Seven ingredients stirred in a bowl, chilled half an hour, and rolled. No baking, no food processor, no cooking of any kind.

Ten balls at about 188 calories and six grams of protein each, which makes them a reasonable after-school or mid-afternoon snack rather than a dessert in disguise.

Chill before rolling, not after

Mix everything, cover, and refrigerate at least thirty minutes. Then scoop and roll.

This order is the whole trick. Straight after mixing, the honey and peanut butter are at room temperature and the mixture is loose and sticky. It coats your hands and refuses to hold a shape.

Half an hour cold firms both up. The oats also absorb some of the honey during that time, which pulls the mixture together into something that rolls cleanly.

Trying to roll warm is the reason people give up on this kind of recipe.

Natural peanut butter, and why it matters here

Half a cup, and natural rather than the stabilised kind.

Natural peanut butter is just peanuts and salt, and it is looser and oilier. That looseness is useful here because there is no other liquid in the recipe besides honey, and the mixture needs enough moisture to bind.

Stabilised peanut butter is firmer and holds its shape in the jar. Used here it gives a drier, more crumbly ball that does not hold together as well. It works if it is what you have, and you may want an extra tablespoon of honey.

Stir the jar before measuring. Natural peanut butter separates and the oil sitting on top is part of what you need.

Flax and chia together

Two tablespoons of each.

Both are doing the same job from slightly different directions. Chia seeds absorb many times their weight in liquid and form a gel, which binds the mixture. Flax seeds do something similar and bring more fat and fibre.

Together they are a good part of why these hold together without any egg or flour. They are also where a lot of the fibre in the nutrition comes from.

Ground flax absorbs more effectively than whole seeds, which pass through largely intact. Either works for texture and ground is better nutritionally.

Rolled oats, not quick oats

One cup, and the type matters more than in a baked recipe.

Nothing gets cooked here, so the oats stay as they go in. Rolled oats give you distinct flakes and a pleasant chew. Quick oats are cut finer and turn the mixture pasty and uniform.

Steel cut oats are the one to avoid entirely. They are essentially hard grains and they never soften without cooking.

The protein powder is optional in practice

One tablespoon of chocolate flavoured powder, or to taste.

One tablespoon across ten balls is a small amount and it contributes flavour more than protein. The six grams per ball comes mostly from the peanut butter, the oats and the seeds.

Add more if you want the protein number higher, up to about three tablespoons. Past that the mixture goes dry and chalky, since protein powder absorbs moisture, and you would need more honey to compensate.

Chopped chocolate rather than chips

A quarter cup of chopped dark chocolate.

Chopping gives you irregular pieces of different sizes, which distribute more evenly through a mixture this thick than uniform chips do. Chips also tend to sit whole and slide out when you bite.

Keep them cold

Refrigerated, both before serving and for storage.

At room temperature the honey softens and the balls lose their shape within an hour or so. They stay firm and pleasant cold, and they keep about a week in an airtight container in the fridge. <p>They also freeze for up to three months and can be eaten more or less straight from the freezer. ## Sizing them Ten balls from this quantity gives you roughly golf ball sized portions. A small cookie scoop makes them even, which matters if you are tracking the nutrition per ball.

Swaps

Almond butter, cashew butter or sunflower seed butter all work in place of peanut. Maple syrup substitutes for honey and keeps them vegan alongside a plant based protein powder. Raisins, dried cranberries or shredded coconut all fold in well.