Pumpkin season is in full swing, are you ready? Celebrate fall with some easy and delicious Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Protein Bites, they are grain free and perfect for school snacks or anytime treats.
It’s pumpkin season, y’all! If you had any doubts, those pumpkin spice lattes that coffee shops are slinging officially starts the pumpkin marketing season.
I’m not a trendy blogger. I don’t do food trends, blogging trends, fashion trends, or trends in general. But, I do love pumpkin! I’ve loved pumpkin way before it was cool 😉
As evidence of how un-trendy I am, I rarely share memes on my blog, but this one is too funny not to share 😉
Back to the pumpkin spice recipe I’m about to share: even though I’m not a trend-follower (I’m not even a trendsetter), I still love making a few pumpkin recipes every fall. It reminds me of fall baking with my family back when were kids. Those warm, spicy smells of baking goodies when the weather was chilly. Good memories!
In honor of the first day of fall tomorrow and back to school days, I made my first pumpkin recipe of the season. These Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Protein Bites are a fun and healthy snack for work or school, and you can let everyone know that these are allergy-friendly with some fun allergy labels from .
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Protein Bites
These pumpkin chocolate chip protein balls are made grain free with coconut flour. Coconut isn’t considered a true tree nut, but the FDA does require it to be labeled as a tree nut by manufacturers, so if you have any questions about whether you should eat coconut if you have a tree nut allergy, chat with your allergist.
For these protein bites, I used a hydrolyzed beef collagen powder that is unflavored. Since collagen powder doesn’t absorb a lot of liquid, if you choose to make these with another kind of protein, you’ll probably need to adjust the amount of liquid in the recipe if your protein powder absorbs more moisture.
I have also found that these have the best texture when kept at room temperature. If you want to store them in the fridge to make them last longer, just remove a few bites to warm up at room temperature before eating. They are delicious!
I’m actually now allergic to pumpkin seeds these days (as of 2 years ago), but I can still have the flesh of the pumpkin. I try not to overdo pumpkin puree in my diet so I don’t end up with some strange allergic reaction to it, like I had with the pumpkin seeds. But so far so good!
Check out our other protein ball recipes:
- Fudgy Brownie Protein Bites
- Strawberry Oat Protein Bites
- Coffee Chocolate Chip Protein Bites
- Healthy Chocolate Protein Bites (Vegan)
- Orange Poppyseed Protein Bites (Vegan)
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Protein Bites
- Cranberry Chia Protein Bites
- Espresso Hemp Protein Bites
- Chai Spice Protein Bites
StickerYou
You may recognize from one of my other blog posts (the one with tons of great Easter basket ideas!). StickerYou creates some amazing stickers and labels (among other fun stuff!) that you can customize according to your needs. Their stickers are high quality, and the premium vinyl StickerYou stickers are:
- Writable with permanent marker
- Leave no residue when removed
- Waterproof
- Microwave safe
- Dishwasher safe
- UV coated and fade resistant
- Scratch resistant
- Applies bubble free
- Photo quality (you can upload photos to the design if you want!)
- Color reproduction (you can match the colors of the labels to anything!)
The StickerYou allergy stickers are great for school snacks and lunches, work snacks and food if you share a fridge or kitchen space with coworkers, marking containers of food at home if different family members have different allergies, and they are great for daycares, too. You can create your own customizable stickers, so you can find tons of ways to use them!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Protein Bites (Grain Free)
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup coconut flour
- ⅓ cup plain hydrolyzed collagen powder I used Great Lakes Gelatin brand
- ¼ cup allergy-friendly mini chocolate chips
- Heaping 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ to ¼ teaspoon salt depending on your preference
- ⅓ cup + 1 Tablespoon canned pumpkin puree
- ⅓ cup coconut oil soft enough to mix, but not melted
- 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Vanilla cream Stevia drops to taste
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, stir together the coconut flour, collagen protein powder, cinnamon, salt, and mini chocolate chips.
- Add the pumpkin puree, coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla, and Stevia (if using) and stir together until a thick dough forms. The coconut oil should be soft when added but not melted.
- Roll the dough into 1-inch balls – the dough shouldn’t be sticky and should be easy to roll.
- These have the best texture when stored at room temperature, but can be stored in the fridge and eaten chilled as well.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and allergy friendly food blogger of 12 years based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
These are super simple to make! I have never heard of using gelatin for little cookie bites though but you could use agar if you’re plant based I’m assuming! The allergen stickers are cute! 🙂
Thanks Amby! This recipe uses hydrolyzed collagen, which is different than gelatin powder. It’s closer to a protein powder, it’s fine and mixes really well with liquids or in recipes. This is the one I used (https://greatlakeswellness.com/collections/collagen), but there are other brands of hydrolyzed collagen powder like Vital Proteins or Neocell. It probably wouldn’t work to use gelatin or agar as a replacement in this recipe, the best replacement would be your favorite vanilla protein powder, you’d probably just have to adjust the liquid in the recipe.