How To Make
Energy Bars

We explain how to make energy bars that are nutritious, tasty, and best of all with a no-bake recipe! Only FOUR ingredients, NO additives.

We usually make up a batch of these energy bars to eat after a long event, anything lasting over 2 hours. We have found that, as well as being a welcome tasty snack when we are craving something to eat, they seem to help our recovery later that day and into the next day.

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How To Make Energy Bars

Here is our no-bake energy bar recipe, which is ideal for after a swimrun event.

Ingredients:

One cup (130 grams) of walnut pieces
One cup (130 grams) of pitted dates
One cup (130 grams) of dried cranberries
One cuo (130 grams) of unsweetened shredded coconut

And that's it! NO artificial additives, sweeteners or preservatives. The sweetness in these energy bars comes from the dates.

Directions:

Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees F
When the oven is hot, put the walnut pieces into a small baking tray, and allow them to toast in the oven for 10 minutes. Then take them out of the oven and let them cool.
Line an 8" square baking tin with baking paper or plastic wrap, and coat the inside with a little cooking spray.
In a food processor, combine ALL the ingredients. Keep processing until all the fruit and nuts are ground into fine pieces.
Add a tablespoon of water.
Continue to process the mix until it starts to hold together when you press it with your fingers.
Tip the mixture into the prepared baking tin.
With the back of a dessert spoon, dampened with water, press the mixture down into the tray, and compress the mix firmly.
Put the tray into your refridgerator for at least one hour (I prefer overnight).
Then you can cut the hardened mix into slices, either 16 smaller slices or 8 bigger ones.
You can keep the bars in an airtight container in the fridge for several days.
We usually wrap individual bars (four large ones for the 2 of us - ie. 2 bars each) in greaseproof paper to take to an event, in a rigid container like a small Tupperware box.

Cranberry-Walnut bars

A few years ago we entered the Big Sur marathon in California. We flew from Spain to Los Angeles.

I had made up a batch of these energy bars to take with us for after the marathon. I had wrapped them carefully in aluminum foil and left them in the freezer overnight to get them really cold before the flight, next to some banana slices I had put in previously, also in foil.

When I picked up our big suitcase from the baggage carousel at LAX, I was stopped by a security guard with a Beagle dog. The dog seemed interested in my suitcase!

After assuring the guard that I did not have any animal products in the suitcase (we are vegetarian), he asked me to stand still while he walked the dog away then back close by. Again, the dog reacted by sniffing the case and then sitting down!

Very apologetically, the guard asked me to open the case. I was starting to worry that someone had sneaked something illegal into my baggage somehow!

I opened my case, and started to remove the contents. Then I saw the aluminum foil wrap in the middle - but it looked very squashed. When I opened it, it was full of mushy banana - I had picked up the wrong foil wrap from the freezer when we left home!

The guard thought it was all quite funny, but said we had to take the banana to an agriculture importation desk, where it would be disposed of. We didn't care, but were upset to have forgotten the energy bars!!