Description
Kick up your energy with these simple and healthy no-bake Cranberry Pistachio Energy Bites!
Ingredients
Scale
- 8 ounces (about 1 packed cup) chopped dates
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1 Tablespoon chia seeds (optional)
- 1 Tablespoon ground flax seeds
- pinch of salt
- 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats (dry, not cooked)
- 1 cup shelled pistachio nuts
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1/3 cup white chocolate chips (optional)
Instructions
- Combine the dates, honey, chia seeds, flax seeds and salt in a food processor, and pulse until smooth and combined. You should be able to stir the mixture — if it is too thick, add in another tablespoon or two of honey.
- Transfer the mixture to a large bowl, and stir in the oats, pistachios, dried cranberries, and white chocolate chips until evenly combined. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Once the mixture is cool (and easier to work with), use a spoon or cookie scoop to shape it into your desired size of energy balls. (Mine were about 1-inch in diameter.) Alternately, you can line a small baking pan with parchment paper, and press the mixture evenly into the pan, let it cool, and then cut into bars.
- Store covered in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. (Storing them in the refrigerator especially helps the energy bites hold their shape.)
I didn’t see where you listed the nutritional value to the recipes.
Per serving – how many calories / fat / carb, etc. Thanks.
Hi Kim! We’re sorry but we are unsure of the nutrition facts/amount of calories in this recipe. We currently are not publishing nutrition facts on the site, as the nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. However, a lot of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. We hope that helps!
I made these energy bites over the weekend and they were FABULOUS! The only change I made was using the Agave instead of honey because I thought they may too sweet. It was the perfect mix with everything else. My dates were room temp so they were easy to cut and they minced up just fine in the food processor. Once everything was mixed, I placed in a 8×8 pan w/parchment paper and left overs I made into little balls. Stick them in the frig for 30 and then I wrapped up in wax paper. Will definitely make these again!
Thanks for sharing Valerie — we’re glad to hear you enjoyed these! :)
These were fantastic! I substituted apple butter for honey since I am vegan, subbed raisins for cranberries (because that is what I had on hand), and subbed sesame seeds for flax seeds (also what I had). Otherwise I followed the recipe and these turned out fantastic! Thank you SO much!!
Thanks for sharing Lacey — we’re so glad you enjoyed them! :D
Hi, do you have the nutrition info for this recipe?
Thank
Hi Elizabeth! We’re sorry but we are unsure of the nutrition facts/amount of calories in this recipe. We currently are not publishing nutrition facts on the site, as the nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. However, a lot of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. We hope that helps!
I’ve made these twice. I find it easier to mix ingredients in the food processor as indicated and then add all the other ingredients except the oats so that those items are well blended. Then, add the oats.
If the mix is too thick, I’ve thinned it with water so it’s not over the top sweet.
I’ve added mixed dried fruit instead of only cranberries and have rolled them in a bit of coconut to finish.
Nice recipe!
Thanks for sharing your tips with us Christine! We’re glad you enjoy these! :)
These are absolutely fantastic. However, I must mention, my Ninja Bullet did not appreciate it. It actually started smoking when I tried to blend the first part of the recipe, so I ended up having to transfer the date mixture before it was completely smooth. My recommendation: Blend the dates and seeds before adding the honey. I think the honey grinded my gears and it could hardly move, thus, blowing out the motor. Or you know, don’t use a Ninja Bullet. ;-)
I added a little dark chocolate instead of the white chocolate and it’s fantastic. The recipe is a big hit in my house right now. Thank you!
We’re so glad you enjoyed these! And as for your Ninja Bullet — yikes, that’s no good! We’re glad these still worked out for you, considering. :)
Silly question: Are we using dried dates or fresh?!
Hi Mel! We used dried. We hope you enjoy!
Hi Ali.
I just recently discovered your blog and I’m very thankful for the great work you do and share. I tried and love your original no bake bite recipe with the peanut butter and chocolate chips and the whole family loved the energy bites. My wife asked me if I could make them a little less sweet. I saw on your recipe page that you had a pistachios and cranberries recipe. I bought the ingredients but I wonder if the bites would taste better if I toasted the pistachio nuts first. I find them a little blahhh in their raw state. Would that ruin the recipe?
Thank you for your sweet words, Michael — we’re so happy you enjoyed the no bake energy bites! And yes, we think you could definitely toast the pistachios a little bit first — that won’t ruin the recipe at all! :)
Nutrition information?
Hi Tina! We’re sorry but we are unsure of the nutrition facts/amount of calories in this recipe. We currently are not publishing nutrition facts on the site, as the nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. However, a lot of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. We hope that helps!
This looks delicious, but I don’t like dates :( any ideas for a substitution? Thanks!
Thanks, Amanda — we hope you enjoy these! As for the dates, we haven’t tried a substitute with this recipe, but we think you could experiment with raisins, dried prunes, or dried figs. We think any one of those three (or even a combo) might work just fine. We hope this helps!
Can you use anything besides dates in this recipe? Not a big fan of them.
Hi Lisa! You could try raisins, figs, or prunes instead. We hope this helps!
Hi am on a kto diet how do v substitute th honey n th dates as v r not allowed both these
Hi there! Hmmm, we’re sorry, but we’re not familiar with that diet. Since we haven’t tried these without honey or dates, we’re really not sure.
This just burnt out the motor on my Cuisinart food processor that I’ve had for 19 years!!!
Maybe if I would have heated/melted the honey it would have helped, but I’m NOT happy!
Oh no! Sorry to hear about that, Angela. :(
I have made this recipe several times. These energy bites are delicious!!!
★★★★★
I didn’t think I cared for dates. This recipe has changed that for me. I love these scrumptious little bites!!!
★★★★★
Love these energy bites! Great flavor.
★★★★★
Awesome!
Looks gorgeous…well done
My grandkids like it! Got them hooked.
★★★★★
These do not work. They crumble apart when I try to ball them. No amount of re-cooling fixes this. Do you actually test the recipes? Adding more honey doesn’t help. There is too little moisture. Bad recipe, frustrating and annoying. Not even a good taste. Bah.
Sorry most chia recipes ask for the chia seeds to be soaked and I looked and looked and no mention of it. Even in the comments? Sorry. So did you soak the chia seeds?
The recipe was really easy to put together and it tasted very good, however we could not make them stay in a ball, was very disappointed, because I wanted to be able to just grab and go, not going to happen we ate with a spoon
★★★
I made the Cranberry Pistachio Energy bars and everyone loved them. This is the best recipe for
a great snack. Thanks
★★★★★
So read where a lot of people want to reduce the sugar or carb load from the honey & dates..
The only thing I came up with requires baking for 8-10 minutes on 350. Substitute 1 banana or 1/2 to 1 cup natural unsweetened apple sauce
– obviously not the same consistency but way less calories and sugar
My last suggestion is if you don’t mind added fat use a 1/2 c of a nut butter ( 1 cup oats, 1/2 c nut butter(almond,peanut,etc), 1/4 cup honey and this usually works in leu of the dates)
My little one is hooked on these but the daycare is nut-free. Have you done any successful substitutions for the pistachios?
Delicious!!!! The best snack ever!
★★★★★
These came out delicious.. I soaked my dates for a few minutes in couple tbl spoons of very hot water to soften up the dates as I thought that they would be too thick to process them and that worked out fine. Added a extra 1/4 cup of oats to soak up the juices dates. Used dried cherries as I did not have the cranberries
★★★★★
Really love how easy these are to make. Perfect for an afternoon pick me up at work. However, they are that little bit too sweet for me (I know, I know, is there even such a thing?! Hehe). I think it’s the combination of dates + honey. Next time, I am going to substitute the dates for peanut butter, and the honey for maple syrup (but reduce it to half). Otherwise, these are wonderful!
★★★★
I did 1/2 cup almonds and 1/2cup pistachios instead of all pistachios. I also did a few TBSP of coconut oil instead of the honey to limit sugar and they turned out great- sweet enough with dried fruit and chocolate chips. Thanks:)