Blueberry Yogurt Balls - When Working Backwards Gets Overruled by Experimentation

I know I said in my previous post that I would attempt to reverse engineer a new Power Ball, but things didn't really turn out that way. Earlier today I went to a grocery store with a larger section of organic foods than I had been shopping at, and quickly got overwhelmed with so many potential new Power Ball flavors and ingredients.

So when I got home, what happened instead was a Power Ball creation with 15 ingredients (by far more than the other recipes so far) and without a real base (for example the previous two Power Ball recipes were mainly oat based). I put in ingredients like wheat bran, "Nutty Nuggets" wheat and barley cereal, granola, and honey-flavored Greek yogurt. I also incorporated a cooking element to the recipe where I cooked the blueberries in a little water and syrup to make them a little mushier and able to share their tastiness with the other ingredients. Here's the recipe!

Laura's Blueberry Yogurt Power Balls

Mix Dry Ingredients:

0.5 c Granola

0.75 c Dry Nonfat Milk

0.5 c Wheat Bran

0.5 c Whole Grain Brown Rice Flour

0.25 c Flaxseed Meal

1.5 c "Nutty Nuggets" wheat and barley cereal

3 scoops Vanilla Protein Powder

2 tsp Cinnamon

So many dry ingredients!

Cook raw 1 pint blueberries in a little water and syrup:

Cook on medium heat until blueberries are darker (around 5 minutes)

Mix Wet Ingredients:

6oz Greek yogurt, I used honey flavored, but you can vary it

0.5 c Grapefruit Juice

0.5 c Syrup

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 tsp Almond Extract

Combine with Dry Ingredients.

Add Blueberries.

Still hot - see the steam?

Mix together.

Note: This was before I added another 0.5 c of "Nutty Nuggets" to help soak up some liquid. Might not be necessary if using dried blueberries.

Drop into balls on greased cookie sheets.

Cook at 325°F for around 10 minutes.

The first time I made these, I tried to use my handy mini-muffin tin thing, but they stuck like crazy even after spraying the tins. So I switched to cookie sheets - less ball-like, but at least they held together.

Aftermath of Mini-muffin Tin:

And Power Balls:

Compared to cookie sheet Power Balls:

(I realize these really don't look like balls, but they are.)

Makes approximately 48 balls.

Nutritional Facts Per Ball: (Recommended 3 per serving)

52.51 Calories 

6.18 Calories from Fat

3.09g Protein

0.67g Total Fat

0.12g Saturated Fat

8.80g Carbs

4.59mg Cholesterol

Unfortunately, with my original recipe making inexperience, I ended up only creating 48 Power Balls the first time around, and so, after cleaning everything up, unpacked again and made another batch. Fortunately I had enough ingredients to recreate it, but it was interesting to note the differences between batches, including:

- Differences in color. I think this is due to having to use dried blueberries as opposed to fresh (I had only bought 1 pint) and not cooking these dried blueberries to create a syrupy liquid that would turn the rest of the ingredients blue.

- Differences in texture. I noticed that when I mixed the dry ingredients and wet ingredients the first time around - at first it was rather runny, but a few minutes later, the "Nutty Nuggets" appeared to have soaked up the liquid. The second time around - since I was trying to conserve bowls and was getting a little tired just mixed everything together in one bowl - giving the "Nutty Nuggets" less time to absorb outside of the oven, generating an unfortunately overall drier Power Ball.

Overall Comparison Between Batches:

Top = First Batch

Bottom = Second Batch

I should also note that I didn't completely ignore the working backwards approach I originally had in mind. I was aiming for a higher protein and lower saturated fat and cholesterol amount, which almost was achieved. The Blueberry Yogurt Power Ball has 9.3g of protein in each serving, 26.4g of Carbs, and 13.8mg of Cholesterol. Unfortunately, there's not much else I can do to lower the amount of cholesterol since that comes from the protein powder (total 210mg in batch)and dry nonfat milk (total 15mg in batch). I noticed that these Power Balls have a lower Carb amount too, which could be attributed to not having a true base - like the oat base of the previous Power Balls. I added an extra scoop of vanilla protein powder, which combined with the Greek yogurt, I think helped really increase the protein content. The overall saturated fat got a lot lowered too, which was more exciting.

I hope my customers (I've got 22 now!!) like them. If not, I'm thinking lemon poppy seed on Wednesday.