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+---
+date: 2014-05-10
+title: Home-made Energy Bars
+category: cycling
+Thumbail: https://i.imgur.com/RUF1L6e.jpg
+---
+
+A break from computing today and into the world of nutrition. Cyclists
+love to talk about nutrition as the nature of our sport makes it a major
+consideration. I do not really know of any other sport where your fuel
+gives out before the rest of your body.
+
+This means that cycling nutrition is big business, and expensive. A
+typical box of energy bars will cost about 1 euro a bar from a big box
+pusher, more from your LBS. To that end (as I like baking) I decided to
+make my own.
+
+# Ingredients
+
+There is not much to it:
+
+-   200g sugar
+-   120ml oil
+-   2 tablespoons honey
+-   225g porridge oats
+-   250g fruit/nut mix
+
+Obviously the quality of these ingredients is all important. With the
+amount you are saving compared to a commercial bar, one can afford to
+splash out here. I use:
+
+-   Unrefined sugar
+-   Good quality sunflower oil
+-   Organic honey from a local producer
+-   Good quality, thick rolled oats
+
+For the fruit and nut mix you can do whatever you want. We eat a lot of
+these and get them from a local organic produce shop. I just raid the
+kitchen draws and see what I come up with. The latest batch had:
+
+-   dried banana
+-   raisins
+-   sultanas
+-   coconut
+-   cranberries
+
+# Recipe
+
+You will need a decent sized saucepan as you\'ll do all the mixing on
+the hob. Pre-heat the oven to 180ᵒC (350ᵒF/gas mark 4 I believe).
+
+Start by gently melting together the sugar, oil and honey over a low
+heat. Be patient, this will take a while.
+
+Add you fruit/nut mix and mix it all in thouroughly. At this point you
+will need enormous will power as the mixture is delicious and you may
+find yourself eating it all there and then. This will make you feel
+rather ill (trust me).
+
+Finally, add the oats a little bit at a time. It is very important to
+take your time over this. The mixture gets really thick and heavy, which
+may be too much for your puny cyclist arms. If you can find a way to
+stir it with your super-mega strong cyclist legs please tell me in the
+comments. If not, just ask your wife/mother/mother-in-law/child to help.
+
+Once all that is nicly mixed together transfer it to a tin lined with
+baking paper (25cm x 15cm should be a good size). Make sure it is firmly
+pressed down with a metal fork. If not the bar will come apart in your
+pocket (messy).
+
+Put in the oven for about 15 minutes. When it is nicely golden, take it
+out and leave it to cool before cutting it up. I find this makes 25-30
+small bars (\~23-50g each), but your mileage may vary.
+
+# Nutritional Information
+
+Of course, this being a geeky blog I had to do some maths and
+comparisons. Note that this is all calculated from the information on
+the packets and searching on the internet. I am an engineer, not a
+nutritionist so do not take this as gospel.
+
+  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+  Bar                                                                                                                        weight    Energy   Protein   Fat
+                                                                                                                             (g)       (kcal)   (g)       (g)
+  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------- -------- --------- -----
+  Mine                                                                                                                       \~25-30   134      1.2       6.1
+
+  [SiS                                                                                                                       55        223      20        6.4
+  Rego](https://www.scienceinsport.com/sis-products/sis-rego-range/sis-rego-protein/sis-rego-protein-bar-choc-peanut-55g/)                                
+
+  [High5 Energy Bar](https://highfive.co.uk/product/energy/energybar)                                                        60        194      3         2
+  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Mine do not do too badly. Not that both those commercial options have
+more everything, but they are also much bigger. Two of my bars would
+beat both of them hands down in all 3 of those measures. It should also
+be noted that all the fat in these come from the oil and the oats, which
+is \"healthy fat\" according to High 5.
+
+Like I said, I am an engineer, not a nutritionist. Do not take this as
+nutritional advise, rather as me sharing something I find works for me.
+Feel free to use this, but please share your modifications. In fact you
+are legally obliged to because it is under the [Creative Commons
+Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
+License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) :-).