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Healthy Buckeye Balls Recipe (Made with 3-Ingredients)

Last Updated: October 26, 2020 By Linnie 7 Comments

 
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PINTEREST IMAGE with words "3 ingredients buckeye peanut butter balls" buckeye peanut butter balls lined up in rows

Buckeye Balls recipe made with 3-Ingredients, gluten free, made low sugar and under 100 calories! Indulging in this decadent dessert just got really easy. You will be amazed by how easy they are to make!

(Gluten-Free, Vegetarian, Dairy-Free friendly)

Healthy Buckeye Balls {3-Ingredients} - Veggiebalance.com

Not long ago, I ate a bajillion peanut butter balls aka buckeyes.

But it’s ok, they were Healthy Buckeye Balls. That makes it acceptable because they were a healthy variety, right?

Side note: I totally suck at making fudge and that is how these buckeye balls were born by my failure. My mother always struggled to make it and I must have inherited the suck-at-making-fudge gene until about 2 years later I finally mastered this super easy chocolate fudge recipe.

How To Make Buckeye Balls

  1. Make a frosting (this is our favorite vanilla frosting recipe personally). If you want to make it easy and buy some in the store that will work as well.
  2. Melt together frosting and peanut butter. Allow to cool for a little bit.
  3. Roll into little balls and allow to set.
  4. Dip into some chocolate and say hello to delicious little peanut butter chocolate balls.

Just 4 easy steps to making buckeye balls. Thissssss rocks.

Healthy Buckeye Balls {3-Ingredients} - Veggiebalance.com

Here is my story on how I figured out how to make buckeye balls even easier…

It was a Sunday night, not long before bedtime, when I had a ‘fabulous’ idea to make 2-ingredient peanut butter fudge using my low-sugar vanilla frosting recipe. Who decides to start making food at 8 PM at night? I do. Well… RIP Peanut Butter Fudge; it definitely did not turn out liked I had hoped.

I was staring at this failed block of fudge that still tasted phenomenal. Actually, I kept pulling off piece after piece and eating it. Scarfing down one peanut butter chunk after another (and perhaps wallowing in my super fudge fail), I came upon the notion that these would be fabulous with chocolate.

In what universe does chocolate and peanut butter not belong together?

And that, my friends, is how these Healthy Buckeye Balls were born. It was a magical night.

The fact that these are so easy to make gives them bonus points of a billion.

Buckeyes, Peanut Butter Balls, Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Balls– whatever you call them, we all know and love them in our family. They do not survive past Christmas.

Not one is left behind to make it into the New Year.

Healthy Buckeye Balls {3-Ingredients} - Veggiebalance.com

History on Buckeye Balls

Our family calls these little balls of heaven Buckeyes, but I think these treats are more of a known Midwest thing. So if you haven’t heard of these babies before you’ve got to make them!

They are meant to look like the buckeye nuts off the Ohio buckeye tree. For us it is more a reminder of the Ohio Buckeyes Football team (which incidentally our Michigan State football team recently beat.) #spartanwill #ItsaMidwestThing

Whatever they may be called in your family, there is not a more healthy, low-sugar, gluten-free option to devour this holiday season.

They are also totally and one hundred percent approved to make at 9 PM at night. I will attest to the fact that they are the perfect bedtime snack. ????????

What does your family call these?

Healthy Buckeye Balls {3-Ingredients} - Veggiebalance.com

easy, quick, delicious, healthy, recipe

Healthy Buckeye Balls Recipe (Made with 3-Ingredients)

Dessert

Gluten-free, Low-Sugar, Low-Calorie

American

Buckeye Balls recipe made with 3-Ingredients, gluten free, made low sugar and under 100 calories! Indulging in this decadent dessert just got really easy. You will be amazed by how easy they are to make!
Print Recipe

Yield: 35

Prep Time:10 min

Cook Time:5 min

Total Time:15 min

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups Veggie Balance's low-sugar vanilla frosting
  • 28 ounces creamy peanut butter
  • 2 cups dark chocolate chips

Directions:

  • 1. Combine frosting, peanut butter in a medium microwave safe bowl.
  • 2. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, repeat this step until frosting and peanut butter are melted together.
  • 3. Allow melted peanut butter to cool 10-15 minutes.
  • 4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop out 1 TBS of dough into your hand, roll into a ball and place on baking sheet. Repeat until there are 35-38 buckeyes.
  • 5. Place baking sheet in freezer for 30 minutes.
  • 6. Start a double boiler system by heating a small sauce pan with water.
  • 7. In a glass bowl add dark chocolate chips. Place glass bowl on top of sauce pan. Stir until chocolate is fully melted. Turn heat down to low.
  • 8. Dip peanut butter balls in chocolate, tap the bottom of the balls to remove excess chocolate. ( I found using a fork worked best for dipping. )
  • 9. Place buckeyes back onto baking sheet when finished dipping.
  • 10. Place finished buckeyes in freezer for 10-15 minutes to finish setting the chocolate.

Notes

** The holes on the buckeyes from dipping with the fork can easily be erased by simply pushing the holes close with your fingers once finished drying. The fork holes left on the buckeyes personally drive me crazy.
Author: Linnie

Recipe Video:

Check out our Buckeye Bars recipe video to get an idea of what the mixture should look like! Similar recipe just made into bars instead of buckeye balls.

Nutrition Information:

Serving size: 1 buckeye
Calories: 100
Other nutrition information: Total Fat: 6g , Saturated Fat: 2g , Trans Fat: 0g , Cholesterol: 1.6mg , Sodium: 33mg , Total Carb: 10g , Dietary Fiber: .6g , Sugars: 7g , Protein: 2g
Recipe, images, and text © Veggie Balance

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1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (19 votes, average: 4.26 out of 5)
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Filed Under: 5-Ingredients or Less, Dairy-Free, Desserts, For a Crowd, Gluten-Free, Low Sugar, Vegan, Vegetarian

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. CakeSpy says

    December 13, 2015 at 10:05 am

    I love buckeyes!! Thank you for this more virtuous version – they look absolutely delectable!

    Reply
    • Lindsay says

      December 13, 2015 at 11:25 am

      Thank you! Me too. Chocolate and Peanut Butter – you never can go wrong with that. 😉

      Reply
  2. Kristine says

    March 1, 2016 at 12:23 pm

    They’re called Buckeyes because of the Buckeye nut on the Buckeye tree, not TheOSU mascot. The nuts look just like the peanut butter balls covered in chocolate and the Buckeye tree is native to the area.

    Reply
    • Lindsay says

      March 4, 2016 at 12:26 pm

      You are totally correct Kristine! I’ve had some people call them different names in the past other then buckeyes. Living here in the midwest though the buckeye treats are more strongly associated with the OSU team and Ohio in general. There is a strong rival between MSU and OSU – Working somewhere where 99% of us are MSU fans. We had the only OSU fan at work a while back place buckeyes on every single desk the day before the game. LOL

      Reply
  3. Frieda says

    September 20, 2018 at 3:17 am

    I am definitely one of your quiet readers, however, I am totally loving your recipes and I’ve spoiled my boyfriend (and myself, of course) with your delicious ideas ever since I found this blog about a year ago! Thank you for that!!
    Well, since 28 ounces are a lot (for knowing how much, I had to google first. In Germany, we use grams) – how long will these buckeyes stay fresh? I thought about making half the recipe, but then I would need only half the frosting as well, and I’m not so good in scaling half a table spoon butter… 😉

    Reply
    • Lindsay says

      September 23, 2018 at 5:26 am

      Aww so glad you’ve stuck around Frieda. This warms my heart. <3

      Yes this definitely makes a ton of buckeyes. You can always refrigerate if you'd like after about a week I'd say would be fine to sit out on the counter in a storage container.

      You can definitely half the recipe if you'd like - I'm still learning grams as well now that we've moved but I BELIEVE a half tablespoon of butter should be around 6.4grams. . . so if you are making half the frosting that it would call for 1.5 Tablespoons of butter so around 19.2 grams.

      Now I could be totally off (as I'm trying to learn the conversions) but thats what I would try. . . My husband also has been asking me to make more of these and a scale is on order already so I'll report back once I test it out myself. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Lisa says

    December 9, 2018 at 10:40 pm

    Buckeyes are my fav cookie this time of year, but since being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes a year ago, I figured they were off limits now. Until I found this recipe! These are amazing, and because I was able to reduce the sugar in the frosting (I did only about 1 cup instead of 2), my blood sugar is much happier! I also used just 4 tbsp tapioca starch (someone else had asked about that) and they came out great. Thank you for helping me enjoy the holidays just a little more!

    Reply

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Favorite things include traveling the world, chocolate and a huge plate of nachos.

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