These chocolate peanut butter protein bites are made with just THREE ingredients! And probably take 3 minutes to make too. Chocolate + peanut butter is seriously one of my favorite combinations, and I love how these bites contain ZERO sugar. All you need to make these are peanut butter, chocolate protein powder, and a touch of cocoa powder!
This recipe was a happy result of me craving some buckeyes one day. I realized I hadn’t made my healthy buckeyes in WAY too long. And then I had the idea to make the filling a CHOCOLATE peanut butter instead of just peanut butter. I omitted the chocolate coating on this batch, honestly, I think because I was just so excited to eat them haha. BUT. Coating these in melted chocolate like my original buckeyes is also a delicious option, especially if you’re looking for something more like dessert!
Ingredients for three-ingredient chocolate buckeyes:
Peanut butter
I prefer using a natural peanut butter that contains just peanuts and salt. Personally, I find natural peanut butter to have such a stronger/fresher peanut butter taste than shelf-stable peanut butters such as Jif. Although to each his own-my husband prefers Jif so I buy that for him. Side note: I go through my jars of peanut butter MUCH quicker than he does. It’s probably a 3:1 ratio ha. While I haven’t tried this since my love of peanut butter and chocolate is so strong, if you have a peanut allergy or simply want to use another nut butter, any nut/seed butter (almond, cashew, sunflower etc.) should work here!
Protein powder
In my original buckeye recipe, I used vanilla protein powder which served two purposes: thickener and sweetener. Most typical buckeye recipes use powdered sugar to sweeten/thicken the peanut butter filling.
As mentioned, to make the filling chocolate I obviously used chocolate protein powder instead of vanilla. Please note two things about the protein powder:
- You need to make sure you like the taste of your protein powder! If you use a terrible protein powder than you obviously probably won’t like these. I list my fav protein powder recommendations here.
- Different protein powders have different consistencies. I have found plant-based protein powders to typically be thicker than whey-based protein powders. If you use a whey protein, you may likely need about 4 tablespoons instead of 3. I’d recommend starting with less as you can always add more until you get a cookie-dough like consistency that you can roll into balls.
Cocoa powder
I prefer using dark/dutch-process cocoa powder here, which gives these a deeper, richer, dark chocolate/brownie-like flavor. However, you can also use regular cocoa powder or cacao powder. I like adding the cocoa powder in addition to the chocolate protein powder for a stronger chocolate taste and darker color.
- ¼ cup peanut butter
- 3 tablespoons (about 20 grams) chocolate protein powder
- ½ tablespoon dark cocoa powder (or regular cocoa or cacao powder)
- Mix all ingredients together in bowl until combined. Roll into balls (makes 8 small bites or 4 large).
- Note: May need up to 4 tablespoons protein powder, depending on type/consistency (see post for details on plant-based protein versus whey).
- These become too soft at room temp, so definitely store in fridge (although these freeze well too).
- This recipe will easily double, triple, etc for a larger batch!
You got me at chocolate, and you got me at 3 ingredients! I love these, and I use Pecan Butter in place of peanut butter….which makes it so much more flavorful, and nutritious! Thanks for sharing.
I’m sure you’ll love them! and I’ve never tried pecan butter before…but it sounds delicious. I’m going to have to try making homemade pecan butter soon! 🙂