These No-Bake Pumpkin Balls are vegan, gluten-free and paleo-friendly! They have a cake-like texture and are such a healthy tasty fall treat for the family!
Welcome fall and all things pumpkin! The isles at the grocery store are filled with canned pumpkin, my kids are insisting on buying fresh pumpkins everywhere they see them [because they’re so cute of course] and it’s totally acceptable to just consume pumpkin in all forms and shapes this time of year. So, here’s to more pumpkin recipes! And here’s to my No-Bake Pumpkin Balls.
They’re made with pure, simple, superfood ingredients that are actually good for you, so it’s dessert with no-guilt. Well, only if you can control yourself and limit to 2 pieces. And let me tell you…that’s no easy feat.
What ingredients do you need to make pumpkin balls?
It may look like a lot, but the shredded coconut, cacao nibs and the walnuts are just for optional coating. And you don’t even need to coat them, or you can coat them with simply chocolate chips…YUM!
So, it really just involves a bowl of dry stuff: oat flour, rolled oats, pumpkin spice and cane sugar.
Then a bowl of the wet stuff: almond butter, maple syrup, vanilla extract, pumpkin pie mix or just canned pumpkin.
Then you mix everything together, roll them into cute bliss balls and then coat them however you’d like. I was also planning to roll some with cane sugar and cinnamon, but I ate too many samples – guess that’s what happens when you’re making a no-bake dessert! But can you blame me? Look at these beauties!
And you seriously can’t just have one bite or one ball or even one serving (which is two balls by the way)!
The great thing about this recipe is all the ingredients are gluten free, so it feels light but energizing. It’s also paleo-friendly and vegan so it’s an all around healthy snack that will make your body look good and feel good!
If you make this healthy-ish feelgood No-Bake Pumpkin Balls recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some shots of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories!
For more pumpkin recipes:
- Healthy Pumpkin Pancakes
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Pumpkin Spice Latte
- Pumpkin Pasta with Crispy Sage
These No-Bake Pumpkin Balls are vegan, gluten-free and paleo-friendly! They have a cake-like texture and are such a healthy tasty fall treat for the family!
- 1 3/4 cups gluten-free oat flour or grind oats in blender until flour-like
- 1/4 cup rolled oats
- 2 Tbsp cane sugar
- 1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 cup almond butter or other nut butter of choice
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree or pumpkin pie puree
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Shredded coconut cacao nibs and crushed walnuts for coating
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the oat flour, rolled oats, cane sugar and pumpkin pie spice, and mix well.
- In another medium microwave safe bowl, heat the almond butter for about 30-60 seconds until it has a more liquid form. Mix in the maple syrup, vanilla extract and canned pumpkin.
- Pour the dry mixture (oats, sugar and spices) into the wet mixture (almond butter, maple syrup, vanilla extract and canned pumpkin), and mix well until a firm texture is formed.
- If the mixture needs more moisture, add a tablespoon of canned pumpkin, and if it is too moist, you can add a tablespoon of oat flour. Because it's no-bake, you can also taste it and add more cane sugar, if you desire.
- Using your hands, form batter into small bite sized balls.
- Roll balls in optional coatings (shredded coconut, chopped walnuts and cacao nibs) and place on a baking sheet.
- You can enjoy them as is, or refrigerate for 10 minutes to firm up.
Recipe Video
Recipe: This pumpkin balls recipe was adapted from The Big Man’s World
Substitutes: For best results, follow the recipe as is. However here are some common substitutes that would work well in this recipe.
- For paleo option, substitute the rolled oats and oat flour with 3/4 cup coconut flour
- The cane sugar can be eliminated, especially if you are using pumpkin pie puree which is usually already sweetened
