This recipe is a perfect example of fusion cooking as we incorporate chocolate into traditional Indian puffed rice balls. The puffed rice balls or kurmure laddu is a simple snack with a few ingredients. Growing up, it was Sujata’s favorite after-school snack.
One afternoon we were craving something sweet. We had puffed rice and jaggery in the pantry, easy ingredients to whip up a quick snack. It was Natasha’s idea to turn these balls into a flat sheet to make bars in this recipe. The perfectly crunchy puffed rice, lightly sweetened with jaggery and topped with dark chocolate, makes a perfect combination—salty, roasted pistachios crown this snack as a perfect blend of east and west. Though we call it a snack, it is a great dessert to serve after a meal.
Though we used puffed rice from the Indian grocery store, rice crispy cereal can be substituted for the recipe.
The key to this recipe is to make the jaggery syrup. Once you know how to make the jaggery syrup, these bars are easy to make. Please follow the detailed steps for making the syrup. You have to flatten the puffed rice-jaggery mixture when it is hot as the mixture hardens quickly.
If you make this No-Bake Chocolate Puffed Rice Bars, drop a comment and/or give it a rating! We’d love to hear how it turns out. Also, if you make this recipe, make sure to tag us on Instagram!
No-Bake Chocolate Puffed Rice Bars
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp ghee or butter divided
- 200 g jaggery grated
- 3 cups kurmure/puffed rice (can substitute rice crispy cereal)
- ½ tsp salt
- 6 oz dark chocolate broken into pieces
- pinch of sugar
- ¼ cup shelled, roasted, and salted pistachios crushed
Instructions
- Grease an 8-by-8-inch baking dish with butter. Set aside.
- In a heavy-bottomed pan, melt 1 tbsp of ghee or butter on low heat. Then add the grated jaggery and melt it slowly. Keep stirring constantly. You have to make hard or "pukka" syrup. We call it a hard syrup because as the syrup cools down, it hardens and makes the bars crunchy. After a few minutes of simmering, test the syrup for readiness by dipping a metal spatula in the jaggery and holding it above the mixture. As the melted jaggery drips from the spatula, look carefully at the dripping liquid. If the syrup is ready, you will see tiny strings stemming from the dripping liquid at a 90-degree angle. It takes only 5-7 minutes to make this syrup but make sure you don't burn the jaggery, otherwise, your bars will be dark. The perfect crunch of the bars is the indicator of perfectly made syrup. Hard, teeth breaking bars are the indicator of an overcooked syrup and chewy bars are the indicator of an undercooked syrup.
- Once the syrup is ready, add the puffed rice and salt, reduce the heat, and keep stirring until all the puffed rice is coated with the syrup.
- Pour the hot mixture into the buttered pan and quickly flatten it with a spatula or the bottom of a glass until it evenly reaches all the edges of the pan. Let it cool completely.
- Melt the dark chocolate pieces with the remaining 1 tbsp of ghee or butter in a microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring after each 30 seconds. If you want, you can add a pinch of sugar to the chocolate to sweeten it up slightly.
- Pour the melted chocolate evenly on the flattened puffed rice. Sprinkle with the crushed pistachios. Let the chocolate harden and set for about 3-4 hours and then cut into about 16 pieces with a sharp knife.
- Store these bars at room temperature in an air-tight container. These delicious bars should stay fresh for up to one week.
