These peanut butter chocolate puff bars are a enjoyable various to cereal bars or scotcheroos, and so dang crunchy and scrumptious! Made with a puffed quinoa and peanut butter base, and topped with creamy, wealthy chocolate and a splash of flakey sea salt. Slice into bars and preserve ’em in your freezer for a yummy deal with at a second’s discover.
These bars are an ideal various to scotcheroo bars! I’ve each honey peanut butter scotcheroos and protein scotcheroos (and even rice cake magic bars), however there’s one thing about puffed quinoa that takes these bars up a notch!
Peanut butter + chocolate = love: My favourite desserts on this earth use PB and chocolate. It’s simply such an unbeatable mixture.
Retailer ’em within the freezer: I really like making an enormous batch of those bars to maintain readily available in my freezer. They retailer extremely effectively, and preserve for as much as 3 months (however betting they received’t final that lengthy in your freezer 😋).
Substances You Want
- Creamy peanut butter: Use a drippy, all-natural peanut butter for these bars. Don’t have it? JIF or one other non-drippy model will work, you’ll simply must microwave the peanut butter a bit longer to heat it up sufficient to evenly cowl the quinoa puffs.
- Coconut oil: Coconut oil thins each the peanut butter and the chocolate out sufficient to assist type these bars. It additionally helps the chocolate from hardening an excessive amount of if you freeze the bars.
- Maple syrup: Maple provides wealthy, heat sweetness to those bars. Don’t like issues as candy? Be at liberty to scale back the maple in half.
- Puffed quinoa: Quinoa puffs are such a enjoyable ingredient to make use of for these bars! They’re excessive in fiber, and add superb crunchy and ethereal texture, too. In case you don’t have puffed quinoa readily available, or don’t need to purchase it, I like to recommend utilizing rice krispies or puffed wheat. Each would work nice as alternate options.
- Chocolate chips: You’ll soften chocolate chips for the topping for these bars. I want semi-sweet chocolate chips, however milk chocolate may also work effectively.
What Puffed Cereal Can I Use?
You possibly can actually use any puffed cereal you’d like! I’ve examined these with each rice krispies and store-bought puffed quinoa (as seen in these images!), and each are scrumptious. You might additionally use puffed wheat and even Kix (as requested by my toddler!).
What about do-it-yourself puffed quinoa? You possibly can undoubtedly make your personal puffed quinoa, however remember the store-bought quinoa is much like a rice krispie, and the do-it-yourself puffed quinoa is extra much like a crunch seed. The recipe will nonetheless work, however the bars will style extra seedy than crunchy and puffy.
To make do-it-yourself puffed quinoa: Preheat the oven to 450ºF and line a half sheet pan with parchment paper. Unfold the quinoa over the parchment paper. Bake for 20-Half-hour or till golden brown, tossing each 5-7 minutes till the moisture is launched from the quinoa and it turns into crunchy.
As soon as your puff bars have been sliced and the chocolate has hardened, switch into an hermetic container or gallon-size plastic bag and retailer within the fridge for as much as 7 days.
I truly want to retailer do-it-yourself puff bars within the freezer as a result of they last more, and you’ll seize one at a second’s discover. Switch sliced bars right into a freezer-safe gallon-size bag and freeze for as much as 3 months.
Extra Granola Bars
Line a regular loaf pan with parchment paper and put aside.
Add the peanut butter, 1.5 tablespoons of the coconut oil, and syrup to a microwave-safe bowl. Warmth the combination for 30 seconds and stir to mix. If the coconut is melted, take away it from the microwave. If not, microwave for a further 20 seconds.
Add the puffed quinoa to the peanut butter combination. Stir to mix. Pour the combination into the lined loaf pan. Unfold the combination evenly within the backside of the pan. Switch to the freezer.
Add chocolate chips and remaining coconut oil to a separate microwave-safe bowl, microwave on excessive for 20-second increments till melted and shiny.
Pour the chocolate over the peanut butter and quinoa combination. Unfold evenly and prime with flaked salt.
Return to the freezer to permit the bars to set for a minimum of 2 hours or in a single day.
Slice into 9 equal-sized bars earlier than serving.
- I used store-bought puffed quinoa, however you possibly can puff your personal as effectively. Take note the store-bought quinoa is extra much like a rice krispie, and the do-it-yourself puffed quinoa is extra much like a crunch seed. To make do-it-yourself puffed quinoa: Preheat the oven to 450ºF and line a half sheet pan with parchment paper. Unfold the quinoa over the parchment paper. Bake for 20-Half-hour or till golden brown, tossing each 5-7 minutes. How lengthy the quinoa takes to brown shall be decided by the temperature of the quinoa, if the quinoa is moist, and the oven used.
Energy: 289 kcal, Carbohydrates: 18 g, Protein: 7 g, Fats: 22 g, Fiber: 2 g, Sugar: 9 g
Diet data is routinely calculated, so ought to solely be used as an approximation.
