Quinoa Brittle

After breaking the crisp edges off the brittle, the rest was soft – so soft that it was a mess when I transferred it to a glass jar. It didn’t hold a shape at all. I can’t figure it out – twice that’s happened.

Can’t wait to try this! Can I use some other type of oil besides coconut?

This is incredible. I have made batches for a road trip snack, a toddler dessert, a work potluck, and a holiday gift. I am so grateful for your recipes! Thanks!

I make this all the time but I take it one step further and drizzle it with some homemade chocolate. I make it with cacao, honey ,coconut oil, vanilla and a pinch of sea salt!

Success! My co-workers loved it and asked for more :)
Thank you!

This recipe is amazing it was so yummy! At first I was worried that the mixture was too watery and runny but it came out of the oven and solidified very well. I am making this again asap! lol Thank you so much for this recipe. Very simple and fool proof!

Hi Dana!!
I made a batch of these last week, and they were SO GOOD, I’m going to make a new batch today!!
I did end up swapping some stuff. We were out of coconut sugar so I used brown sugar, and I added a sprinkle of cacao nibs, unsweetened coconut flakes, and some sunflower seeds (which I’m going to leave out this time) because I was in the mood. I did find that the inner part wasn’t brittle-like, more chewy- but I’m pretty sure that’s because I didn’t bake it for long enough (a total of 20 minutes). Anyways, I just wanted to say thanks for this awesome recipe! I’ve given it to family members who wouldn’t touch quinoa or anything remotely healthy looking and they loved it! You rock dana!

To make these nut-free, could the pecans simply be omitted?

I have made this twice now. The first time it came out more like granola than a brittle, very separate pieces. Today it came out soft and pliable. Delicious, but soft. By the way, I added pistachios and hemp hearts, and used slivered almonds instead of pecans. Do you think if I cut down a little on the maple syrup it would make it harder?

I love this brittle !! It’s so easy and tastes fantastic !!! This be a staple in our home like the 5 ingredient granola bars are. Thank you

Excellent recipe, Dana—thank you! With a well-stocked pantry, this can be made with items on-hand, as I did last night to make a crunchy topping for this morning’s bowl of oatmeal. I quartered the whole recipe, baked, and then put the hot baking tray in the fridge to cool all night. It came together quickly, and came out wonderfully.

One possible improvement: I tasted sweetness only, even though I added the pinch of salt (about 1/16 teaspoon for 1/4 of the recipe) suggested as optional. When making again (as I’m sure I will!), I might scale up the salt or cut the sugar mixed into the dry ingredients.

LOVE this.. I’ve been looking for new snack ideas and this was perfect and something new to have! Even my 2 year old likes it :)

I finally got around to making this today. Boy is it yummy. I was a little leery about using the quinoa without rinsing it first but it turned out beautifully and not bitter / soapy taste from the quinoa. Took some to work and all of my coworkers loved it, too.

Are you sprouting the quinoa first?

Second attempt was great!! I used wax paper last time and this time parchment paper. I guess that was it. Tastes delicious !! Love all your recipes !!!

My husband and I love this! I made a bark by melting 60% cacao chips and 100% cacao chocolate and spread it out when brittle is just out of the oven. I also add pumpkin seeds 1\4 cup to my brittle. YUM!!

looks amazing and so easy, will absolutely try to do it :-)! Thanks a lot for all your amazing inspiration and creations!

I am impatiently waiting for my two batches to finish baking! I knew this was a winner after I licked the bowl! I omitted the nuts (allergies) and coconut, swapped in some Super Grains Mix (white and red quinoa, millet and buckwheat), kept the chia seeds (love them!), replaced the oats with one bag of instant maple sugar oatmeal, halved the maple syrup, used brown sugar and canola oil instead. Then I added another batch to the tray (it looked so good!) and used a tablespoon to gently pat everything flat. I flipped mine at 9 minutes and took it out after another 5 minutes.

Hi. Mine got stuck to the parchment paper. Could not peel it off or eat it. What did I do wrong ???

Hi! Can’t wait to make this tonight! Did you roast the pecans?

I made this yesterday and it was delicious and addicting! I didn’t have any coconut sugar, so I just omitted it.

2ND times a charm….5 stars!

THANK YOU so much for this recipe! I just finished baking my first “batch” of this, and its absolutely perfect!! HAPPY DANCE! I tried to rate this 5 stars, but for some odd reason it will only select 4 Actually, this is a TEN STAR recipe!

Delicious and super easy!

Made this brittle tonight and it was amazing. Love the taste and texture! This recipe is really easy to whip up and is a definite keeper for sure!

I bookmarked this recipe a few days ago. We are housebound due to the DC blizzard, so I just made my first batch. I have a specific, lifelong dislike of all things coconut, so I substituted raw, unrefined cocoa butter in its place. I added 1/4 tsp ancho chile powder and a heaping 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Otherwise, no changes.

I gotta tell you, this recipe is fantastic. The brittle is crispy, crunchy, sweet but not sticky-sweet, and filling thanks to all the nuts, seeds, and oats. I’ve just sent around the link to all my friends urging them to hoof it to their kitchens and get to work!

Thanks for great snack; I look forward to trying your other recipes.

I had everything on hand except the coconut sugar. ? Mixed up quickly & was on the cookie sheet in no time. I used pecans, walnuts, almonds & cashews in it. I didn’t have parchment paper so used coconut oil to grease the pan. It smelled heavenly when baking. Had a hard time getting it off pan probably because no paper. However, it was divine and everyone scarfed it up!???? Next time I’ll use the paper. ?

Sooooo good. I really want to eat all of it, but I’ll save some for my family!

Omg Dana! Wish you could see my husband and I right now! We are both clutching a couple of pieces in each hand with one in our mouth shoving each other away from the pan to grab even more! This is totally delicious and addictive! Love love love! Will share on Instagram tomorrow!

I have to tell you, my whole family LOVED this brittle! Since my kids go to a nut free school, I had to substitute pumpkin seeds for the nuts. I wasn’t sure what it would turn out like, but it was AMAZING! I love so many of your recipes….. but if you can do more snack-y things for kid’s lunches minus the nuts, that would be awesome. Thanks! We will continue to eat the recipes with nuts after school :)

I don’t have any chia seeds . Will the recipe be ok without them?

I just made these. Delicious! Very gooooooood recipe! I will definitely make it again.

This is amazing! I took it to a party and it was devoured! One of the teenage boys first looked at it and said “Quinoa?” and shied away, but my husband said a little later he was munching out on it. Very easy and so yummy.

This was soooo tasty!! Even my traditional eating in-laws couldn’t stop eating it over the holidays! So good! Used a variety of nuts rather than just pecans, turned out great.

I made this today with walnuts, honey instead of maple syrup and omitted the coconut sugar completely. It still came out GREAT!!! Awesome recipe, totally addictive!

I did this recipe as part of my homemade Xmas gifts. It was my first try cooking with coconut oil, so I felt a little out of my comfort zone but it all turned out ok.

I made at least 6 batches, so here are my observations:
– I did have some batches that weren’t setting hard enough, but they came out ok after I broke pieces apart around the edges and put the middle back in the oven for 15 minutes. I figured out I had that problems only with the batches I didn’t spread well enough.
– My oven isn’t perfectly leveled, as it turns out, and I found the mixture did spread to the edges of the cookie sheet when hot. It wasn’t too hard to clean off: hot water did the trick better than with regular brittle.

I tested the following modifications:
– substituted 7 kinds of nuts for the pecans (almond slivers, choped walnuts, macadamia, pistachios, hazelnuts, pecans and cashews).
– tried adding cardamom seeds crushed in a mortar, and saffron. Both worked perfectly with the nutty flavors.

Suggestions:
– I will toast the nuts and rince/dry the quinoa when I do this recipe again.
– I would also try with quinoa flakes instead of whole seeds, to avoid having too many seeds stuck in teeth..
;-)

I mean this in the *best* possible way: this recipe is stupid easy. Aaaaaand delicious. I now understand all the comments of people saying they could eat the entire batch themselves.

Thanks for another great recipe!

Wow I have to make this at some point! It looks and sounds absolutely delish!

Absolutely delicious! I wanted to eat the entire batch! Great recipe!

Love this! I made it for a Christmas gift and the recipients thought it was so good! They asked for the recipe… definitely a hit! Thank you!! :)

I made this last night. OMG is it DELICIOUS!! It is sweet without being to sweet, nutty and has that perfect brittle texture. You could literally eat the whole batch yourself.

I made those twice and they never got firm :(

Made it. Love it. Will make it again. Lots.
Came out crispy, once it cooled.
Shared some, they demanded I share the recipe. Did, plus the link to this website.
Keep up the good work.
Can I rate it 6 stars?

Just made this today. I added some pumpkin seeds and chopped almonds. It was fabulous!!! I am making a few more batches to give away. My daughter also thought putting this on top of low-fat ice cream would be delicious! Thanks so much for this recipe. We really love it!

My mother made this recipe using pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds in place of the pecans (she was making it for someone who doesn’t eat nuts) and it was delicious. She was very happy with the results. Thank you.

I made the following substitutions and it turned out delicious:

2 Tablespoons Earth Balance (whipped) butter for the coconut oil

Some dark chocolate chips for the cashews

Regular white granulated sugar for the coconut sugar

Multicolored quinoa (looks like the same kind in the photo at the top of this recipe page) for the white

It is very crunchy, but not so much that I am afraid for my teeth (which is why I avoid standard brittles). Thanks for publishing this recipe!

Your pictures are making me hungry. I want some now!!

Hands down: easy, beautiful and damn delicious ??

This brittle went perfectly as planned… which is saying something considering every year I try to make peanut brittle and have to throw the first batch away! Wonderful recipe for my family treats this Christmas. The past two years I’ve been skewing things toward the healthy in the area of food gifting, and my family loves it! We are all trying to lose weight/stay fit and recipes like this are so awesome! I almost couldn’t believe how tasty this was, then I remembered: duh! It’s from Minimalist Baker, of course it’s fabulous! ;) Thanks for a winner!

I’m allergic to coconut sugar, what can I use instead.

I made this as is and I just had to say, it is DELICIOUS!! I literally had to pry myself away from the pan so I didn’t eat it all. I’ll be making more to share with my family on Christmas! Thank you!

Allspice is a delicious addition, especially for holiday gifting. Delicious and enjoyed by all, even those suspicious of “healthy” snacks!

We made it yesterday and it came out soooo yummy. I used tricolor quinoa, rinsed it and added the rest of ingredients. I substituted with organic sugar since I did not have coconut sugar. It worked!
Thank you!

hi there, made the brittle and it is DELICIOUS! However, it didn’t “brittle” it stayed soft, any thoughts? thanks so much, Leslie

This looks really delicious:)) I will try it to take with me to uni! Have a nice day, Sophia

Would walnuts instead of pecans work?

The brittle sounds amazing. Unfortunately we have heart disease in the family and try to stay away from oil. What do you think will happen if I omit the coconut oil? Thanks!

Thank you so much for this AMAZING recipe! It is delicious and everyone loves it! Question: if i wanted to reduce the sugar (I am trying to cut back), could I eliminate the coconut sugar or use less maple syrup?

Dana, I made it and it was really good! The family loved it. I didn’t have any pecans so I used peanuts instead – they worked great! I’m going to share this on my facebook page.

Jan :)

Wowza! I just made this and I am so delighted with the results. I love peanut brittle, but all that sugar and corn syrup is a total turn off, so when I came across this recipe I was excited to give it go. I did toast the quinoa (all I had was red quinoa), pecans and oats first but other than that followed your recipe to a tee. It turned out light and crunchy and sweet. The combo of the maple syrup and coconut sugar made for perfect sweetness. This Quinoa Brittle will make great gifts as well as a delicious candy type snack for the family that actually has some nutritional intensity. Thanks so much for sharing! :D

Oh yummy! What a great idea to use quinoa for a delicious crunch. This brittle looks so tasty and crispy and easy to make :)

haha I meant refined sugar!

OMG I LOVE brittle but I hate how much regined sugar is in it. AND the quinoa makes me very happy! Thanks for sharing! I can’t wait to try this one!

Love this recipe. I made it last night using half honey/half maple, and it is super delicious. The only thing is—it was not crisp or brittle at all. It was more chewy, a bit like an extra-sweet granola bar. It did get crisp after I put it in the freezer for a while, and it stays pretty crisp if I keep it in the fridge. Did yours get completely hard and crisp like a brittle? Any ideas on where I went wrong? I kept it in the oven until it was quite toasty and brown all over. Thanks!

I absolutely love this healthy take on brittle! Definitely trying it soon!

OMG! I love how this looks! I grew up eating peanut brittle (favorite indian snack) and I cannot take my eyes off of your pictures because they ARE gorgeous AND its a brilliant recipe! LOVE <3 Pinned!

I spent most of the past few days making fussy recipes with expensive ingredients that didn’t come out very well. I threw this together on Sunday evening and it salvaged my whole weekend! It’s super easy, tastes good, and is so pretty! Thank you!!!

I’m always looking for more ways to add protein to my snacks (or dessert). This is perfect! Love the pecans, too.

I just made a batch of the brittle. So delicious! I can’t stop nibbling on it! It seemed really runny and that there was too much liquid when I poured it out on baking sheet, but hardened up and turned out perfect! This recipe is a keeper!

Hi Dana!
I have just made your quinoa brittle for my family and we absolutely fell in love this beautiful one!.
I didnt have pecan nuts in my kitchen so used cashews and alomonds which worked totally fine.
Thank you for sharing the recipe and you are amazing!.

Hope you and your family will spend lovely Christmas.

This looks so unique and delicious, you’re creativity is out of this world. We don’t get quinoa around here, but I do have amaranth, does that work?

OMGiggles! This is now in my tummy & my tummy is very, very happy! This is ridiculously delicious and addicting. I am going to the store in the a.m. to buy more Quinoa & tomorrow I will be making more batches for Christmas gifts. I can’t believe how effortless this recipe is to make. I have made Almond Rocca from scratch for parties for the last 4 years per request, & could never partake myself. (sniff) But now, I’m on happy overload! Thank you Dana!!!!

Do you think I could substitute uncooked millet for the white quinoa?

I am one of those quiet followers – making recipes from your site, but not always commenting. I have really enjoyed the diversity of recipes you share – thank you so much. Today, I am making the quinoa brittle right now – and it looks great. I did rinse the quinoa and let it dry first. But, I noticed when I added the coconut oil and maple syrup to the mixture, it was very watery. It was then that I went back up to your ingredient list and noticed that the coconut oil was 30 ml and the maple syrup indicated 60 ml (or 1/4 cup). Please confirm whether the maple syrup amount is 1/4 or 1/2 cup. I added other dry goods including; unsweetened coconut, flaxseed, sunflower seeds and sliced almonds to offset the liquid. I am crossing my fingers for a positive outcome – I’ll keep you posted. Until then, please confirm maple syrup and coconut oil amounts for future cooking. Thank you!

Fab! This actually made me hungry.

Looks really good. Need to make those

OH wowww I LOVE this idea! Such a unique recipe, would never have thought eating quinoa in brittle haha, definitely on my to-make list! :D

This is brilliant!

I had all the ingredients to make this tonight, great recipe

I’ve made this using shredded NORI in place of Quinoa and sliced almonds in place of pecans. So good. This sounds even better with Quinoa and pecans. Will be making this for Xmas.

Isn’t uncooked quinoa really hard to digest and therefore not good to eat?

Do you have to use “white” quinoa. I have red on hand?
My three kids are mostly move out of the home now and I am learning to cook again for just two. I am having fun trying your vegan recipes. Looking forward to purchasing the cookbook next year. Thank you so much for sharing your recipes.

Could you use unsweetened coconut flakes in place of the oats? My sister in law is allergic and I’m trying to think of yummy snacks to make this sounds perf except for the oats!

Looks soo…. good! I too want to know if I need to rinse the quinoa before using it. I’ll hold off making till I hear from you. Thanks for the answer.

Looks great and easy and I believe I have all the ingredients. :)

Did you rinse the quinoa first? I’m looking forward to trying this!

My excitement about this is SO real!! I’ll definitely be making this. I’d like to say I’ll give it as gifts, buuuuut chances are I won’t want to because it’s so good. Gorgeous photos as always too!!

Quinoa brittle?? I’m screaming. This is such a unique take on traditional brittle! It looks delicious :) Thanks for sharing!

These look like a great healthy snack and doesn’t seem to hard to make ~

This is such a neat take on brittle! Love it!