Seeking Recipes and Resources for DIY Energy Bars

[mudhead]

My sister-in-law has a baking business on the side and has volunteered to make our family some energy bars to augment the already great sweets she supplies us with.

Do you have a favorite recipe or resource you'd care to share?

[cgolvin]

Not energy bars but I recently made rice cakes using one of the Skratch Labs recipes — apple and cinnamon, then I added a layer of almond butter. I find them a bit heavier in my gut than an energy bar, but they’re much less sweet and have the added virtue of not resulting in plastic trash. I wrap them in wax paper, which degrades pretty quickly. The recipe is on the Skratch blog.

[pdmtong]

This recipe comes from a book called Vélochef by Team Sky’s head chef Henrik Orre. It’s an iconic cycling snack designed to give riders plenty of easy-to-digest energy. It’s full of complex and simple carbs as you would expect. But it became popular because it’s a solid, crunchy, and tasty food that can replace energy bars. Riders learn to love them when a thought of another gooey gel and the samey bar is repulsive. This recipe yields approximately 20 cakes, give it a try. Enjoy!

Rice Bars
Makes approximately 20 bars
This is one of the absolute best bars to take on a ride and it has also become the favourite among the cyclists in Team Sky. It’s easy to make and eat and also gives loads of energy. One batch gives about 20 tasty energy bars and costs about as much as one bar from the sports shop.

• 500g Carnaroli rice (risotto rice)
• 800ml water
• 4 tbsp coconut oil
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tbsp coconut palm sugar
• 300g Philadelphia cream cheese
• 100ml agave nectar

Use a rice cooker if you’ve got one.
1. Boil the rice, water, coconut oil, cinnamon and coconut palm sugar
2. Let boil until all the water has been absorbed
3. Fold the cream cheese into the rice while it’s still warm
4. Mix in the agave nectar and blend thoroughly
5. Pour into a 3-litre plastic bag with a zip lock
6. Flatten the bag and leave in the fridge overnight
7. Take the bag out of the fridge and cut the rice mix into squares 5x5cm
8. Wrap the squares in tin foil

[AngryScientist]

ooooo
thank you paul - those look like a winner.


i dont have my recipe at hand, but my wife found a great home brew recipe for strupwaffles and they are great. one of my favorite on-road snacks. tasty too.

[pdmtong]

...

[classtimesailer]

In this book is a recipe for "Chronic Disease Whaloping Bars" to which I add a ripe banana, put the whole mess in a food processor, and form small bars. I also skip the chocolate topping because it makes a mess as bike food. Matt is a good guy, endurance athlet, cyclist, etc.

[mudhead]

Thx fort the ideas! I’m looking forward to field testing then.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Peter P.]

Definitely check out a copy of Allen Lim and Bijou Thomas' book, Feedzone Portables.

I've made the rice cakes, and they're tasty without giving you gas and they definitely provide fuel.

The beef and sweet potato portable pies are even tastier.

I plan on making some of the cookies later this week. It's easy enough to pack a few in a plastic bag for a ride.

[tctyres]

Definitely check out a copy of Allen Lim and Bijou Thomas' book, Feedzone Portables.


^ This is a useful reference. The really lays out why making bars is better than buying bars.

I also picked up "Rocket Fuel: Power-Packed Food for Sports and Adventure." Between this and Feedzone portables, you get a sense of what can be done.

[Cgeisler]

very helpful, especially additional with kitchen downtime right now.

[simplemind]

[I]
8. Wrap the squares in tin foil

I love it...old school naming for aluminum foil! :)

[cgolvin]

This recipe comes from a book called Vélochef by Team Sky’s head chef Henrik Orre. It’s an iconic cycling snack designed to give riders plenty of easy-to-digest energy. It’s full of complex and simple carbs as you would expect. But it became popular because it’s a solid, crunchy, and tasty food that can replace energy bars. Riders learn to love them when a thought of another gooey gel and the samey bar is repulsive. This recipe yields approximately 20 cakes, give it a try. Enjoy!

Rice Bars
Makes approximately 20 bars
This is one of the absolute best bars to take on a ride and it has also become the favourite among the cyclists in Team Sky. It’s easy to make and eat and also gives loads of energy. One batch gives about 20 tasty energy bars and costs about as much as one bar from the sports shop.

• 500g Carnaroli rice (risotto rice)
• 800ml water
• 4 tbsp coconut oil
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tbsp coconut palm sugar
• 300g Philadelphia cream cheese
• 100ml agave nectar

Use a rice cooker if you’ve got one.
1. Boil the rice, water, coconut oil, cinnamon and coconut palm sugar
2. Let boil until all the water has been absorbed
3. Fold the cream cheese into the rice while it’s still warm
4. Mix in the agave nectar and blend thoroughly
5. Pour into a 3-litre plastic bag with a zip lock
6. Flatten the bag and leave in the fridge overnight
7. Take the bag out of the fridge and cut the rice mix into squares 5x5cm
8. Wrap the squares in tin foil

I made these last week (a couple of substitutions due to lack of ingredients -- olive rather than coconut oil and brown not coconut palm sugar) and they came out excellent -- far superior to the previous Skratch recipe I tried, these are glutenous (can't imagine why the description above includes "crunchy") whereas the others were dry. Highly recommend.

thanks paul

[JPS123]

I made these last week (a couple of substitutions due to lack of ingredients -- olive rather than coconut oil and brown not coconut palm sugar) and they came out excellent -- far superior to the previous Skratch recipe I tried, these are glutenous (can't imagine why the description above includes "crunchy") whereas the others were dry. Highly recommend.

thanks paul

I have dabbled with the DIY snacks in the past, particularly from the Skratch cookbook, but became discouraged with the yield to consumption ratio. Of course, the paceline answer is to ride more. Do you have any experience with freezing the snacks and thawing as needed?

Hope to ride soon Charlie!

[gdw]

The backpacking forums are a great source for info on diy recipes. Check out the food and nutrition sections of Backpackinglight and Whiteblaze when you have some free time.
https://whiteblaze.net/forum/forumdisplay.php/32-Cooking-and-Food
https://backpackinglight.com/forums/forum/general-forums/food-hydration-and-nutrition/

I've made some of the recipes that don't require cooking and can easily be made with a food processor but would like to try Logan Bread cut into bars if someone else offered to do the work.. https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/48407/logan-bread/.

[jpsawyer23]

Not energy bars but I recently made rice cakes using one of the Skratch Labs recipes — apple and cinnamon, then I added a layer of almond butter. I find them a bit heavier in my gut than an energy bar, but they’re much less sweet and have the added virtue of not resulting in plastic trash. I wrap them in wax paper, which degrades pretty quickly. The recipe is on the Skratch blog.

I will second these.
I routinely make them and they always end up good. You can also put whatever you want in them. Ive been a fan of making them with coconut and mung bean or even like egg and sausage.

[cgolvin]

I have dabbled with the DIY snacks in the past, particularly from the Skratch cookbook, but became discouraged with the yield to consumption ratio. Of course, the paceline answer is to ride more. Do you have any experience with freezing the snacks and thawing as needed?

Hope to ride soon Charlie!


I’ve only done this 3 times and in each case I’ve frozen most of the bars; the last batch was dry, hard to judge whether the frozen ones were more so than the fresh ones. Even riding 4 times a week you can’t make your way through all of them without freezing some IMO. This batch is too young to assess the quality of frozen vs. fresh, check back with me in a few weeks.

We’ve got a ride up 39 to Dawson’s tentatively planned for July 4—let me know if you’re interested.

[tiretrax]

... have the added virtue of not resulting in plastic trash. I wrap them in wax paper, which degrades pretty quickly.

Better to put the waxpaper in the jersey pocket from which it came. There is no virtuous litter, and littering will cost you up to $300 in most jurisdictions.

[cgolvin]

Better to put the waxpaper in the jersey pocket from which it came. There is no virtuous litter, and littering will cost you up to $300 in most jurisdictions.


My meaning is that wax paper degrades whereas plastic does not. Everything returns home with me irrespective of the material. Kind of insulting that you’d assume I litter.