Dark Chocolate with Puffed Rice and Coconut Sugar

Today, I’d like to share a quick and easy recipe perfect for those busy days when you crave something sweet, but you’re short on time. Puffed rice chocolate crunch bars are a delicious dessert that comes together in no time.

To make this chocolate with puffed rice (or chocolate turrón as my friend calls it) you will only need three ingredients, one bowl, five to ten minutes, and some patience to let it cool down completely before you can enjoy it.

This kind of sweet snack has a special place in my heart, and I am sure that many people who grew up in Croatia in the 90s or before can relate. The puffed rice chocolate bars used to be popular here, ever since they were first produced in the 60’s by one of the most famous Croatian chocolate factories. It used to be one of the staple sweets in the times when all those imported goodies were not that easily available in the Balkans.

I remember loving the puffed rice chocolate as a kid, so I was excited to create a recipe for a healthier version that I can enjoy today, when I am much more careful with what I put in my body.

Ingredients for the puffed rice chocolate crunch bars

These delicious puffed rice chocolate crunch bars are made from only three natural ingredients, which makes them a healthier choice than store-bought ones. To make this tasty sweet, you will need:

• Cacao paste
• Puffed rice
• Coconut blossom sugar

I decided to use only these few natural ingredients and keep this recipe as simple and healthy as possible. I used homemade cacao paste, coconut sugar and puffed whole-grain rice. If you are avoiding sugar, you can substitute it with xylitol or powdered stevia leaves.

Cacao paste or cacao liquor is a mass that you get after blending cacao beans – so, it is 100% pure chocolate. If you want to find out how to make cacao paste from cacao beans at home, you can read this post about homemade chocolate from cacao beans where I explain the whole process.

How to make puffed rice chocolate crunch bars

Making the puffed rice chocolate bars is fairly simple: just melt the cacao paste over a double boiler, add the powdered coconut sugar, whisk well to combine and add the rice. Mix with a spatula, transfer into a mould and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours to cool down.

Although the temptation might be big, it is worth waiting for the chocolate to harden and get nice and crunchy. To make the process much shorter, you can put it in the freezer instead of the fridge.

Storing the chocolate crunch bars

Once the chocolate has cooled down completely, it can be sliced into chunks or bars and kept at room temperature – in a closed glass jar or box. It will stay crunchy and keep the good old “snap when broken” even though it was not tempered.

Equipment for making chocolate crunch bars with puffed rice

To make these puffed rice chocolate bars, you will need the following kitchen equipment:

• Coffee and spice grinder or a blender for grinding the coconut sugar into a fine powder
• Cooking pot – for making a double boiler
• Mixing bowl that is slightly wider than your pot, so it can sit on top of it and not touch the bottom – for heating the cacao paste with the boiling water steam from the pot
• Silicone spatula – perfect for mixing and transferring the melted chocolate and puffed rice mass
• Rectangular silicone cake/bread mould or a small baking tray for cooling the crunch bars
• Baking paper (if you use a tray, not silicone mould) – it will be easier to remove the bars from the mould if you line it with baking paper.

Yield: 260 g (9.2 oz) - 10 servings

Dark Chocolate with Puffed Rice (Vegan, Refined Sugar Free)

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Quick and easy recipe for dark chocolate crunch bars with puffed rice - made with cacao paste and coconut blossom sugar. These bars are delicious, naturally vegan, gluten-free and healthier than the store-bought ones.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Additional Time 2 hours

Total Time 2 hours 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 150 g (5.3 oz) cacao paste
• 40 g (1.4 oz) puffed whole grain rice
• 70 g (2.5 oz) coconut blossom sugar

Instructions

1. Melt the cacao paste over a double boiler (simply put a bowl with cacao paste over a pot with boiling water and let the steam heat the bowl over the lowest heat). You can keep the bowl with cacao paste on the heat until all the ingredients mixed together.
2. Grind the coconut sugar into a fine powder. You can do this in a blender, food processor, or in a coffee grinder.
3. Add the powdered coconut sugar into the bowl with melted cacao paste and whisk well to combine.
4. Add the rice into the mixture and use a silicone spatula to combine it with the chocolate. Make sure all the rice is nicely covered with chocolate.
5. Transfer the chocolate into a mould or any wide dish, press gently with the spatula to straighten the surface, and put in the fridge.
6. Keep it in the fridge for a couple of hours, until the chocolate hardens completely. After it has cooled down, it can be sliced into chunks and kept at the room temperature.

Notes

* You can make your own cacao paste at home from cacao beans. I described how to do it in this recipe for homemade chocolate from cacao beans.

* I like to use whole-grain rice for this recipe, but any kind of puffed rice will do. Just make sure to get the rice that was not sweetened (or if it is sweetened with a non-refined sweetener, just keep in mind that you might want to reduce the amount of coconut sugar in the recipe to avoid making it too sweet; you can give it a taste and see your preference!).

* If you are avoiding any kind of sugar, you can make this chocolate completely sugar-free, or substitute the coconut sugar with xylitol.