Apple Pie Balls: Nut-Free Larabar Wannabes

We thought we’d seen everything with this blog. But, when we posted the Banana Bread Balls we were quite surprised by the amount of traffic and comments we got from people excited about a replacement Larabar – especially with it being nut-free. Obviously, we make these because Finian and I do our best to stay nut-free on the autoimmune protocol. But there’s another reason quite a few were excited.

Evidently, it was recently revealed that Larabars are owned by a company who donates money to the not-labelling-GMO-cause (Prop 37). And from what you tell us, quite a few of you stopped buying them when that happened. Further, for some of you (like us) they’re not really an option because for whatever reason, you’re not eating nuts.

When we were so wonderfully supported and encouraged by the positive feedback of the Banana Bread Balls I endeavored to make a few more flavors. And so, I work through my list… I have Coconut Cream Pie and Blueberry Muffin on my to-do list, but for today I present a nut-free alternative to the Apple Pie Larabar.

Even more exciting, we have some special guests who helped us make these – my sister Jackie and nephew, Jeremiah – who is a complete ham around the camera ♥ We’re currently vacationing together at Great Wolf Lodge and this was made specifically for us to take on the road!

Now, because we need a solid that offers some fat (instead of nuts) we use coconut here. This flavor reminds me of Apple Pie – but it’s not as exact a replication as I would’ve hoped. However, my sister tried these and responded with Oh. My. Gawd. These are so good. They’re BETTER than Larabars. I need to you guys to open a store so I can just eat your food all the time. So, we can wholeheartedly say they’re good the way they are!

see, she’s giving them the thumbs-up!

Apple Pie Balls
Vegan, Paleo AND Autoimmune-friendly!

Ingredients

1 C cinnamon apple chips (look for a brand that has 2-3 ingredients: apple, coconut oil, cinnamon)
1 C cinnamon apple rings (recipe to make your own in Eat Like a Dinosaur)
1 C coconut flakes
1 C soft medjool dates
3/4 C raisins, we used mixed jumbo but it’s not sulfur dioxide-free (gasp)

Instructions

♥ Add all ingredients, except raisins, to a food processor and pulse until they come together to form a ball when molded in your hand – about 1-2 minutes and the apple chips will be 1/4″ shards
♥ Add raisins and pulse a few more times, so that there’s still chunks of them (if you don’t want chunky raisins in your balls, then add raisins to main batch and save yourself this step, but we like the treat of surprise raisin bites!)
♥ Form tablespoon size balls, the dough shouldn’t be too sticky so we skipped rolling them in coconut flakes this time – but you can do that if you’d like.
♥ EAT!

If you don’t eat them all right away, you can store them at room temperature for probably quite a while – although if more than a few days, we recommend refrigeration – where they’ll stay for months, probably.

Given the fact that these are gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, and seed-free as well as being stable at room temperature they make a PERFECT school snack or treat as well as travel food!

About Stacy

Stacy Toth has written 308 post in this blog.

Stacy is the matriarch of the Paleo Parents family. After beginning a paleo diet and founding PaleoParents.com in 2010, she lost 135 pounds and found health and happiness for the whole family. The following three years have been a progressive journey with a mission to educate people about nourishing their bodies by eating real foods. Stacy can be found on all forms of social media as @PaleoParents as well as the top-rated The Paleo View Podcast and her two cookbooks, Eat Like a Dinosaur and Beyond Bacon.