Add your peanuts, dates and salt to your food processor and mix on high speed until crumbly. You don't want to take it to a powder as you will need some texture in there unless you want them to be mushy. Very small pieces of peanut are good.
Add your peanut butter and vanilla (or other flavourings) and combine again until your mix starts to form hard ball.
Transfer mix into a mixing bowl.
On a separate side plate, or small bowl, sprinkle a tablespoon of pure cacao powder. Shake the bowl to get the powder spread flat over the bowls surface. You can add more cacao powder later if you need to. If you don't want to use (or don't like cacao), then any fine powder will work. You can potentailly use carob, lacuma, baobab, or even grind down desiccated coconut to a finer mill.
You will also need a large dinner plate to temporarily place your protein balls whilst in the rolling process.
Now, split into equal parts. I like to make 12 larger balls as they are more of a substantial snack. For bite-size balls you will yield about 24 from this mix.
Roll your mixture between the palm of your hands to form a ball. The mix shouldn't be too sticky or stick to your hands due to the fact you have no syrups in there. Put your rolled protein ball onto the dinner plate ready to be dusted.
Roll all protein balls out before dusting in your cacao powder. If you try to mould your ball and then roll it straight into your cacao then your hands will get covered in chocolate powder. This will then get smooshed into your subsequent protein boll as you roll it. This will dry it out too much, so do this afterwards.
Once you have all your balls moulded and ready to go you are now ready to dust them in cacao powder. Dip the ball into the cacao, then roll around until completely coated.
Set aside into a air-tight container.
Repeat the process until you have all your protein balls dusted.
Refrigerate and eat. Keep in the refrigerator to store for up to 10 days.
