Vegan Almond Joy Energy Bites

This is going to be my first holiday season as a vegan. I’ve found amazing plant-based recipes so far, but something I haven’t delved into yet are sweets! I’m actually not a huge sweets fan, but I looooove chocolate and around the holidays it is almost a necessity. So, I found this super easy, vegan, no-bake, chocolatey snack that also gives you a boost of energy and is loaded with protein! If you like almond joys, it’s a extra plus because there is coconut included!

Since I’ve been living in Germany, I’ve had to rediscover which foods to buy. In New York, I had my weekly shopping list basically down to a science. I knew which brands I liked, where it was in the store and could have everything I needed in 15 minutes or less. After moving to Germany, I first had to figure out what everything was called, and then learn which brands were good, what was vegan and where everything was in the store. Luckily, this was actually a lot of fun and helped me learn new German words by figuring out the ingredients I needed!

You can find most things here and fortunately anything that is organic, vegetarian or vegan is very clearly labelled, which makes it easy to find. However, after finding all of the ingredients, I then realized I also needed to learn the metric system! So, in order to make my Pinterest fantasies come to life, I also needed to do a bit of math. For this recipe in particular, which is an adaptation of a recipe by Beaking Baker, I did my best to convert the amounts of each item, but really I just winged it! So below is the recipe which I adapted slightly for my American friends and also the metric system friendly recipe which I converted for my German friends. Guten Appetit!

Ingredients: American Recipe

¾ cup unsweetened coconut shreds

½ cup organic rolled oats

2 tablespoons organic unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons ground flaxseed

¼ cup vegan chocolate chips

¼ cup almonds (sliced or whole, but you’ll have to chop them yourself)

¾ cup unsalted creamy almond butter

¼ cup pure maple syrup

⅓ cup unsweetened coconut shreds (for rolling)

Ingredients: German Recipe

200ml ungesüßte Kokosflocken

100ml bio Haferflocken

2 Teelöffel bio ungesüßtes Kakaopulver

2 Teelöffel gemahlene Leinsamen

50ml vegane Schokoladenchips

50ml geschnittene Mandeln

300ml ungesalzene cremige Mandelbutter

100ml Ahornsirup

50ml ungesüßte Kokosflocken (zum Rollen)

Instructions

1. In a medium or large bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients together: coconut, rolled oats, cocoa powder, flaxseed, chocolate chips and almonds.

2. Add in the almond butter and maple syrup. Stir and fold until they are well mixed into the dry ingredients.

3. Scoop mixture and roll into little balls. Then, roll into the coconut. You can eat right away, or refrigerate for a more solidified texture.