Do you call them hazelnuts or filberts?! Regardless, if you’re already a fan, you will really love these hazelnut butter balls. If you’re unsure or not a huge fan, these might just persuade you otherwise. My favorite thing about them is that they have a slightly nutty texture and salty-sweet flavor. Salty-sweet is my kryptonite. I figure there could be worse things though. Don’t you think?!I really love how easy these are to throw together, it only takes a few minutes, and there are only four ingredients! Then you can store them in the fridge or freezer for little treats. They’re the perfect little pick me up…a little protein and a little honey. They’re also fun because you can add extras like raisins or chocolate chips to vary the flavors.
If you try out this recipe, let us know what you think by leaving a comment below and adding a rating. Also, take a picture and tag it on Instagram #realsimplegood so we can check it out!
Hazelnut Butter Balls
Ingredients
- 1 cup of raw hazelnuts
- 1/4 cup sunflower seed butter
- 1/8 - 1/4 cup honey
- sea salt, (season to your taste, I like them a little extra salty so I used about a 1 tsp of sea salt)
- Enjoy life mini chips, - optional
- raisins, - optional
Instructions
- Place all of the ingredients (except for the optional items) in a food processor.
- Use the pulse function to combine the ingredients, stopping and restarting multiple times.
- You'll want to go until the hazelnuts start to turn into a nut butter. It will be more grainy than a sunflower seed or almond butter.
- Once the ingredients are combined, turn off your food processor. If you are adding in any optional ingredients use a spoon to mix them in.
- Roll the mixture into balls (about a tablespoon each) and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Set your hazelnut butter balls by placing them in the fridge for a couple hours and then serve them right away, or you can keep them in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer to enjoy at your own pace.
- Note: I started with 1/8 cup of honey and did my pulsing, then added a little more toward the end.
Other than as a sweetener, what else does the honey do for this recipe? Does it serve as a binder as well?
I’d like to make these sugar-free, but can’t be sure it’ll work. I’d prefer to use stevia…
Any thoughts?
Yes, the honey does help to bind the ingredients, however, the sun butter helps to bind too and I don’t use very much honey when I make them for myself, so I’d be curious of how it worked without the honey. Maybe try to use a new jar of sunflower seed butter so you get the more moist stuff rather than the dried out part toward the end of the jar which would make your hazelnut butter balls more more crumbly. Perhaps the sun butter butter could act as more of a binder that way. If you try it out, let us know how it goes. I’m sure others would be interested, too. Thanks for visiting and sharing!
Thank YOU for replying (and so quickly). I will give it a go and let you know if/how it works out.
Merry Christmas 🙂
You’re welcome! I can’t wait to hear about how it goes! Good luck and Merry Christmas to you, too!
These look so delicious! I am the biggest fan of anything hazelnut except store-bought nutella because homemade nutella is way better!
Right?! Since going paleo and venturing into cooking just about everything from real, whole foods, I’ve learned that almost everything is better homemade! Glad to find another hazelnut lover! 😉 Let us know what you think if you try them out!