Homemade GF Peanut Butter Balls

My husband saw an ad on TV for Skippy peanut butter balls, so I went shopping, had to look around, thinking they may be on the candy aisle I found them on peanut butter aisle.

And by the way, I am a label reader, so the first thing I did was turn it around to have a look and check the ingredients, needless to say, many things that I could not even pronounce or didn’t know what they were. I don’t have those ingredients in my cupboard.

When I opened them up, looking at them they look like little round balls of peanut butter in different sizes even shapes. And while I must admit, they do taste good, I can’t get past the fact they have so many ingredients I’m not familiar with nor would I find in my house!

Needless to say, I decided to go in search of a basic recipe to make my own peanut butter balls. My husband has type two diabetes but sometimes he just gets hungry for something a little sweet, these little peanut butter balls are just perfect for a quick snack before bed but made at home, they are much healthier than the store-bought.

I love Skippy peanut butter, just not there peanut butter balls! In fact, I used Skippy peanut butter to make these peanut butter balls but without all of those extra ingredients that we don’t need. And I know that when you buy something, its probably convenient, however, I don’t know about you, but when some of the ingredients say things like rapeseed oil and hydrogenated vegetable oil, wheat flour, mono and diglycerides which when I searched, are a hidden source of trans fats, and according to the FDC there is “no known health benefit” and there is no safe level to eat, why would we want to tax our bodies with this ingredient, I don’t want these in my body and don’t want my husband having it either.  All they do is increase cholesterol! No thanks! I told him that I bought them once, but that I was looking for a recipe I could make my own. So I went in search for the most basic recipe without more sugar and I found one on Cooks.com.

The recipe is gluten-free! No added sugar! No artificial ingredients

I sprinkled shaved Ghirardelli chocolate before placing in the fridge to chill

Homemade Peanut Butter Balls
The peanut butter ball recipe I found has just 3 ingredients that make these yummy treats, most cupboards have all three! There are plenty more recipes out there for sure, with all kinds of additions like powdered sugar, cocoa, and oats but the list goes on.

Creamy or chunky peanut butter organic or regular, low-fat, your choice.
Powdered milk
Honey

And the recipe suggests you can even add chopped peanuts and chocolate chips or maybe Carob chips, how about rolling them in wheat germ which would be healthier than the addition of wheat flour but then would not be gluten-free!  And then there’s an idea to use corn flakes or use corn syrup or paraffin, is that good for you? Probably not!  Nope, I wanted basic. Sooo I found this recipe on cooks.com how simple can it be?

Heres the recipe, take a half a cup of peanut butter, half a cup of powdered milk, 1 tablespoon of honey and mix.

Once you start to mix you’ll find that it is a little bit grainy but if you’ll let them sit for a few minutes the oils in the peanut butter will mix with the powdered milk, then you will be able to mold into little balls. Or like I tried, I kneaded the ingredients a bit then rolled it in some saran wrap, sliced them in small bite-size pieces and then rolled them into small balls! That’s it!

They are best stored in a tight-fitting container layered with parchment paper and particularly in the summer-store in the fridge.

And I calculated the calories with quantities of the ingredients using Caloriecount.com

And here are a few more recipes with just 3 ingredients

Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls
Peanut Butter Balls with Coconut Flour
Heres one with Almond Butter: 3 ingredient Almond butter bites

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