Sticky gooey fulfilling homemade vegan cycling snacks
I run, I cycle and I snack. This means I normally have a bar of some description in my back or pocket, whether it’s for me or to provide sustenance on a family outing. My problem is I don’t like buying processed products if I can avoid it.
Also I tend to have a reaction to most bars, which through pure trial and error I think is due to a soya allergy. As soya seems to have creeped into all kinds of “healthy” products recently can cause some issues. So ideally I like to refuel with something that doesn’t result it bloating and (a times) stomach cramps.
When I could get them at my local supermarket I loved the Lara banana and chocolate bars, so that was the flavours I started with. For the last couple of months I’ve been trying to make my own bars, with quite a few sloppy failures. In the end I combined elements of a couple of my other recipes, Oaty Banana Bread and Apple and Cinnamon Flapjack. Then substituted the butter for peanut butter for a healthier more sustaining treat.
By using banana and peanut butter you get a slightly gooey bar with the bite of the oats. Trust me these are great in a packed lunch, with a coffee or snuck in your jersey pocket for a mid ride treat.
I’m not one for a long complicated process, so once the peanut butter and sugars are melted in a pan it’s just a case of mashing the bananas, then mixing all the ingredients together with a fork.
Ingredients
- 100g crunchy peanut butter ( you can’t beat Pip and Nut)
- 100g dark brown sugar
- 4 bananas
- 100g golden syrup
- 2 tsp cocoa powder
- 250g oats
Optional 50g dark chocolate buttons
Method
- Put the oven on at 160c.
- Line a 20×30 brownie tray with baking parchment.
- Melt the peanut butter, sugar and golden syrup in a pan over a medium heat.
- While it melts, put the banana in a bowl and mash up with a fork.
- Add the remaining ingredients and the melted butter and sugars and then mix together.
- Pour the mixture into the tray and press down with the fork, until it’s flat and compacted.
- Bake for 30 minutes, then remove and allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tray before removing from the tray and cut into pieces, it cuts nicely into 12.
- Store in the fridge or wrap in parchment and freeze so you can grab them when you need them.
When I’m out riding I tend to pre-cut a slice into bite size pieces and wrap in parchment.