Do you think that delicious and useful energy bars could buy only at stores? In fact, you can easy to cook them with your own hands. Try it with our 5 marvelous recipes!
Energy bars are a convenient, ready-to-eat source of carbohydrates. The main advantage of energy bars is convenience: compact, lightweight, and packaged. You can eat an energy bar while cycling, on the run, or right after the finish line.
There are many recipes for energy bars; you can make up your own combinations of different ingredients. But you have to remember not to have a lot of fat in the energy bars. It makes digestion difficult and underload can cause digestive problems. The composition of any energy bar should include dry ingredients – the base, and liquid – binders.
Dry ingredients include cereals, nuts, seeds, dried fruits, and vegetables. Also can be added some spices.
Liquid: nut butter or paste, coconut oil or paste, sesame paste, fruit and vegetable puree, syrups, honey. Soaked apricots, prunes, raisins and berries can be used as binders.
We have put together some simple and affordable recipes for homemade energy bars. In all recipes you can change the ingredients and their proportions, just don’t forget to combine dry and binding products.
#1 Protein bars
Ingredients:
- 1.5 cups dry oatmeal
- 1.5 cup peanut butter
- 1 cup coconut cream
- 5 tablespoons protein powder
Beat coconut cream with a mixer until smooth. Add and mix well one at a time the protein, peanut butter, and oatmeal. Flatten out the mixture in a saucer or mold. Place in refrigerator until firm overnight, then cut into several pieces.
#2 Carrot Bars
Ingredients:
- 100 g almonds
- 100 g walnuts
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 50 g raisins
- 150 g grated carrots (about 2 medium carrots)
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened apple puree
- 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
Place nuts, cinnamon and salt in a blender and grind until smooth. Then add raisins and grind everything again. Place grated carrots, walnut and raisin mixture, applesauce, coconut oil, and lemon zest in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Transfer the carrot-nut mixture to a small baking tray or tray lined with baking paper and press together well. Place in the freezer for an hour and cut into small squares.
#3 Dried fruit bars
Ingredients:
- 100 g raisins
- 100 gr dates
- 100 gr dried apricots
- 100 gr dried oatmeal
- 100 gr mixed nuts and seeds
- 3 tbsp orange juice
Soak the dried fruit for 10-15 minutes in warm water and remove the seeds. Beat in a blender one at a time: soft dried fruit until smooth, then oatmeal until fine crumbs and nut mixture until medium fraction. Mix all ingredients, and add orange juice. Spread the mixture on parchment or a buttered baking tray and form a briquette not more than 2 cm thick. Bake in a preheated 180 C degrees (356 °F) for 20 to 30 minutes. Cut the ready briquette into several pieces. This amount of ingredients makes about 10 bars of 50 grams each.
#4 Apple and peanut energy bars
Ingredients:
- 100 g dried apples
- 100 g peanuts
- 250 g of dates
- 1,5 cup dried oatmeal
- 2 tbsp of honey
- 40 g. cranberries
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- sesame seeds
Place oatmeal on a baking tray and roast in a 170 C-degree (338 °F) oven for 10 minutes, then puree in a blender. Chop the peanuts and apples with a knife or in a blender to a coarse crumb. Remove the pips from the dates and chop them in a blender. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Prepare a mold and cover it with clingfilm. Spoon the mixture into the mold and form a briquette no thicker than 2 cm. Place in the freezer for 20 minutes. Cut the ready briquette into several bars.
#5 Gluten-free energy bars with nuts
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of almonds;
- 1 cup of dried cranberries;
- 1 cup of pitted dates;
- 1 tablespoon of unsweetened coconut shavings;
- ¼ cup of chopped dark chocolate.
Preparation
Place all ingredients in the bowl of a blender and whisk until smooth. To do this, you will first need to whisk several times and then mix after each time with a spatula. When all the ingredients are broken down into smaller pieces, you will need to whisk longer so that the mass becomes more homogeneous and can be gathered into a clump.
Place the mixture on parchment paper or plastic wrap. Form a firm square with your hands and leave it in the fridge for at least an hour. Take out and cut into pieces of your desired size. Store in the refrigerator.
Try making energy bars with your own hands according to recipes from this article, which you liked.
Health and harmony to you!
