Dec 18, 2010

No-Bake Fudgy Snow Balls




No oil, no butter, no baking required. There's much to love about these no-bake cookies, they are healthy, dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free, vegan, and they taste great too.

I'm a lazy baker, I love cookies that require minimal effort. All that's required to make these is a food processor (I used my mini).

I originally saw these on Snack Girl and decided to give these a try. The verdict is a moist, chewy dough-like cookie. I almost want to call them chocolate cookie dough balls. Perfect for many dietary restrictions.


No-Bake Fudgy Snow Balls
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes 
Servings: 21 • Serving Size: 1 cookie Old Points: 1 pt • Points+: 2 pts
Calories: 69.5 • Fat: 3.8 g Carb: 9.2 g Fiber: 2.2 g Protein: 2.1 g 


  • 15 pitted dates
  • 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 cup whole roasted unsalted almonds
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 2 tbsp water (or more if needed)
  • 3 tbsp confectioner's sugar

Add almonds to your food processor and pulse until ground. Add dates, cocoa powder, honey, and water. Mix until it forms a sticky mass. If it seems too dry, add a little water, 1 tsp at a time. Wash hands and using damp hands (keep sink running) measure 1 tbsp and roll into a ball with the dough. Set balls on parchment paper.



Put confectioner's sugar in a bowl. Roll balls in your hand and then roll in sugar.
Can be stored in the fridge for up to a week.



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73 comments:

  1. YUM! Reminiscent of a larabar.

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  2. Ah, you just changed it. Never mind!

    - Carolyn

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  3. I wonder how many comments you'll get as to whether or not you should call these vegan since honey is an ingredient... :)

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  4. What a great idea! Can't wait to try this, thanks for sharing!!! :)

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  5. Is honey not vegan? If not, use agave.

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  6. Yum! The dates are really interesting with the chocolate. Never had that combo before. Perfect party dessert!

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  7. I'm a MAJOR fan of dates, and anything with nuts and dried fruit so these sound amazing!

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  8. Hi Gina, these snowballs look absolutely yummy and even easy to make! Thanks so much for sharing :-)

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  9. Oh these look so yummy but I am not a date fan. I would love to try them with dried cranberries. Can you tell me how much 15 dates chopped would be (cups) or how much they weigh so I can see how cranberries change the point value? I just love you site and everything I have tried has been fabulous! THANK YOU!

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  10. Can I just say Yum! Keep up the wonderful work. I have become an avid viewer of your blog. Made those crepe thingies with manicotti one night and hubby loved them! I am not a WW person but trying to watch my weight. Keep it up girl!

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  11. Yea!! Those look amazing! I can't have dairy, which makes this time of year extremely difficult and tempting!! Thanks, Gina for a recipe I can now take AND eat!! :)

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  12. I may whip up a batch of these for my vegan brother. Thanks for this recipe!!!

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  13. what do you suggest if I cannot use nuts in this recipe? always a problem! thx

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  14. Im not a date fan AT ALL, but they don't taste like dates, more like chocolate.

    Not sure if the cranberries are moist enough to make these, but I just weighed 15, and it came to 3.3 oz. Maybe figs or prunes instead?

    I'm not sure if the nuts can be replaced, sorry! I guess these are good for all dietary restrictions except for nut alleries! Anyone have any suggestions?

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  15. Wonderful recipe- can't wait to try it!

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  16. Do you think you could use oats in place of nuts? Maybe toast them and pulse?

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  17. Thanks for adding the P+ Values- You ROCK!

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  18. oh my goodness gina... you got me with "chocolate cookie dough"... would make nice gifts for my neighbors... i see you are using your jars. :-)

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  19. I love making cookies with dates! No baking, healthier, and just as tasty. Yums.

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  20. Are these really as good as they look? I feel like they might TASTE healthy lol. Any opinions from those who have made it? Or from you, Gina?

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  21. thanks so much for such an amazing recipe! I was just wondering what I would bring to a holiday party for a gluten-free friend!

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  22. honey is technically not vegan... because bees make it. therefore it is an animal product

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  23. I have made these many times over the last year and I love them. I have also used other kinds of nuts (walnuts and pecans). I only get good results with medjool dates because some other kinds are not moist and sticky enough. I usually roll them in coconut or cocoa powder and they are like mini truffles. I hate dates and would never eat them plain so that should tell those that are concerned that these taste nothing like dates and everything like fudge. Warning: it is really hard to stop at just one or two.

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  24. This are kinda similar to the ones you posted last year and I made and then reposted last week, right? I love easy to make cookies as well. I'm bookmarking this recipe too :)

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  25. Nope, I've never posted no-bake cookies ben. First time making these.

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  26. For the person asking if they taste healthy? They don't taste like dates (which I don't like), they taste nutty fruity and sweet... chocolatey. I loved them, they are moist and flavorful, my picky teen daughter did not like them, so hope that helped.

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  27. Gina - I LOVE YOUR BLOG! I am definitely going to try these this week!

    Do you think that you someone could potentially add coffee beans into the mix? I accidentally bought a very dark roast bean which doesn't make for the greatest cup of coffee but I have been trying to figure out ways to use the beans so as not to waste them!

    Thanks!

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  28. Imc, thank you!

    I'm not sure, when I buy a strong coffee I don't like, I mix it with an inexpensive lighter coffee, and it gives me a delicious cup of coffee! You should try it!

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  29. Made them this evening; my husband loved them! they were super easy to make; they seemed a little loose though so I popped them in the fridge to set. you always save the day from the WW recipe doldrums. THANKS!

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  30. These looked so good! I don't have a food processor, I do have my old Oster Upright blender.

    Here are some tips if you have to try it with one:
    1. after pulsing almonds, remove
    2. In seperate bowl coat dates with cocoa
    3. chop dates (or buy chopped) into small pieces
    4. pulse dates into chewy consistency
    5. add nuts


    Beware! My machine ended up smoking, literally. The motor couldn't handle the think dates. Upside--I have more cabinet room! Maybe a processor would fit???? Santa???

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  31. I just made these with 20 fat prunes instead of dates. Fabulous.

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  32. Made these tonight! THEY ARE FABULOUS! I don't like dates but these are great! I actually bought honey dates so I added half the amount of dates. MY biggest mistake was not making two batches, so I will making another batch tomorrow! YUMMY! I was just wondering if they would taste good with a little rum? Kind of reminds me of rum balls...of course that ups the points and drop the healthy aspect of these but they are great!

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  33. Opps I meant I added half the amount of honey in the last post not DATES!

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  34. Made these the other day for my Mum, who is vegan, but will eat honey from time to time. They were a big hit with all my guests, and me. I liked that they are not too sweet. I'm making a few more batches as gifts for friends! Thanks for yet another great recipe.

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  35. I made these yesterday... very tastey... my only issue is that this morning i looked at them and all of the powder sugar has "melted" they aren't powdery white anymore.

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  36. I let the balls sit a few hours before I placed them in sugar. Maybe they were too wet, which would cause the powder to melt. Mine lasted for days with the sugar.

    I've never heard of rum balls, don't know how that would taste?

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  37. These were soooo good! My friend's a glutard (a person allergic to wheat gluten - his words...) and usually can't have any cookies. He absolutely loved and devoured these, as did everyone else who WASN'T allergic to gluten.

    My only note is that I had to use a lot more water. I attempted to use a blender, but luckily my friend had a food processor on hand (necessary).

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  38. A food processor, is a must here. So happy your friends enjoyed them. Perhaps my dates were juicier than yours :)

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  39. Never heard of rum balls? really? Here's a link for rum balls!
    http://candy.about.com/od/trufflerecipes/r/rum_balls.htm

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  40. Had to buy a food processor and put it under the tree for myself so that I could make these! They are sure messy to roll, but taste so good! The kids didn't care for them, I'm sure they weren't quite sweet enough for them, that's fine, more for me then!

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  41. No, never had a rum ball! lol

    Jamie- Good for you! You treated yourself to a food processor! Yes, my hands were a mess making these.

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  42. I made these tonight, and they were pretty biter. I thought that the confectioners sugar would sweeten them enough, but they were too biter. Any suggestions?

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  43. cannot wait to try them. Dairy free & gluten free a hard to find combo!!!

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  44. Gina, another incredible recipe! I just made these tonight and my 15 month old loved them! Way to go.

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  45. Great! Mine did not but I wasn't surprised.

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  46. Gina, so amazing. We just made these today and loved them. Thank you for doing all you do. Without fail, every weekend when my fiance and I are trying to figure out dinners for the week, he ends up saying "just check that skinny gina site." He's well trained!

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  47. He's very well trained! lol Thanks for sharing, that gave me a laugh.

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  48. Oh my. These are delicious, and reminded me of rum balls too....so much that I'm looking forward to when this batch is gone so I can make a batch with rum instead of water. 1 oz of rum is 2+ points, but I don't think it will change the overall points with so many servings in a batch!

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  49. Alternate suggestion to powdered sugar (which I didn't have): I had a bag of "cake in a mug" mix (1 box of angel food cake mix combined with one box of sugar free devils food cake mix), so I rolled the fudge balls in that instead for a sweet chocolaty coating - yum!

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  50. If I use almond meal flour already ground, do you think it would still be 1 c.?

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  51. Good question! Maybe a little less!

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  52. These were really good, both my teenagers liked them a lot. (I might not have mentioned they had dates in them!)

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  53. You could probably sub the honey for agave nectar to be truly vegan...

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  54. THese look delicious. HOWEVER, THEY ARE NOT VEGAN. Please be careful about your labeling, honey is not a vegan food item. Agave necter is though and would be really great as a substitute!

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  55. I JUST made these and am already in love. i can't wait to experiment with these... add instant coffee to the recipe and you have mocha balls. yum. or omit the chocolate and use dried pineapple, mango and papaya for a tropical feel. dried cherries and cocoa powder and pecans instead of almonds. i am freaking out!! ohh... and add more water!

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  56. I'm crazy about these! I can't wait to try different combinations - next time I think I'll try figs and walnuts. Mine were slightly bitter at first, maybe because I had to roast my almonds because they were raw. After they chilled, they were delicious! A great pre-workout breakfast or snack when paired with a banana. It's true that you can't taste the dates at all - they're just sweet and slightly chewy. I left mine out for 2 hours before I rolled them, but most of the sugar still melted after I put them in the fridge. Still delicious though! I'm not sure if it's the combo of chocolate and almonds, but my husband thought they had a similar taste to Almond Joys, he couldn't believe there wasn't any coconut.

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  57. thank you so much for this recipe! I made this for Iftar (breaking fast during Ramadan) and it was a hit! My husband and I love it! This will definitely be a regular for our Iftar :-)

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  58. I just made these using figs instead of dates, did not add any water and is way to wet to roll in the sugar! I have put the mixture in the refrigerator for the time being hoping that if it were to firm up a bit it would be easier to roll in the sugar. Any other suggestions on how I may be able to salvage all this mix?????

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  59. Maybe add ground nuts or something to absorb the moisture?

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  60. I want to use Figs...can they be fresh or must I use dried figs?

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  61. These were totally perfect. Thank you for sharing such a simple but decadent recipe. Definitely will make again and again...

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  62. If you can't have nuts a great substitution could be oats--even could use GF if you want them Gluten Free! Just process them the same way you would the nuts. You might need a little extra honey/liquid in this case though! I can have nuts but wanted to cut down the calories so I am using half cashews/oats.

    Enjoy!

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  63. I don't have any whole dates. I do have chopped, but how many grams/ounces would I need to get the same equivalent as fifteen?

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  64. Gina, I made these, they are delicious. Instead of honey, I added carob syrup, just to bring out the chocolate. Maybe next time I will add coffee. Can't wait! Thank you

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  65. Is honey really not Vegan? That seems weird to me becaue it's made BY bees, not FROM/OF bees. hmmmm....

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  66. Made these today, had lovely juicy Medool dates, so added only a few drops of water...the sugar has melted on some but not all, so we are saying we had snow flurries rather than a snow storm! Delicious, am taking these to my Swiss holiday party tomorrow!

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  67. I think I used the wrong kind of dates or something. Because after adding all the ingredients my batter was totally dry ad powdery had to add tons of extra water and honey and even then when it was finally "sticky" the balls were very crunchy. They sounded good, but I must've screwed something up. Also my food processor is small so I ground the almonds and dates up and then mixed everything by hand in a bowl.

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  68. Gina, I made these last night for my son's girlfriend who is vegan. I substitued agave for the honey as I know she would not eat honey. They were fabulous! I ate four!! I have to make more tonight so her present looks substantial enough. I've been following your site for a year now and have a stack of your recipes in our regular weekly rotation. Everyone loves your ideas!! And thanks for all the cooking tips...I finally can call myself a good cook!!

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  69. I noticed not many shared much about actually "making" these treats... But let me tell you, I made them and my whole family LOVES them!! They are amazing and I can't believe how great they taste.. Taste nothing like your eating a date... a great chocolaty snack!! Feels like your cheating.. haha :) Great Recipe!!

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  70. honey isn't vegan

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