Crunchy Chocolate Cereal Balls
Do you and your tribe love chocolate cereal for breakfast? These irresistibly crunchy, chocolatey cereal balls turn a family favourite into a wholesome homemade breakfast or satisfying power snack. With a rich chocolate flavour, that feels like a real treat, serve them splashed with milk in a bowl or enjoy a handful dry.
Made with oats and almond butter, they are rich in protein and packed with calcium and magnesium, so they are wonderfully filling and help keep hungry tummies satisfied until lunchtime. This is a recipe that you will want to make in large batches and it will become a staple in your household.
They are easy to adapt for gluten-free, dairy-free or nut-free diets too, so simply follow the swaps in the notes below.
Crunchy Chocolate Cereal Balls
Ingredients
- 120 g Oats (rolled or jumbo)
- 30 g Cocoa Powder (or raw cacao powder)
- 50 g Coconut Sugar (or light muscovado sugar)
- ½ tsp Salt (sea salt or Himalayan)
- 100 g Almond Butter (smooth)
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 70 ml Milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170°C fan, 190°C conventional.
- Spread the oats on a dry baking tray and toast in the oven for 8 minutes.
- Leave the oats to cool, then blitz in a food processor until finely ground.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 150°C fan, 170°C conventional. Line a baking tray with baking parchment paper.
- Put the ground oats, cocoa powder, coconut sugar and salt into a mixing bowl and stir together.
- Add the almond butter, vanilla extract and most of the milk. Mix until a dough forms.
- If the mixture is too dry or crumbly to roll, add the remaining milk a little at a time until it holds together.
- Roll the dough into cherry-sized balls and place them on the lined baking tray.
- Bake for 20 minutes.
- Switch off the oven. Leave the balls inside for another 20 minutes with the oven door slightly ajar. This helps them dry out and become crunchy.
- Remove the tray from the oven and leave the cereal balls to cool completely before serving or storing.
Notes
Nutrition
Per serving. Nutrition content in food is never consistent, so take these estimates with a pinch of salt! Also, our recipes tend to use low-GI carbs and sugars, so these values are not directly comparable with shop-bought UPFs.
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Thanks for this recipe, my son loves crunch and that’s not easy to provide on the gaps diet.
Can you tell me what banana and strawberry powder is please?
Hi Claire, you can get freeze-dried fruit powders from Healthy Supplies online. They do several delicious flavours. It is simply dried fruit in powder form. Thanks L
Hi Lucinda, thank you – that’s great that you can buy it! (A little less time for me to spend in the kitchen!). I made some plain ones today and they turned out quite nice, I’m looking forward to giving some to my son tomorrow as he’s desperately missing his rice cakes and crunchy biscuits.
I really hope he likes them! More crunchy GAPS recipes coming soon!
Hi. These look great. Is there any way the egg could be missed out? Thanks 🙂
Hi Jenny – simply use a “flax egg” – 1 tablespoon ground flax mixed with 3 tablespoons water
Just a general question. I love your kid’s cookey books but noticed that, in The good stuff (unlike in I can’t believe it’s baby food), there aren’t storage instructions for many of the recipies. I loved knowing I could make brainbox cookies for example and chuck them in the freezer. Now I’m not sure what is safe to freeze or not. Buying the best ingredients possible is not cheap so I’d rather batch cook and freeze. Are you able to offer any guidance in relation to freezer storage for recipies in The Good Stuff. Many thanks, Mairi
Hi Mairi – sorry these guidelines were not included in The Good Stuff, however as you said they are in my other two cookbooks and my recipe blog. All the recipes in The Good Stuff freeze except for the cinnamon toast; egg muffins; egg in the smoky sausage, egg and beans; egg and salmon roll ups; kedgeree; omega mayo; coleslaw; feta salad; nasi goreng; frittata and the popcorn. I hope this is helpful.