Marzipan Energy Balls (Vegan + Keto)

Marzipan Energy Balls

These marzipan-inspired energy balls are super easy to make and a satisfying high-protein snack when you're craving a sweet treat. I've been enjoying them with my mid-morning coffee. Make them even simpler and skip the chocolate and nut coating, or add the chopped nuts and chocolate pieces to the dough itself and chill just the once. Please note than the balls will take on the flavor of your protein powder, so do use a powder than you like. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

½ cup (60g) almond flour
¼ cup (28g) vanilla protein powder
1 Tbsp (12g) granulated allulose or sweetener of choice (optional or to taste)
a pinch of salt
2-2½ Tbsp (30-38ml) water ✎
½ tsp sugar-free almond extract
15g very dark chocolate or keto-friendly chocolate (I used Lindt 90%) ✎
2 Tbsp (16g) slivered almonds, chopped (I like to toast them first)

Directions:

Combine the almond flour, protein powder, allulose, and salt in small mixing bowl.
Drizzle with the water and almond extract and mix to form a thick dough. The amount of water needed may vary slightly with the type of protein powder used.
Divide into 6 pieces of about 23g (or 1½ tablespoons) each.
Roll the pieces into balls and place them on a tray/plate. I like to skewer mine with short wooden skewers for easier dipping/coating once chilled.
Put the balls in the refrigerator to chill for about an hour. ✎
Melt the chocolate in a very small bowl (ideally just a little wider than the balls). I break the chocolate into smallish pieces and melt it in the microwave in 20 second pulses, mixing between. It only takes about 40 seconds in total.
Put the chopped almonds in another small bowl.
Dip the balls in the chocolate and then roll in the chopped almonds. Mine are only about two thirds covered in chocolate and nuts. If you wish to fully cover them, you'll need a bit more chocolate and nuts.
Place the balls back on the plate/tray and chill again until the chocolate has hardened, about an hour. You may wish to put some parchment on the plate/tray for easy removal of the balls. Or, if you have something you can stand the skewers up in, you can chill them like lollipops (I use the holes in a stack of sheets from my small dehydrator for this).
Enjoy chilled or at room temperature. ✎

✎ Notes:

Marzipan sometimes contains rose water, so if that appeals to you, you can replace a bit of the water with rose water.
When it comes to dipping and drizzling, I often prefer to use "normal" super dark chocolate despite the higher carbs. I find that keto chocolate includes things (e.g. soluble fibers) that make them less liquid when melted. A little coconut oil can be added to negate this, but then the chocolate doesn't harden in a satifying way and will often melt or soften easily at room temperature. I also prefer the flavor of super dark chocolate. For perspective, 15g (1½ squares) of Lindt 90% contains 2g net carbs and 14g (about a heaped tablespoon) of ChocZero dark chips has 1g net carbs.
I like to chill the balls, dip/coat, and then chill again because I want the chocolate to firm up a bit on contact with the cold balls. If you prefer, you can dip/coat and then just chill the once, but it might be a messier approach.
Depending on the chocolate you used to coat the balls, they may melt at room temperature.
Macros for this recipes are calculated with American national nutritional data (i.e. NCCDB & USDA entries in Cronometer) for all ingredients apart from the chocolate (Lindt 90%) and protein powder (Vega Sport).
Macro numbers are rounded. Numbers equal to or greater than 10g are rounded to the nearest whole number (e.g. 10g, 11g, 12g, etc.) and numbers below 10g are rounded to the nearest 0.5g (0.5g, 1g, 1.5g ... 9g, 9.5g). Any numbers below 0.5g are given as is (e.g. 0.1g, 0.2g, etc.). Calories are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.

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