I’ve got something good for you guys this morning — another healthy on-the-go bar recipe!
I hadn’t done any baking in forever and yesterday was in the mood to come up with something creative. A short while later, these were born. 
I’m all out of whole wheat pastry flour (my favorite), so I decided to get creative and create a gluten-free/higher protein bar variety. These are made using quinoa and ::drumroll:: garbanzo bean flour! Yes, I’m serious. And they’re good, too! Just don’t taste the batter. Raw garbanzo bean flour = nasty tasting. Trust me.
Gluten-Free Dark Chocolate Quinoa Bars
Makes 10 bars
These bars are easy to make, high in protein, and perfect when you need a quick, healthy, on-the-go snack. Delicious, too! Slice and store wrapped individually in tin foil for easier grabbing and go-ing.
Ingredients:
Dry:
- 1 & 1/2 C cooked quinoa
- 1 C chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour
- 3/4 C brown sugar
- 1/4 C ground flaxseed
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Wet:
- 1 C skim/low fat milk (or non-dairy substitute)
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 C dark chocolate chips
Instructions:
Note: You’ll need to either have some leftover cooked quinoa on hand, or cook some up before you start this recipe. One cup cooked quinoa is equal to roughly 1/4 cup uncooked. Prepare with water according to the instructions on the box. Be sure to let the quinoa cool afterwards.
Preheat your oven to 350.
1) In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients. In a separate smaller bowl, mix wet ingredients, except for chocolate chips.
2) Add wet to dry, stirring gently until mixed. Add in chocolate chips and mix.
3) Poor batter into a baking pan — I used my 7×11 pan (about 2 inches deep), but you can use whatever size you have.
4) Pop it in the oven and bake about 28 minutes — fork check to make sure they are done.
ENJOY!
Whenever I make bars, I cut them up right away (well, after sampling them, obvi) and store them in the fridge wrapped in tin foil. Perfect for easy grabbing and going later when I’m inevitably running late.
Want more healthy on-the-go bar recipes? Check out my other favorites:
- 5-Minute No Bake Peanut Butter Granola Bars (vegan)
- Almond Butter Banana Breakfast Bars (vegan)
- Cranberry Quinoa Peanut Butter Power Bars
- Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Granola Bars
Happy Thursday!
Yumm! I absolutely love quinoa and the idea of baking it into a protein bar is beyond awesome! Plus, it is hard to go wrong with dark chocolate! Definitely bookmarked for future reference.
Those look awesome! I just wrote about cooking quinoa for the first time! I bought a 4 lb bag at Costco, so I definitely need fun recipes. This one looks incredible!
I want to make it this weekend!
I’m obsessed with this quinoa corn black bean salad
These sound absolutely delicious! I love preparing granola bars on the weekends so I am prepared for a busy week. I have some cooked quinoa already on hand so these will be added to my to-do list this weekend! You always come up with the most creative and healthy recipes! Thanks for keeping me fueled!
My pleasure
What a great recipe! I will need to make it soon.
These sound delicious! I love the thought of quinoa in a bar. Pinning these!!
These look good! I definitely want to try them. Can I sub regular whole wheat flour for the chickpea flour or does it need to be whole wheat pastry flour? I’m not sure of the difference. Thanks!
I would use whole wheat pastry flour if you sub out the chickpea flour. Pastry flour is a lot softer and less dense than regular WW flour, so it will create a nicer texture. I always use it for baking! You may need to bake for less time though – the chickpea flour took longer to cook than I think normal flour usually does. Just keep an eye on it.
Thank you!
What about oat flour? My sister is GF but doesn’t like garbanzo bean flour at all!
Yes, I bet that would work well too!
Thank you so much for posting the recipe! This is on my list for the weekend. I love how you come up with the concept and do all the testing – and I get to reap the rewards! Thanks for making my life so much easier!
Heh no prob! I made another recipe yesterday that was a total fail… so I was glad these came out well.
Oooh these look like a good one to try! I’ve never used garbanzo bean flour before, but have always been curious.
It’s so hard to find gluten-free granola bars, so these seem like a great substitute- especially to grab before the gym in the morning
Cool! I’ve always wanted to try chickpea flour
These look awesome! I’m a big fan of garbanzo bean flour in my baked goodies… I’ve made chocolate muffins with it hidden in. Great recipe!!
I love it when quinoa is added to a recipe!
And of course dark chocolate. These look super yummy!
Can’t wait to make these, I’m on a quinoa run at the moment! Getting my hands on garbanzo flour will prove more than a little difficult in Ireland…even getting spelt is hard enough, but I’m on the hunt!
Okay…these are being bookmarked! I love quinoa and garbanzo beans AND chocolate! I am doing a juice fast… so these are soooooooo tempting! Will have to remember to make them sometime down the road!!!
How long do you think these would stay good in the fridge for? Also, do you think they’re freezable?
Hmmm maybe about a week max in the fridge? And yes they are definitely freezable – I’d wrap them individually in tin foil and then put them all in a big ziplock.
These look so good, I’ll have to try them out! I also love that they are gluten free! I use garbanzo bean flour ALL the time (mostly because it’s the cheapest GF flour I’ve found!) and I love it because it’s pretty light!
This is only the second time I’ve used it but I’m a big fan as well!
These just came out of the oven & they are soooo good! That would be an understatement. I used a “Chia Egg” because I’m allergic to eggs and then I was out of dark chocolate so I used white and decreased the sugar a bit since they would be sweeter, but amazing recipe!
Yay I’m so happy you liked it!
You know Anne, these actually look very good. I will make them in my fANNEtastic test kitchen. hahaha
Heh – fANNEtastic test kitchen. Love it!
I’m so glad you posted this! I’ve had a bag of quinoa in my freezer for weeks that I’ve been wanting to use up and this was perfect. Mine didn’t set enough to make nice bars out of but I put some in an almost empty peanut butter jar last night and it was so delicious. I think I know what I’m eating for breakfast for the the week.
Since I teach in a public school where several students have nut allergies I can no longer bring in my favorite snacks of mixed nuts or peanut butter. These look like the perfect snack to have on hand in my office!
Mmm I love how dense these look–almost blondie-esque!
Just made a batch of these today- I subbed a mashed over ripe banana for the egg and added PB = awesome!
Thanks for the recipe! 
I just made these and they are GOOD! Thanks Anne!!
Glad you liked them!
These look awesome! What would you recommend if I don’t have any ground flaxseed? I’ve done some googling and see ground flaxseed can be subbed for a lot of things, so I’m not sure what equivalent I could/should use. Thanks!
You can probably just leave it out, or if you have chia seeds or dried coconut those would work too!
Great recipe! Thanks for sharing. I just made them with Whole Wheat Pastry flour. I added raisins, cranberries, and chia seeds. They are very tasty. Perfect for a breakfast on the go!
Loved this recipe! Made them and shared them with some non-GF cookie eaters and they liked ‘em enough to ask for more!
Hooray!
I’d like to make these with a sweetener other than cane sugar. Any suggestions?
I’m not sure… what kind did you have in mind? A liquid sweetener might not work here since it would make it too soupy…
I’m not sure either. Maybe date sugar?
I would just give it a try – experiment and see what works… and then let me know! Sorry I couldn’t help… I’d have to do some trial and error!
I’m allergic to cane sugar and I’m going to try using Palm sugar
Can’t wait to try them!
I am in the process of making these right now!
Do you think oat or quinoa flour would work in place of the chickpea flour? I don’t really care for the chickpea flour taste…
NM- should have read all the previous comments…saw your response about the oat flour.
I made these over the weekend and they were so tasty! I had to stick them in the freezer so I wouldn’t eat the entire batch. Thank you for introducing me to garbanzo bean flour. Although, I should have heeded your advice not to taste the batter – gross! Next time I will listen
Haha good call
Glad you liked them once they were cooked! 
I made these today with whole wheat flour and I also added fresh blackberries. They are crazy delicious!! Thanks
I’m glad you liked them!
Did you figure out the nutritional values?
No, I didn’t. If you calculate it, let me know and I’ll add it to the recipe page!
I love these and keep them in my freezer to grab and take to work. Finally went online and calculated the calories and fat….for 10 servings, it’s about 223 calories and 6.3 grams of fat for each.
Great, thanks for letting me know!
I just found your blog for the first time and less than a day later, tried this recipe…delicious!! I can’t eat wheat and these are perfect! I added some chia seeds too:)
Thanks for this recipe and I’m so excited to follow your blog!
Yay – so glad you liked it! Welcome to the blog!
Absolutely scrumptious and fun to make!
I doubled the recipe and it fit a 9×13 pan beautifully. I also had to double the cooking time and do a few blasts at 375 degrees to get the center to cook. A very resilient batter! I was afraid the edges would overlook, but everything evened out and was perfectly moist.
One surprise was how thin the batter is. It didn’t stick to bowl like cake batter; it was more the consistency of pancake batter. I was worried I had done something wrong! But after a few minutes in the oven, I could tell all was OK. Kind of like bread pudding.
Has anyone tried a vegan version? I subbed half the milk with soy milk. Next time, I will sub all of it and use one of the egg substitutes listed here:
http://chefinyou.com/egg-substitutes-cooking/
DH and I don’t eat many sweets, and we found that half a serving was quite satisfying. Thanks, Anne, for putting the occasional treat back in our lives!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Also, I’ve tried the “flax egg” before in vegan recipes and it’s worked great!
Hi Anne,
Has anyone put the calories together for this one yet?
If not I can do this one. I have all the ingredients from a previous time doing this recipe.
If I try any of the other ones, I’ll keep this in mind to post the calories etc for it when I do it.
P.S. My coworkers love this one as much as the Cranberry-Peanut Butter bars.
Not yet – that would be great, thank you!
These look soo good! I can’t wait to make them. I’m wondering if you could incorporate a Banana in there somewhere? I have a few bananas that are on their last leg and need to be used!