Chocolate Quinoa Snack Bars
- Tracy Scheckel
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
These no-bake goodies were inspired by an 'in-flight complimentary snack' a couple of years ago. If I recall the options were 'chocolate crisps' or some kind of nuts that I am allergic to. Even if there wasn't an allergy involved, the flight attendant had me at chocolate.
In the packet were 2 little discs of chocolate that reminded me of the shape of a dark chocolate turtle, with the texture of the underside of a Nestle crunch bar. After one delicious bite I was reading the label to see what made the crunch because it clearly was not rice. Turns out it was puffed quinoa and that got me excited because it borders on healthy, and bonus, it's gluten free.
The first couple of rounds of my version were pretty basic, semisweet chocolate, puffed quinoa, and some coconut oil or shortening to provide for a softer texture when the chocolate came back to room temp after being melted.
You might be asking about where one gets, or how one makes, puffed quinoa; after a good bit of research, I decided that puffing my own quinoa was way more work than I was interested in, so it was off to a few local stores before I finally sourced it -- of course -- at Amazon. Aside from these treats and other variations, if you like its taste, puffed quinoa is great on salads, in yogurt, or on top of ice cream to provide a little crunch and a bit of a nutty earthy flavor. Plus its a great source of protein and fiber.
Anyway, over time I started playing with add-in ingredients. The bars were delicious by themselves, but think of things like raisins, craisins, shredded coconut etc. as you would the color commentary on a sport broadcast: you can manage without it, but it can certainly make things more interesting.
The version I'm sharing here has some marshmallow Fluff for texture, raisins craisins, shredded coconut, and some orange zest I had kicking around. I've used chopped candied ginger, pineapple and coconut together, you could include nuts of other dried fruits and berries. The only thing to keep in mind is the proportions of loose ingredients to the chocolate. I used some almond extract for an extra dimension in this recipe. One variation a while back had dehydrated strawberries, dried basil, and some balsamic vinegar. It was delicious to me, but might not be for the masses, so I'm sharing something less edgy. Don't hesitate to experiment on your own!
You Really do Learn Something Every Day!
When I made this batch -- purposely to use for a blog post, I had like 5 other things gong on in the kitchen and was concerned about multitasking and melting the chocolate to just the right temperature of 90 degrees or so. My fancy-dancy oven has some super low temperature settings for dehydrating and proofing, and that gave me the idea to slow melt the chocolate in the oven where I knew the temperature would not get too high. This learning experience was the highlight of my day and I'll probably never melt chocolate any other way.
Even if your oven doesn't have a super low temp setting, you can still preheat it to the lowest temperature it offers, turn it off, and then put the chocolate in to melt. I set my oven to about 100 degrees and turned it down to 90 when it was preheated.
Once the chocolate was melted with the coconut oil and the marshmallow was completely combined, I mixed in the add-ins and then the puffed quinoa. I made sure to use a pan that was large enough to hold all the ingredients because I didn't want to have to transfer the chocolate and have to deal with it cooling before I was ready for that. Even so, you need to work pretty fast to get everything blended before the chocolate gets too cool to work.
Once all the ingredients are in the pan and mostly mixed, you can work gently with your hands to finish the job. Once the mixture is completely combined, you can spread it in a pan to cut into squares or roll balls and flatten them into little cookies or even thin enough that you could call them wafers. I opted for the quick (lazy) method of bars..
I lined a 1/2 sheet pan with parchment and pressed the mixture out before employing some wax paper and a roller. After the chocolate was cool, I cut the bars.
THE RECIPE:
One 24 oz. bag of semi-sweet morsels (4 cups)
3-4 T coconut oil
1T Almond extract (or vanilla, or other complimentary flavor)
1C marshmallow Fluff
1-1/2 C total of whatever add-ins you like. I used 1/2 cup each of chopped raisins and craisins and shredded coconut
1-2 T orange zest (optional) I had it kicking around and thought it would add some additional dimension
4 C puffed quinoa
Heat the oven to the lowest temp you can. If that's more than 100 degrees, turn it off before you place the chocolate in to melt.
While the chocolate is melting, line a rimmed cookie sheet with parchment and coarsely chop any dried fruit add-ins
Spread chocolate chips evenly into your melting pan, add the coconut oil and almond extract
Set the pan in the oven and stir periodically until the mixture in melted and uniform in color and texture.
Stir in the marshmallow Fluff until combined well. (If the Fluff causes the chocolate to cool down too much, you can pop it back in the warm oven for a few.
Once the marshmallow is well mixed, add any dried fruit, coconut, zest, etc. and stir to combine.
Finally, add the quinoa a cup at a time and with a spatula or your hand fold the mixture until it's uniform in consistency.
With your hands, spread the chocolate quinoa mixture into the pan.
Place wax paper over the mixture and use a roller or rolling pin to even out the mixture in the pan.
Chill in a cool place or the fridge until firm.
Cut into squares and store in air-tight containers.
