Make your own delicious energy bars for on the go

This post is also available in: Deutsch (German)

When it comes to the question of what to eat during longer, sporty cycling tours, opinions and personal experiences vary extremely widely! Some riders eat nothing at all and only take liquids, others choose bars and fruit and still others eat everything that has calories such as cake with whipped cream, pizza, pasta etc.. In the end, everyone has to find out for themselves what they like, what their body can tolerate and what provides enough energy.

Personally, I don’t eat on shorter tours (under 4 hours). On brevets, I avoid hard-to-digest food or too much sugar. In any case, I try to avoid industrially manufactured products (bars); it’s scary what they contain: flavourings, artificial additives … No thanks! That’s why I simply make my bars myself, individually. It’s not difficult, but it does take a few tries. After all, the bars should taste good and be reasonably “practical” for on the go, i.e. the consistency must also be right! So don’t despair if the result is not 100% satisfactory at the first attempt!

For all those who, like me, prefer to bake their own fitness bars, I am happy to share my recipe here! I have compiled the ingredients and quantities from various other sources and adapted them to my personal preferences. That means, depending on your preferences, you can of course vary the recipe and experiment with it.

Ingredients / shopping list:

500 ml milk
200 g honey
100 g apples (chopped)
100 g figs
200 g chopped walnuts
75 g grated hazelnuts
75 g grated almonds
300 g oat flakes
200 g coconut flakes
50 g sunflower seeds
1 pack. Dark chocolate coating

And this is how it’s done …

(it’s really simple and only takes 15-20 minutes plus baking time):

Mix the milk and honey in a saucepan and heat gently (only let it get lukewarm).
Mix all the other ingredients in a large bowl, add the milk and honey and mix well. The dough should be easy to spread, so add a little more milk if needed.
Line a baking tray with baking paper and spread the mixture (approx. 2 cm thick).
Bake in the oven at approx. 180 degrees Celsius (hot air) or 200 degrees (top heat) for approx. 20 minutes. The shorter the baking time, the juicier the bars!
After cooling, coat the bars with chocolate.
Cut the whole thing into pieces of approx. 3 x 7 cm. Makes about 40 – 50 bars for me. The energy value is approx. 120 – 150 kcal per bar.
The bars can be frozen and defrosted as needed. You just have to be a little careful, otherwise they crumble. Therefore, it is best to store them in a small plastic box and not just in a plastic bag!