Got my first batch of savory protein bars in the oven!

[supernova]

The grand experiment begins! :bounce: Thanks for all your suggestions, they were a big help.


I have no idea how they will turn out. :shrug:

It tastes pretty good, but I've already figured out something: I'm not sure I like using garbanzo bean flour at a 1:1 ratio with other flours. I'll wait and see how it cooks up.

[The empressof all]

1. I'm so excited!!!!

BTW...I made a batch of those black bean brownies....I used Splenda. They may have been edible if I made them with sugar ..I don't know. The texture was good but they lacked a real depth of flavor even though I used Hershey's Dark Cocoa. Maybe if I used Butter instead of Oil....Maybe if I used flour instead of Beans.

[supernova]

2. lol, I seem to remember

one of those stories about a mom with lots of kids making brownies with pureed beans. Her goal was to sneak veggies in their diet. ;-)

[hippywife]

3. I'll be interested

in how these turn out. Might be just the thing for our lunches once in awhile. Why the problem with the garbanzo flour? I've never used it before so I'm curious.

[supernova]

5. It's the strong "raw bean" taste

It does overpower the hazelnut. It's not bad, but I'm looking for something more "meaty" tasting for lack of a better word.

[htuttle]

10. If you want to make a 'beany' taste more savory, try adding a little fenugreek

Works for Indian food. Onion of some kind would help, too.

[supernova]

11. Thanks for the tip!

You know, I've always wondered what fenugreek was for. :-)

[supernova]

4. They came out and taste pretty good

I used a 2:1 ratio of Hazelnut flour to garbanzo bean flour. So it was 1 C HF and .5 C GB F

I flavored them with dried basil, onion powder, and sundried tomato pesto ( what I have on hand). I used an egg and lemon juice as a binder. This dough looks a lot like cookie dough in consistency. I spread it a baking tray and scored it before baking. I baked it at 10 mins at 350 and another 10 mins at 200.

It tastes a lot like S-D Tomato falafel. :rofl: and they are semi-soft, like a quasi-soft-baked cookie. Definitely not biscotti texture, but ok for a first effort.

The only thing is I've got to bump up the protein content, right now it's only 6 grams a bar. It needs to be about 20 to be a mini meal replacement. But I did not add any pure protein to it this time. In the next batch I want to play with adding maybe egg whites. Whey I can use, but do they make unflavored whey protein?

There are 190 calories roughly in these bars. And best of all, they are definitely not sweet!

[hippywife]

6. I've never made biscotti

(why I don't know!) but isn't it the slicing apart and a second baking that makes them crisp? Is that what you want them to be like?

[supernova]

7. Yes, the 2nd baking

is where you cut the biscotti log into individual cookies then into the oven to finish baking, crisping up.

I'm not sure yet what kind of texture I'm for. Biscotti sounds nice, but it might be too much work for this.

[grasswire]

8. I have unflavored whey protein

Bob's Red Mill is one brand.

[supernova]

9. Oh great, I'll have to look for it

I like their other flours.

[Warpy]

12. They make unflavored whey protein

but it's really hard to find. egg whites will alter the texture, but that might be a good thing since enough of them will make the bars more on the crunchy side, just be careful of the toothbreaker side. You can find powdered egg white in most health food stores and some grocery stores.

If you want to go more toward the falafel flavor, add a little ground cumin next time.

Both hazelnut and garbanzo flours are high in fat. You can also get a defatted soy flour in some health food stores and use that in place of some of the hazelnut flour, but you'll have to boost the savory components as it does tend to have a beany flavor.

In any case, I fully expect to see Supernova Savory Protein Bars out there one of these days.