Bet you never expected a cooking lesson here!
I’ve been making my own energy bars for a few years now. I find these are way easier to eat vs commercial ones as they are less packed and I can vary the mix to taste. Weights volumes below are approximate for starters – adjust to taste.
A4 sheets of Rice Paper
50 g Butter
150 g Treacle / Golden Syrup / Honey
300 g Mixed dried fruit of choice (chop Dates/Prunes/Apricot, Sultanas, Cranberries, Mango etc)
200 g Oats
50 g Whey powder /Powdered Milk
50 g Chopped nuts (I use Almonds and Walnuts – adjust to taste)
Desiccated Coconut (adjust to taste)
1 Tsp Mixed Spice (adjust to taste)
Splash of Lemon Juice (adjust to taste)
Melt the butter, syrup, dried fruit in a pan and simmer.
Mix the mixed spice into the oats and add to wet mix progressively and stir in till all is moist. Add more Oats if it appears too sticky. It should be getting hard to get the oats to absorb moisture but if you have oats that are dry after stirring in for a while then add more syrup.
Pour contents into a tray and press down. Bake circa 150 degrees for 25-30 mins. This works best if your tray is approx. 20 cm wide for the A4 Rice paper.
When cool cut into strips about 2.5 cm square.
Cut A4 rice paper into half size, dampen with a pastry brush and roll the bars in the paper. This is tricky to get the paper just wet enough to roll – too much and the paper just collapses into a sticky modge! Takes a bit of practice and you have to be quick! Best to be too dry to start with then seal with more water once each bar is wrapped.
Leave bars to dry on a drying rack.
Put in a plastic pouch in your pocket otherwise the rice paper will go soggy (sweaty rice paper – yuch!). I’ve collected a few pocket sized plastic bags for 1, 2 or 3 bar rides. Really easy just to reach into your pocket and break off a piece and as they are not as dense as commercial bars they are much easier to chew and swallow. Plus you can make them to your own taste.