Our allergy friendly Mocha Protein Balls are a delicious way to add protein to your daily snacks! These protein bites are dairy free, gluten free, and nut free as well, so they’re safe for school and perfect for lunchboxes at work, too.
Looking for a delicious, high protein snack that tastes like a sweet treat? Look no further than our yummy Mocha Protein Bites!
Packed with dairy free protein, healthy fats, and a hint of mocha flavor, these bites are the perfect snack to satisfy your hunger and boost your energy. Plus, they’re super easy to make and they’re dairy free, gluten free, peanut free, and soy free.
Since these also have complex carbohydrates from oats, our bites also make a great post-workout snack since it has a good combo of protein and carbohydrates for refueling.
When made as written, these energy bites are:
- Dairy free
- Gluten free
- Egg free
- Peanut and tree nut free
- Soy free
How to make mocha protein balls
Our dairy free protein bites are pretty easy to make with most ingredients being pantry staples. These are a little easier to make if you mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately at first, it just makes for easier mixing.
Here are the steps to make these (the full recipe card is at the end of the post):
- In a medium sized bowl, stir together the dry ingredients (the oats, coffee powder, and collagen powder).
- In a separate bowl, stir together the wet ingredients (the chocolate Sunbutter, honey, and the vanilla).
- Add the Sunbutter mixture to the oat mixture and stir together or mix with your hands until a very thick dough forms.
- Divide into about 8 pieces and roll into balls. Chill in the fridge to let these firm up.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week.
This batch of our protein energy bites is a small-ish one (just 8 bites), so if you need more or you’re doing a weekend meal prep, you can double or triple this recipe for bites that will last all week!
Why do you use collagen protein powder?
If you’ve seen a few of our energy and protein bite recipes, you may notice that I’ve used collagen protein powder in several of them.
Due to the multiple food allergies and food intolerances that I’ve developed over the years, I’m pretty limited as to what protein powders I can use these days. Protein powders from soy, rice, pea, pumpkin seed, egg, whey, etc. are all off the table for me, so collagen and hemp protein powder are a couple of the very few I can actually use these days.
Since hemp protein isn’t great, I use collagen protein powder to make bites and balls when I do make them. And I don’t make them very often since I try to not rely too heavily on protein powders these days. But I do love a good protein bite when I do make them!
For this particular recipe, I used the Wink multi-collagen powder that has added probiotics, so this batch I made has probiotics in it as well!
Can I use a different protein powder in this recipe?
If you don’t have collagen protein powder or don’t want to use it, you can try making this recipe with a different type of protein powder. Just be aware that other protein powders will act differently in this recipe than collagen powder.
Plant-based powders, such as rice, pea, soy, etc. will probably absorb more moisture, so you may need to make adjustments to the amount of protein powder you use if you’re replacing the type of protein powder.
Swap your protein powder and follow the recipe. Then if the mixture feels to dry, add a little more honey or Sunbutter. If the mixture feels to wet, add a little bit more protein powder until you get a thick dough that’s not too sticky that can be rolled into balls.
A few options for allergy friendly protein powders include OWYN, Orgain, and Garden of Life.
Variations for our protein bites
If you are making these bites for kids who hate coffee (like my son does), you can omit the instant coffee powder in these and replace it with a little bit of cocoa powder instead for more chocolate, or a tad more collagen powder.
You can also use a decaf instant coffee powder as well instead of caffeinated coffee in this recipe if you’re watching your caffeine intake or want to have these as an after dinner treat. Mount Hagen has a good decaf instant coffee powder that is good tasting!
Craving more chocolate? You can also add in some mini chocolate chips or white chocolate chips to these if you like!
Check out our other allergy friendly protein bite and energy ball recipes:
- No Bake Chocolate Chip Energy Bites
- Dairy free Fudgy Protein Bites
- Salted Caramel Chia Energy Bites
- Strawberry Oat Protein Bites
Dairy Free Mocha Protein Energy Bites
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup gluten free quick oats
- ¼ cup collagen powder
- ½ to 1 teaspoon instant coffee* (depending on our preference, we preferred less coffee since it could be bitter tasting)
- 3 Tablespoons chocolate Sunbutter
- 3 Tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, stir together the oats, collagen powder, and instant coffee. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, stir together the chocolate Sunbutter, honey, and vanilla until smooth.
- Add the Sunbutter mixture to the oat mixture and stir together until a very thick dough forms. It will get harder to stir towards the end, and you might need to use your hands.
- Roll the dough into about 8 balls and store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie which she founded in 2011. Sarah is based in Wyoming and has been managing food allergies for herself and her 2 children for over 20 years. Sarah was also a certified personal trainer for 12 years, as well as a group fitness instructor, health coach, running coach, and fitness nutrition specialist.