Copycat Chocolate Brownie Quest Bars

Have we met yet? I’m pretty frugal if you haven’t noticed and I’ll pretty much do anything to save a dollar here and there. Combine that with my love of food and all things in the kitchen, and you can see how I’ve managed to come up with copycat recipes for Lenny & Larry complete cookies and Kodiak Cakes power cakes mix.

In fact, my Lenny & Larry chocolate chip cookie recipe is my most pinned and most saved recipe on Pinterest. It was only a matter of time before I tried to figure something out with Quest Bars. I’ll admit I really love most of their flavors but I haven’t bought them in forever. They were a big hit for me during prep for my last competition, and I even used them as the base for brownie bottom cupcakes.

I’m still playing with different flavor combinations and trying different protein powders, but I wanted to share the very first copycat Quest Bar prototype with you. Of course it’s the chocolate brownie flavor and I hope to work on a cinnamon roll one next. One thing that I purchased to make them as close to the real thing as possible was Vitafiber powder.

What the what?! I know. It’s got a really complicated scientific name that I’ll spare you but the abbreviation is IMO. It’s basically a pre-biotic fiber and it’s what adds the hella-fiber to the bars and gives them their texture. You can also get a syrup form but I opted for powder since you can also use that in baking. The bag of fiber isn’t that expensive and you can make lots of bars out of it.

Copycat Chocolate Brownie Quest Bars 

• 1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp (100g) Vitafiber powder
• 1/2 cup (30g) water
• 3 scoops (90g) chocolate protein powder
• 1/4 cup (30g) ground almonds
• 1 Tbsp (5g) unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp (15g) mini chocolate chips

Mix the Vitafiber powder and water in a small pot and heat over medium heat. Bring to just a boil and remove from heat once it becomes slightly clear. You don’t want to boil it too long or your bars will end up a little soft without refrigeration. They’ll still taste fine though so don’t panic over it.

Cool the syrup mixture for about 2 minutes and mix in the protein powder, ground almonds, and cocoa powder. Knead with your hands to blend the ingredients well. Once the mixture is well blended, form into 4 bars. Press the chips into the top of each bar.

Refrigerate or let cool at room temperature. Heat slightly in the microwave before eating, if desired.

Makes 4 bars at approximately 264.5 calories each – 20.4g protein, 31.1g carbs, and 6.5g fats with 25g fiber. The brand name bars remove half of the fiber calories from their labels so if you do the same here, it comes to 214.5 calories per bar.

Notes

• I skipped the stovetop method after the first batch and used the microwave. I heated the powder and water at 50% powder for 60 second intervals until it boiled. Easy and done.
• If you are using the Vitafiber syrup, then start with approximately 1/2 cup of syrup for 4 bars in place of the powder and water. Heat the syrup as in the first step to just boiling and then mix with the protein powder and other ingredients. You may need to adjust the amount of protein powder to get the consistency right.
• I used a pea and rice protein blend so that my bars are diary free. You can also use a whey based blend according to what I’ve read and that works well. I haven’t tried it personally so if you do use a dairy based protein, please let us know how they turn out.
• Most recipes that I played with had ground almonds as the base for the bars, but a few used almond butter or peanut butter instead. The flavor and texture is similar so either variation should work. I had ground almonds on hand already so I opted to use that. In my next batch, I plan to use peanut butter as a test.

The bars will turn out with a similar sweetness to the protein powder you’re using so keep that in mind. If you prefer a sweeter bar, then you can add a little sugar or sweetener to them when mixing.

So there you have the next copycat venture in my recipe file. I’m trying a few other flavors to see how those turn out so I’ll keep you posted with new variations as they happen. I promise that I won’t be trying the lemon flavor. Am I the only one that can’t stand that one? Gah!