Into the Musette: Oat breakfast Bars

Are you still hesitant and do not know what to take with you as a snack during your winter morning training ? What can you eat that is fast, consistent and full of energy? The answer is my oat breakfast bars. They are much sweeter and contain much less sugar and fat than, for example, a typical flapjack and are therefore much easier to digest and, dare I say, better for you. I often prepare a lot on Friday night for us to spend the weekend. They are also the right size to enter the jersey pocket for  refueling during your training.

Ingredients (makes 16 bars)

• 200g (2 cups) rolled oats
• 60g (⅔ cup) ground almonds (almond meal).
• 30g (⅓ cup) dried, unsweetened grated coconut
• 120g (4¼oz) chocolate chips
• 4 very ripe, medium-sized bananas, about 250g (9oz) when peeled
• 160g (1 cup) unsweetened apple puree
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp fine sea salt.
• 50g (¼ cup) whole almond butter (you can substitute another nut butter, olive oil or coconut oil).                     

Method

1.Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan/gas mark 4 (350ºF/320ºF fan). Grease a medium-sized 20cm x 30cm (8-inch x 12-inch) shallow baking dish with vegetable oil and line it with foil strips – makes it easier to get the bars out..

2.Combine the oats, ground almonds, coconut, salt and chocolate chips in a medium-sized mixing bowl..

3.In another medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the bananas, vanilla, almond butter and apple puree and mash thoroughly using a potato masher. Add the oat mixture to the wet mix and stir to combine. Leave the mixture to rest for 30 minutes so that the oats soak up the liquid..

4. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish, level the surface (the bars should be around 2cm (0.8 inch) thick) and put it in the oven.

5.Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the top is set and light golden-brown. Let it cool completely before removing it from the dish and slicing it into bars. If you’re not serving them all at once, just cut what you need, cover the rest with foil, put into an airtight tin and hide!

  Sheree’s Handy Hints

1.All ingredients should be at room temperature.

 2. When I’m baking I always use a timer as it’s so easy to lose track of time. Once you’ve put the bars in the oven, put the timer on for 5-10 minutes less than they should take to cook and then check regularly.

3.The bars should still be quite soft to the touch when you take them out of the oven as they’ll continue to cook and firm up as they cool. Overcook them at your peril.

4. I’ve used dark chocolate chips here for a more sophisticated taste but many of my younger weekend guests prefer the tooth-cloying sweetness of milk or white chocolate. Specifically they like the version which uses peanut butter instead of almond, 400g (14 oz) of mashed bananas, no apple puree and white chocolate chips!

5.Feel free to reduce the amount of chocolate – or indeed remove it all together – and substitute other dried fruit such as apricots, cranberries or raisins. Once again, the rule of thumb is to pair ingredients which you like and know work well together.

All the team of G4 thanks Sheree for her daily diet tips and let’s ride and train during the winter season to prepare your summer objectives!

you can find all her articles here: https://bit.ly/2EhtANH