Tips on Choosing the Best Texture Enhancing Protein Bar Ingredients

For many of our customers, creating a protein bar with the perfect texture is just as important as having great flavor. Since the texture of your bar depends on both the combination and ratio of the ingredients you choose, we thought it would be helpful to create a post that explains the role that each ingredient plays when it comes to the overall texture of your bar.

Protein Bar Base & Texture

Since a large percentage of your protein bar is comprised of the base ingredients, the base you choose plays a significant role in overall texture. Below is a list of the three base options and the texture of each.

Chery Chip protein bar

Soft & Datey – Soft and moist, but not chewy.

Sofy & Chewy – Soft, quite moist, chewy.

Soft & Nutty/Seedy – Very ‘nut/seed buttery’. Drier than the other two options, but still soft.

*Please refer to this post for more information about choosing a protein bar base.

Nut/Seed Butter & Texture

The nut/seed butter you choose won’t play a significant role in the overall texture of your bar. However, you may find that raw and roasted almond butter increase moisture levels in some bars since they are slightly oilier than some of the other options in this section.

Protein Powders/ Flours & Texture

You will definitely notice a texture difference when it comes to selecting a powder. Generally, the vegan powders (ie. rice, pea, coconut/buckwheat flour) will make the texture of most bars a little ‘grittier’. One solution to this is to choose ‘Soft & Datey’ as your bar texture, as this base option contains the smallest amount of powder of any of the bases.

Nuts & Seeds

With the exception of hemp seeds, chia seeds, and poppy seeds, any option you select in this section will add a little crunch, and fill out your bars making them fuller.

Dried Fruit

We offer 9 different varieties of dried fruit in our protein bars.

The following ingredients are freeze-dried:

  • Apple
  • Banana
  • Blueberries
  • Cranberries
  • Strawberries

Freeze-dried fruit is quite crunchy at first, but as it mixes with the moist ingredients of your bars they become soft.

The following options are not freeze-dried:

  • Raisins
  • Tart Cherries

Since these options are not freeze-dried they are soft and chewy.

Enhancers & Texture

To add some major crunch to your bars, the following ingredient options in this category are a great choice:

  • Brown rice crisps
  • Cacao nibs
  • Cocoa rice crisps
  • *Pea crisps

*Pea crisps are the best option if you like major crunch!

To increase moisture levels of your bar, consider adding:

  • Coconut mana
  • Coconut oil

Flavor Oils & Texture

Adding a flavor oil will not play a role in the texture of your bar.

Boosters & Texture

Other than flaxseed and chia powder which make the bar ‘grittier’ in texture, none of the other options will play change the texture of your bars.

Did we miss anything in this tutorial? Do you have any suggestions on what ingredients to choose to get the best bar texture? Please let us know by leaving a comment below!

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