Not sure what it is about white chocolate and cranberries, but they sure make a great combination. To give you a little story, I’ve actually loved white chocolate since I was a kid. It was the first type of chocolate I loved actually. Basically as soon as I was able to talk, I expressed my love of white chocolate by telling my mom that I had hoped the Easter bunny would bring me a white chocolate bunny instead of a milk chocolate one. She must have passed on the message, cause from then on, I received white bunnies.
These days I’m pretty happy with any type of chocolate, but I do admit that white and milk chocolate are still my favorites. But of course, if you have a love of dark chocolate, feel free to swap out with whatever type of chocolate you prefer.
As mentioned in another recent post, the Chocolate Peanut Butter Hemp Seed Protein Balls, that I have a big bag of hemp seeds and I’m looking to use them in more recipes! Since that combination is so yummy (peanut butter + chocolate), I wanted to make its cousin, White Chocolate Cranberry Hemp Seed Protein Balls.
I made these as a recent event. It was my third visit to Lepp Farm Market! This time I was demonstrating healthy snacks for busy families. So naturally, these were a great fit!
I love recipes like these as they come together so quickly, 15 minutes and they’re done. If you want it to be a 5-10 minute recipe, instead of rolling them into balls, you could put the mixture into a 9×9 pan and cut into 24 bars. Easy!
Some have been asking for alternatives to whey protein, so if you need a dairy-free option, I’d suggest using a brown rice protein instead, but you won’t want to use a full cup in this recipe as I don’t think the end result would taste as good just because vegan proteins have a stronger taste. In this particular recipe I’d probably use about 1/3 cup of brown rice protein, and use extra oats to make up the difference. You may or may not need extra liquid. Play around with it. Just as a warning though, I haven’t tried it this particular way yet, this is my best guess. If you do try it, I’d love for you to comment below as it may help others that need to make substitutions.
Happy snack making!
- 1 cup quick oats
- ¾ cup whey protein, vanilla (I used Jamie's Lean Body For Her Whey Concentrate)
- ½ cup hemp seeds
- ½ cup natural peanut butter
- ⅓ cup honey (I used Nature's Hollow Sugar Free Honey)
- 3 Tbsp dried sweetened cranberries
- 3 Tbsp white chocolate, chopped
- 2 Tbsp milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
- 1 tsp almond extract (could also use vanilla extract)
- In a large bowl add the oats, whey protein and hemp seeds. Stir to combine.
- Add in the peanut butter, honey, almond extract and milk and mix until it starts to come together.
- Add in the dried cranberries and white chocolate and mix together until fully combined (clean hands work great).
- Roll into 24 balls. I keep mine stored in a container in the freezer.