Different color of sawdust bars

[cjsmith]

New batch yesterday:
- Added 2 tablespoons of melted butter
- Increased from 3 eggs to 4
- Substituted approximately "a scoop" of unsweetened cocoa powder for one of the scoops of protein powder
- Added a couple vigorous shakes of the cinnamon shaker

They are darker. They are harder to get out of the pan. They are otherwise basically identical.

Now it's war.

Comments

Please remind me

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

The contents of the bars, and the major limitations on what you can eat. I'll see if I can think of a way to make the sawdust tastier.

Re: Please remind me

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Content of bars. No starches including grains, no sugars including fruit (and I dislike most artificial sweeteners, so skip those too).

I'm guessing even less protein powder, more cocoa, and some vanilla would be a good start. Dark chocolate chips if I've got any unsweetened ones, perhaps. Or I could start going down the "spice cookie" path.

Re: Please remind me

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Okay--first off, if you can use a bit of shortening as part of your fat, it will make it chewier rather than crisp. That approach might help some.
OR
Are you using the protein because you need the protein (seems odd, with all the nuts), or because it's necessary for the texture? I think I'd go with more cocoa, maybe add a bit of powdered chipotle for contrast/kick, and perhaps instead of whole eggs, try whipping up some egg white and use that to bind the ingredients--kind of like a macaroon. Heck, for that matter can you eat coconut (do you like coconut)? Maybe mix in some unsweetened coconut along with the nuts. Lots of different ways you could play with it.

I'll give it some more thought.

Re: Please remind me

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

They're already quite chewy actually. Well, sorta soft and crumbly? No, not soft exactly -- it takes some force to bite into them but they give rather than splitting. Hard to describe. But the taste! Yikes. I'm using the protein because the original recipe had a big buttload of it, and I don't know yet what would happen if I took most of it out. I'm not used to baking without grains; I'm in new territory here. But the whole thing takes maybe 20 minutes, so I can experiment a bunch.

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

Wow, that recipe's like vegan pemmican.

Come to think of it, beef jerky's nice.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

*grin* It would be really funny to turn this into pemmican. It would have to taste better. :-)

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

i think maybe you need more fat -- maybe shortening? that's the fat of choice for softer cookies (butter makes for crisp cookies, unless you burn them, at which point you're screwed no matter what). what about peanut butter? where does stevia fall on your nasty-artificial-sweetener scale?

for flavor, it sounds like you're on the right path. cocoa, vanilla, dark chocolate chips, cinnamon ... sounds wonderful!

also, what is the measure of your scoop? 1/4 cup? 1/3 cup?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes, I definitely need to increase the fat. I thought a couple tablespoons would do it and I was way off. Need much more.

Peanut butter, if unsweetened, is good. I'll skip stevia.

I haven't the FOGGIEST what the measure of that scoop is. It's a bit less than 1/4 cup -- maybe 1/6 ? Before I experiment further I'm probably just going to go ahead and measure it.

[dizzdvl.livejournal.com]

Smash em up and call them granola or puppy show or something like that!:)

[eichin.livejournal.com]

> darker

so, oak sawdust, instead of pine? :-)

I agree that the protein powder is probably a primary source of unfortunate results; likewise if you're using more cocoa powder, using more fats too (chocolate chips count) should help. I'd probably whip one or two of the egg whites (or even one whole egg) just to see what it does (do most of the mashing first, maybe, then mix it in right before baking?)

If you're adding cinnamon, try some vietnamese cinnamon, it's distinctly different (a little more bite, maybe?) For that matter, through some pepper in...