Not So Thin Mint Cake Balls

It is Girl Scout Cookie time. Although I have never understood all the fuss, it is pretty hard to miss. I have good excuses, letting sugar be the villain not my inner cheapskate. Now honestly, I do give, especially to kids--just other places. I understand overpriced fundraisers, but no one ever got that excited about our Boy Scout popcorn sales and I am jealous. Besides, I was a Campfire girl in my youth, not a Girl Scout. But of those cookies I have tasted, Thin Mints are my fav. Chocolate mint somehow reminds me of Christmas, though I don't know why. It certainly isn't necessary. Maybe it is the snow and ice still parked outside my door this March.

These cake balls are so delicious. They may not be the most beautiful to look at, but then neither is the Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie. These have a wonderful flavor. I cannot taste the coconut at all. It is all about the mint. If you don't like chocolate mint as much as I do, cut the flavoring back to 1/2 tsp.

Not So Thin Mint Cake Balls

Cake:
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup Swerve or any sweetener equal to 1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/4 cup mild flavored oil, melted butter or melted coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp peppermint extract
up to 1/2 cup water or almond milk

Glaze:
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp powdered erythritol blend1/4 tsp peppermint extract
1 tbsp granular erythritol or sucralose for garnish

In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Then stir in the eggs, oil and flavoring. If using coconut oil, you may need to briefly heat the batter to remelt the coconut oil, as it will solidify if the eggs are cold. Add water or almond milk to make the batter comparable to a brownie batter.. Fill the wells of the cake ball appliance with rounded spoonfuls of batter. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove and let cool. Repeat until all the batter is used. My machine makes 15 cake balls. Alternately, fill mini muffin cups 3/4 full of batter and bake at 325 for 15 minutes.

In a very small cup, melt coconut oil. Stir in the cocoa powder, sweetener and peppermint flavoring. Drizzle over the cake balls. Sprinkle with granular sweetener. Of the ones I tested, granular sucralose looked best.

(Per ball) with erythritol: 74 calories each      1 net carb each   7 g fat    2 g  protein

In this batch, I did not use Swerve, but the Natural Mates Sucralose and Erythritol blend. It is twice the sweetening power of Swerve or Z-Sweet. Any of these products will work well, just watch to get the conversions correct. I use many different sweeteners, and while it does get confusing, they all behave a little differently and they all have their place in my recipes. My best advice is to find one you like best, and create your recipes--or mine--around it. So grab your sweetener of choice and try these Not So Thin Mint Cakeballs. They may be plumper than the original, but they will make you the thinner one!

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