sweeteners Dr. Davis recommended was Xylitol which doesn’t have the “cooling effect” and is very natural tasting. Since I really wanted these to taste like the real thing, I decided to use it. It melted great in the first step making the peanut butter mixture and I didn’t even make it “confectioner” and tasted wonderful and thickened up great to make the balls. I did refrigerate the pb mixture until it was cold. Is there a reason you don’t suggest Xylitol in your recipes?
Question 2: I left them in the refrigerator over night and they still weren’t “hard” but certainly firmer than when they started. I just put the tray in the freezer to get them firm so I can transfer and put them away for storage. I did make them with “confectioner” Xylitol but that shouldn’t be the problem because in the past I’ve been able to use it on anything else and the texture was great and creamy/smooth but the only thing I can think that I did wrong is that it might have “boiled” a tad…it wasn’t a roaring boil but maybe a little more than simmer. Do you have any ideas how I can get a firmer coating that doesn’t get your fingers a chocolaty mess? I may have to serve/eat them frozen. Any ideas from you or anyone else out there? These are definitely a keeper as all of your recipes I’ve tried have been. What is the best way of storing them have you have found? Thank you!
In general it is an ok option but it can raise blood sugars a bit for some people. That is why I prefer Erythritol. 🙂
How can you help someone with egg and nut allergies?
My meal plans are mostly nut free (new 30 day Advanced keto are 100% nut free). Eggs are tougher. I do find that most clients, once they remove other inflammitory foods like gluten, grains, sugars, etc can have eggs again without issue. If not, I have some egg free options for clients. 🙂
Did I miss how many balls per serving? Or is the nutritional information per ball?
Where can you get powdered swerve? Can’t find it anywhere. Can you put regular Swerve in blender & get it to break into powder like you can regular sugar?
Thanks!
Yep! I powder mine in a blender all the time!