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These healthier Buckeye Balls have all the rich, chocolatey peanut butter flavor you love—just made with better-for-you ingredients and less sugar. They’re an easy no-bake treat that’s perfect for holiday trays, parties, or anytime you’re craving a sweet bite!
Craving more flavors like this? Don’t miss my Chocolate Peanut Butter Lava Cake, these Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting, and these Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Bars with chocolate chips.
Why I Love These Buckeyes
I grew up loving peanut butter buckeyes, but I wanted a version with cleaner ingredients and less sugar. These healthier buckeyes have all the classic flavor—just made with simple, wholesome ingredients I feel good about!
Enjoy!
– Becca
Ingredients
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
- Creamy Peanut Butter: You can also use almond butter if you prefer! Look for a nut butter made with just peanuts (or almonds) and salt—or even better, one without salt. Avoid options with added sugars or oils for the healthiest results.
- Coconut Flour: I use coconut flour in this recipe, which helps bind everything together while keeping it low carb. If you want to substitute with another flour, like almond flour, you can—but the texture and measurements will vary, so you’ll need to adjust by feel.
How to Make Buckeyes
Step 1: Add the peanut butter, honey and the coconut flour in a large bowl, using just enough flour to form a firm ball that stays together.
Step 2: Stir together until the peanut butter mixture is smooth.
Step 3: Roll peanut butter mixture into 1 inch balls and place onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Place the balls in the freezer for several minutes to firm them up.
Step 4: Melt the chocolate on the stovetop or in the microwave. Make sure to stir the chocolate often and check that it doesn’t burn.
Dip the balls in the melted chocolate to create a chocolate layer over the peanut butter.
Step 5: After dipping or drizzling the buckeyes with chocolate, place them in the fridge or freezer until the chocolate hardens.
Step 6: Store these in the fridge or freezer until you’re ready to enjoy them.
Recipe Tips
- If the peanut butter mixture is too sticky or soft to roll, pop it in the freezer for 10–30 minutes. I’ve had the best luck freezing for about 30 minutes, then working with half the batch at a time to keep the rest cold.
- If the peanut butter balls lose their shape after freezing, just re-roll them before dipping.
- These buckeyes freeze well! Store them in the freezer for up to 2 weeks, and let them sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before enjoying.
- If dipping is tricky, drizzling chocolate over the top works too—just note that drizzling tends to use more chocolate, so plan accordingly.
- If you use unsalted peanut butter, a light sprinkle of sea salt before the chocolate sets adds a great finishing touch.
Healthy Buckeyes FAQs
Buckeye balls look like the nut from the Ohio State Buckeye tree. Typically, people leave a bit of the peanut butter showing in their Buckeye recipes, but I chose to cover the entire ball in chocolate–so mine don’t really look like the Buckeye nut.
My healthy recipe for Buckeyes doesn’t contain any shortening, powdered sugar or oils. Just four simple ingredients in this delicious homemade peanut butter cup recipe.
I often make these dairy free by using Enjoy Life dark chocolate chips. They melt and coat the peanut butter balls the same as when you use traditional chocolate.
Yes! If you’ve heard about the benefits of eating coconut oil and are looking for a way to add it to your diet, this recipe is a great place to include it—it blends in easily and complements the flavors.
You can, but I don’t recommend it for this recipe. Homemade chocolate and pantry chocolate (like in my Mocha Chocolate Coconut Bars) tend to be messier and harder to work with than store-bought chocolate chips or melting wafers.
Healthy Eating Plans
21 Day Fix Containers
These are a treat swap. Remember, you get three treat swaps per week.
2B Mindset
These are considered a “silly carb.” Make sure you are tracking them accordingly and eating sparingly. They should be used as a treat and not something you are eating everyday.
Weight Watchers Points
4 2025 Points
If you tried this recipe for Buckeye Balls or any other recipe on my site please leave a rating and let me know how it went in the comments!
Buckeye Balls
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Equipment
- Mixing Bowls
- Parchment Paper
Ingredients
- 2 cups peanut butter or almond butter
- 2 tbsp honey
- ½ cup coconut flour as needed to form balls
- ½ cup dark chocolate chips melted
Instructions
- Mix peanut butter and sweetener with coconut flour in a medium bowl, using just enough to form a firm ball that stays together. 2 cups peanut butter , 2 tbsp honey , 1/2 cup coconut flour
- Roll into 1 inch peanut butter balls and place onto a wax paper lined baking sheet. Place the balls in the freezer for several minutes to firm up. If peanut butter mixture is still too sticky or soft, place in the freezer for 10 minutes and try again. I’ve found the best luck when I leave them in the freezer for 30 minutes or so and then take out half at a time to dip.
- Melt the chocolate on the stovetop or in the microwave. Make sure to stir the chocolate often and check that it doesn't burn. 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
- Dip the balls in chocolate to coat.
- Once the balls are dipped in chocolate, store these in the fridge or freezer until you’re ready to enjoy them.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Buckeyes and peanut butter cups were always my favorite candy. Unfortunately, I found out that I had a couple of auto-immune conditions and it required that I change my diet and cut out sugar. After a couple of years of working on my health I began to crave chocolate-peanut butter deserts. When I read your recipe I could not wait to try it. Hershey’s UNSWEETENED Dark Chocolate Chips melted beautifully and nicely covered the peanut butter balls. This recipe was the first I read that used coconut flour, and I had never even heard of it before. The flour nicely absorbed the oil in the peanut butter and my first Buckeyes batch was awesome! I just finished my second batch. Every day after lunch I have coffee and one of my delicious Buckeyes. Thank you for your recipe. Life is good!
This recipe is a joke. Half a cup of flour didn’t do a think. The mixture was so spreadable. I put it in the freezer as suggested and nothing.
If you use different flour or super thin peanut butter they won’t set up right–I’m happy to help you troubleshoot where it went wrong if you’d like. I make these every month or so, the recipe is definitely not a joke :)
How much does it change the nutritional calculation if you use semi sweet instead of dark chocolate?
It definitely adds some sugar :) I’d calculate the nutrition for both recipes using My Fitness Pal or another calculator so you see see exactly what the differences are.
Have you ever tried using pb2 instead of the regular peanut butter?
I haven’t!
Could you replace coconut flour for almond flour?
You can! I’d start with half the amount and slowly add it in, as coconut flour is super absorbent and almond flour isn’t :)
Could you replace the flour with protein powder?
I haven’t done it, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work!! Let me know how they turn out!
Ahhhh! Thank you!! Fixing now!
These are my weakness, love that you made a healthier version!!
These look so yummy! And I love that they are easy & healthy to make.