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Recipe updated 12/8/15.
Buckeyes and frozen eggnog are to Christmas what fireworks are to the Fourth of July. At least in my house. Here’s a buckeye recipe, and I’m working on the frozen eggnog. (Update: here it is!)
Yes, I’ve already posted a buckeye recipe. While it’s really good, I’ve learned things about baking and cooking with alternative flours and sweeteners since then, and I thought I could come up with an even better, more realistic candy. I do believe I have. While it’s not totally a buckeye (and cannot be without the aid of much powdered sweetener, which I do not have as it’s much more expensive than stevia and Super Sweet Blend), it is a totally passable substitute that fulfills my buckeye cravings. Better yet, it’s made from ingredients I had on hand and it contains a secret ingredient that you would never guess. Proof? My mom never batted an eye as she ate one of these when I made them earlier today… Don’t tell her they have beans in them, K? The idea of cauliflower in cake kinda weirds her out, so I imagine that beans in buckeyes would do the same.
I’m going to preach at you about the wonders of oat fiber again (click here for my first sermon on the subject). It’s a wonderful, versatile flour that is low-carb and low-fat. Yeah, you can use it in basically anything. OK, I’ll keep this sermon short, but you seriously need to go buy some oat fiber so you can use it to make these recipes. For a gluten-free option, click here.
I’m sure that you could layer the peanut butter mixture in the bottom of a 9×13 inch pan, pour the chocolate on top, freeze, and cut into small squares for something that looks like fudge. That would be easier. Not quite so traditional, but easier.
You can find this recipe in my cookbook, Necessary Food.
- ½ cup salted butter, softened
- 2½ cups natural peanut butter, as creamy as possible
- 1 15.5 oz. can Great Northern Beans, rinsed very well and drained
- ½ cup refined coconut oil, melted/softened
- 1½ tsp. vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp. THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder (or a powdered sweetener of choice, such as THM Gentle Sweet, to taste, for a more authentic flavor)
- 1 cup + 2 T oat fiber (use gluten free if necessary)
- Dash of salt, if needed
- 4 oz. unsweetened baker's chocolate
- 1 cup refined coconut oil
- 3 tsp. THM Super Sweet Blend, or more to taste (or you could try 2 T THM Gentle Sweet)
- Blend the first three ingredients together in a food processor until totally smooth (I use the food processor that fits onto my Ninja blender and it works great). Add the other ingredients and blend again. Refrigerate to let the dough firm up a bit. Once it's like firm cookie dough, scoop it out onto a wax paper-covered cookie sheet using a one-tablespoon cookie scoop. Freeze until solid. (If you didn't end up with a neat product by just scooping the dough out with a cookie scoop, you may wish to roll the dough into neater balls with your hands once it has chilled for a little while.)
- In a microwave-safe bowl (you could also do this in a double boiler), microwave the ingredients for the chocolate coating in 15-20 second intervals on the defrost setting of your microwave. Stir at each interval. Once the chocolate coating is smooth and combined, you're ready to dip.
- Dip the frozen peanut butter balls in the chocolate mixture one at a time (you can coat them all the way or leave the traditional dot at the top). Stir the chocolate every once in awhile so the sweetener doesn't settle to the bottom of the bowl. Once the chocolate coating is hard, transfer to a freezer-safe container and store in the freezer. Even when frozen, these buckeyes are bitable. Freezing keeps them nice and firm. You can let them set out for a few minutes before eating to soften up if you like. Yields approximately 60 buckeyes.
- If you have chocolate coating left over, add peanuts to make nut clusters and freeze spoonfuls on wax paper. When they're hard, store them in the freezer in a sealed container.
Troubleshooting:
-If your natural peanut butter is pretty "dry", you probably won't need the full amount of oat fiber. For best results, make sure all the oil is stirred into the jar of peanut butter so it's smooth and oily. If your peanut butter is on the dry side, you may wish to add a couple extra tablespoons of coconut oil to the buckeyes.
-Use refined coconut oil, such as Louana brand, so you don't have a coconut flavor in these buckeyes.
-I would not suggest substituting anything for the oat fiber. You may be able to substitute another low-carb flour such as almond flour or coconut flour, but I'm not sure how that would taste (and it would definitely be more calorie-dense than the oat fiber). Oat fiber absorbs a lot of liquid, so take that into consideration. I know some people use protein powder as a substitute for oat fiber in recipes, but I haven't tried that and have my doubts that a cup of protein powder would taste good in this recipe (not to mention that it would be pretty expensive.).
Sweetener Conversion Chart
Suggested Products:
- I use the food processor with this Ninja kitchen set to make this recipe.
- THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder and Super Sweet Blend are the two sweeteners I used in this recipe. Both can be purchased from the Trim Healthy Mama online store.
- Oat fiber is one of my favorite low-carb flours these days. You can buy some here. For a gluten free option, click here.
What would you do to convert this into a peppermint patty type recipe?
I did it a couple years ago (and they were delish) but neglected to write down … and now I’m stumped.
Thanks,
Robin
Hmm…I’m not sure! I’d probably try this recipe but with peppermint instead of raspberry >> https://www.briana-thomas.com/raspberry-cremes/
This tastes terrible. I followed all the instructions and used the same ingredients. I thought it would be great since I have all the ingredients on hand already, including oat fiber (I make my own low carb baking mix). I am accustomed to the taste of stevia and low carb foods in general and I think they are disgusting. My family will take one bite of these, gag, and spit it in the trash. I think I’ll stick to the real thing.
I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy them! I wonder what brand of oat fiber you used. I’ve tried some (like NuNaturals brand) that taste really awful, like Playdoh, and since there’s so much oat fiber in this recipe it could become a very prominent taste if not using a mild brand. I like LifeSource brand oat fiber from Netrition: https://www.briana-thomas.com/recommends/oat-fiber/ It’s very light in color and mild in flavor.
I followed the recipe too but these were not tasty at all. Super disappointed.
I have enjoyed other things from the blog so hopefully this is just a fluke.
For the Healthy Buckeyes, is 1 cup of coconut oil for the chocolate to dip it correct? It was extremely runny and I had to add about 12 more oz. of chocolate to it in order to make it thick enough to stay on the buckeyes.
Yes, that’s how I did it, and I often double dip them for a thicker coating. 🙂 If you make sure the buckeyes are good and cold before dipping, that helps. I like to use as much coconut oil as possible for its health benefits, but you can definitely increase the ratio of unsweetened baker’s chocolate, or even 85% dark chocolate, for a thicker coating.
I halfed the recipe, because I didn’t have enough coconut oil or pb on hand. I also substituted butter for the coconut oil (again–not enough on hand). I think it’s time to invest in a good food processor!! I only have a mini, so I used my blender, and the mixture was too thick to blend well. I added some almond milk to thin it enough to blend. Maybe I should’ve used less oat fiber? I got 35 pb balls with half the recipe. They’re chilling now so I can dip them! We’ll see how the butter substitute works…
My son can’t have oats. 🙁
Briana- Do you have a recommendation for a natural peanut butter?
We usually get Smuckers brand from Walmart. Any brand that has just peanuts and salt is fair game. 🙂
Hi Briana, came to check out your blog and of course ended up in the “weird foods” section within minutes — seems we’ve got something in common 😉 I’m a huge “weird foods” fan! 🙂 These buckeyes look delicious btw!
Haha…I love your blog name! 😉
Can you taste the oat fiber or beans in this recipe? I am trying to use oat fiber more, but I am afraid it will taste oat-fiber-y. How do you use it in recipes calling for almond flour (like half and half sub or is that generally too much oat fiber?). Thanks!
Nope, you can’t taste either the oat fiber or the beans – at least I can’t. I don’t know what the ratio would be for subbing oat fiber for almond flour. You definitely need less oat fiber because it soaks up more liquid. I like to use oat fiber in combination with other flours because I’ve found that when I use it on its own, the end result can be “gritty”.
Just made these yesterday and they were awesome. Even my non-THM brothers liked them! But I do have a question. I halved the chocolate coating, and it still made enough to coat all the buckeyes three times and have some left over for Skinny Chocolate. Granted I did only come out with about 40 buckeyes, but it still seems like an awful lot of chocolate. Did I do something wrong or is it just a typo?
Thanks so much for all your awesome recipes!
Hmm, that’s strange. I assume you made it just like I wrote it? Mine made a lot of chocolate, but I was surprised at how much it took to dip the buckeyes twice. Did you freeze the buckeyes in between dipping? I did and it helps them get a thicker coating. And yes, I did have 20 more buckeyes to dip than you did, so that would explain quite a lot.
Do these buckeye balls have defatted peanut flour in them? I see a link to a recipe “sans defatted peanut flour” but see no recipe with defatted peanut flour. Just want to make sure I have the ingredient list correct. Thanks! My son’s favorite treat of all times is buckeye balls. He’ll be thrilled when he visits me for Christmas this year. He’s dropped his percentage of body fat from 33% down to 13%! He’s been more successful than me, but then he’s a lot younger than me too. I keep plugging away….
No, they don’t. The version I made last year sans defatted peanut flour was in response to a recipe someone else posted that called for defatted peanut flour, which I didn’t have.
Made these today. I did sweeten the balls a bit more. Thank you, Briana for another great recipe!!! Don’t balk at the white beans. You’ll love them.
Woohoo! Thanks so much for letting me know how they turned out!