How to make homemade energy bars
Energy bars are a healthy way to provide our body with the energy it needs both during exercise and at the end of it. The best thing is that it is an easy food to prepare at home, so if you want to make your own cereal bars, it is something feasible and very simple to do.
If we take a look at the bag of any athlete or the range of food offered when doing certain sports, energy bars are an essential element. We are talking about cereal bars to which different ingredients are added and that have the ability to quickly increase the concentration of carbohydrates in the body. Something that helps the use of healthy cereals in its preparation, so these are assimilated faster than other ingredients of heavier digestion.
Something fundamental, since if we are doing sports or we are going to do it soon, the last thing we want is to have a heavy digestion. That’s why cycling or ultra-distance energy bars have a light, yet highly nutritious profile, initially applying to all sports nutrition. Because nobody wants to lift weights with a swollen belly like a balloon.
The good news is that if the cereal bars that we have on the market do not convince you, it is easy to make your own bars. To do this, we have various recipes, which we present to you along with some guidelines for you to create your own recipe for cereal bars, according to your personal preferences.
Although we will specify it in each recipe, most of them are prepared in the oven. To do this, you can use both conventional ovens and those that integrate some pellet stoves with different prices and models. But if you don’t have an oven, we’ve also included recipes that can be made in the microwave or even without an oven:
Multigrain energy bars
Ingredients:
Half cup of almonds.
Half a cup of peeled pips.
Half a cup of walnuts.
Half a cup of raisins.
1 cup whole grain millet flakes.
1 cup of whole grain cornflakes.
1 cup of whole wheat flakes.
1 cup of whole grain oats.
1 cup of whole grain rye flakes.
Half a cup of seeds to taste: chia, flax, sesame, poppy, etc.
250 grams of honey.
Preparation
In a large bowl add the ingredients, ensuring that their size is similar. This involves breaking the largest fruits, although not into very small fragments.
Put the seeds in a grinder or similar to crush them, adding the mixture to the bowl. The oils they give off help to bind the mixture.
Add the honey to the bowl, slowly and stirring, so that all the ingredients mix properly. The amount indicated is indicative, so use honey until the texture of the mixture is adequate.
Put the mixture in a baking container, first covering it with baking paper. You can also use aluminum containers.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at about 150 to 170 degrees. Check the product from time to time, so that it does not go over the point.
Once out of the oven, let it cool down and store the block in the refrigerator, to cut what you need.
energy bars without oven
Unlike the previous proposal, the result of these bars is finer, dispensing with honey as a binder. For this, fruits and the oil of the dried fruits are used. You also don’t need an oven.
Ingredients:
350 g of smooth and sweet dried fruit, such as dates and dried apricots
200g dried fruit, crushed
150 g of whole grains
A little bit of salt
Two tablespoons of seeds to taste or grated coconut to flavor
A tablespoon of cocoa powder or carob flour, to give it a touch of chocolate
A pinch of cinnamon to flavor, if you like
The preparation of the recipe is similar to the one mentioned above, although with some small differences. In this case, we do grind the nuts and dried fruit that we mentioned earlier. If the latter are very dry, it is advisable to restore them for about 20 minutes in hot water. The idea is to mix all the ingredients in a powerful blender, so that we obtain a firm and unctuous dough, without the need for binders. If it is sticky, we can add a little more cereal, while if it is dry, we can add water, coconut or sunflower oil.
The elaboration also varies, since once the dough is ready, it must settle for an hour, having previously leveled and compacted it, until leaving a 1-centimeter-thick sheet. These bars do not need an oven, all you have to do is let them air until you find the optimal texture. If you’re not going to eat them all, it’s best to freeze the leftovers.
microwave energy bars
Sometimes making the best energy bars requires nothing more than a microwave and a little time. This recipe is proof.
Ingredients:
120 grams of oatmeal
20 grams of brown sugar
40 grams of almonds
40 grams of butter
100 grams of dark chocolate (optional)
The preparation is as simple as crushing the almonds, mixing with the oats and sugar and adding the melted butter. This mixture is smoothed, shaped and placed in the microwave for 2 and a half minutes at maximum power. As an extra, you can bathe the bars in chocolate, melting it previously. Once cool, they are cut and stored. That easy.
Creating your own recipe
As we said in the introduction, it is possible that none of these recipes will convince you and you prefer to create your own recipe. To do this, you do not need more than some guidelines in this regard, with which to know how to make energy bars to your liking.
As you may have deduced from our proposals, to prepare homemade oatmeal bars, or any other cereal, two basic elements are necessary. One of them is the base of the recipe, which is made up of healthy cereals, nuts and the fruits that you want to add. The other basic element is a binder, which is responsible for binding the ingredients. Among these ingredients we have chocolate, yogurt, honey or even peanut butter, for those who want to change from the classic chocolate bars.
Regarding the proportions, it all depends on how many bars we want to prepare. If we want to make a large production, it will be convenient to add several cups of cereal, along with the amount of binder necessary to obtain an adequate texture. This is why nuts should not be crushed, as this affects the structure of the bar. By the way, if you want to make homemade protein bars, just add whey protein to the recipe.
Once the dough is ready, all you have to do is bake it in a good-sized mold until it looks good. In general, about 20 or 25 minutes at 150 or 170 degrees are enough, although their thing is to control the process, until the optimum point is achieved. By the way, the bars should not come out of the oven dry and hard, but this finish is achieved once they are cold, a few minutes after coming out of the oven.
