Katie Couric's 5-Ingredient No-Bake Peanut Butter Balls Are The Reese's Dupe You've Been Craving

Reese's may have one of the best combinations of peanut butter and chocolate available, but they aren't the most healthy. Katie Couric knows that, and in an Instagram Reel with Kelly Rizzo, she demonstrates how to enjoy the power duo without so much sugar or fat. Couric makes peanut butter balls coated in chocolate that don't go in the oven, so you can have them ready in no time.

Like Couric's three-ingredient peanut butter sandwich, the hostess showed off a delicious snack that takes minimal effort. Rather than using regular peanut butter, she adds 1 cup of peanut butter powder for a lower-fat alternative. To bind it, the secret is ½ cup of applesauce, but don't worry about the end product tasting too much like apples. 

Couric and Rizzo simply melted ½ teaspoon of coconut oil and some chocolate chips, leaving the quantity up to the viewer. They rolled out tablespoon-sized balls of the peanut butter and applesauce mixture, coated them in the melted chocolate, and then dropped them on a baking sheet. You can also sprinkle them with a pinch of sea salt to bring out the best flavor from the chocolate. After freezing them for about 20 minutes to harden the coating, you'll have one of the easiest, healthiest dupes for Reese's you can make.

The fact that Katie Couric and Kelly Rizzo made a great substitute for Reese's with little effort shows that you can customize these to your liking. One of the easiest things to change is the type of applesauce you use. While it will increase the sugar in the recipe, using sweetened applesauce instead of unsweetened, similar to how Reese's cups have added sugar in their peanut butter, can boost the taste of the filling.

Speaking of peanut butter, you can also make this recipe with regular peanut butter instead of the powdered kind, but know that this will increase the fat because the oils haven't been removed. In this case, you won't need any applesauce because it's no longer the key to binding the filling together. Still, you can use flour to help thicken it if your filling won't stay together when you try to form it into balls.

You can also select the type of chocolate you want. Using coconut oil is key to getting that coating without the need to temper the chocolate because it helps thin it out, making it easier for dipping. The chocolate, on the other hand, gives you some room to experiment. If you want something healthier than milk chocolate, opt for dark chocolate chips, but don't skimp on the sea salt. And white chocolate will provide another, sweeter flavor.