If you are anything like me you eat a lot of energy bars. For a long while I have also been packing PB&J sandwiches for rides over 60miles. Recently I was inspired by films from the 2019 Tour of California where team chefs were interviewed about the rider diets and nutritional needs. They taled a lot about rice. This lead me to these snacks.
First off, this is not my recipe, its one that has been around for a while from the SCRATCH Labs company by chef Allen Lim & Biju Thomas. Scratch is a nutrition company and Alan is what I would call an “Athlete chef” – he been pro team level and knows how to make good and tasty athlete food.
Recipie
I choose the Fig And Honey Recipe because I know I like the flavours. There are many variants including savoury versions in their cook books.
Cooking
Wrapping / Packaging
The trick here is good packaging that holds up in a cycling jersey pocket. And is easy to open and clean to eat the food. A solution is a wrapper that is non stick on the inside and foil on the outside for structure.
ScratchLabs make some called Scratch paper here
Reynolds make some called pan liner here :
You can also make your own with two sheets, one parchment , one regular foil. Thats what I do, takes a little more time but a common thing to buy at the supermarket.
Summary
The pro’s: the recipe can be modified easily to your taste, mix up the sweetness or the ingredients. Mine turned out pretty well, I think next time I will go heavier on the figs. You could also do a variant on a sweet bar with something like blueberries and chocolate chips.
The con’s: They last about 6 days in a refrigerator, so if you eat 9 bars in 6 days that is cool, otherwise. You might want to experiment with freezing
Costs
Calrose Rice : $1.18 ( $3.49 a bag but only needed 1/3 of it)
Pecans : $4.86
Dried Fig :$2.87
Honey : ? Guessing about $0.50
My pan made 9 bars so $1.05 per bar.
Nutritional Info
268 Calories
10g Fat
20mg Sodium
41g Carbs
3g Fiber
6g Protein