Marathon-Tested Energy Bars

As some of you know, I ran the Denver Marathon today. And I'm happy to report that I finished with a personal record (!), despite unseasonably high temperatures for Denver in October...

Earlier in the week I had tried a batch of Energy bars from 101Cookbooks.com, one of my favorite food blogs to follow. Heidi Swanson (author of the blog) posts about natural, whole foods and ingredients, and in many of her baking posts she substitutes various alternative natural sugar products for refined sugar. In this recipe, she uses brown rice syrup to bind rice-crispy-esque energy bars that are pretty tasty. You can imagine folding any combination of nuts, dried fruit, or seeds into the mix, for a quick, healthy, home-made snack. I have to say these were a million times more appealing to eat after the marathon than all the cardboard freebies they gave away at the race. Plus the espresso in this version added a nice extra kick of caffeine. They were a little cheweyer than I had anticipated, so next time I will try boiling the syrup and sugar for a little less time. Oh, and don't refrigerate them! I did that at work by accident, and my bar turned into a sugary brick.

SWEET SCIENCE:
What is brown rice syrup? And why use it?
Brown rice syrup is a natural sweetener derived by culturing rice to break down the starches, then straining off the liquid and cooking it until it has turned into a thick, honey-like syrup. The final product is roughtly 50% complex carbohydrates, 45% maltose, and 3% glugose. While glucose is absorbed into the bloodstream immediately, maltose takes up to 1.5 hours to be digested and the complex carbohydrates take 2-3 hours. This combination allows the syrup to provide a steady supply of energy to the body. For this reason, it is often used in energy bars and other supplements. Brown rice syrup is also gluten free.



RECIPE:
Marathon-Tested Energy Bars
from 101cookbooks.com
makes 16-24 squares

INGREDIENTS:
1 tablespoon oil or oil spray
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup slivered almonds
2/3 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened is a little healthier, but up to you)
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1 1/4 cups brown rice cereal (or regular Rice Crispies)
1 cup brown rice syrup (find next to honey)
1/4 cup natural cane sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons ground espresso (optional; another option might be cocoa powder)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven or toaster to 350 degrees (for toasting nuts).
Grease a baking pan (8x8, 9x9, or 9x13 - for thicker/thinner bars) with oil, butter, or oil spray.
*I like to line the baking pan with aluminum foil, and coat that with the oil instead. This way, when the bars are done, you can lift them right out of the pan, peel off the aluminum foil, and cut on a cutting board instead of prying out of the pan itself. This works for any baked bar as well.

On a rimmed baking sheet, toss pecans, almonds, and coconut. Bake or toast for 7-10 minutes, until golden brown. Toss once or twice to ensure the mix is toasting evenly. Mix oats, toasted nuts, coconut, and cereal together in a large bowl. Set aside.

Combine the rice syrup, sugar, salt, espresso and vanilla into a small saucepan over medium heat and stir constantly as it comes to a boil and thickens just a bit, about 4 minutes. Pour syrup over the oat mixture and stir until evenly incorporated. This might be pretty sticky, but keep stirring and it will all combine.

Spread mixture into the prepared pan and cool to room temperature before cutting into bars.

(me after the Denver Marathon!)