In August we ventured for an epic trek through the mountain range of southern Velebit. The nature was truly magnificent and in three days we met altogether about 15 people. The downside of such remoteness is that we had to carry absolutely everything in our backpacks, including all of the food. This is where these power bars come in. They are dense in nutrients, tasty and very compact, which means they took up only a small fraction of valuable backpack space. They also came out way cheaper than any store-bought power bars would and were therefore an absolute win.

INGREDIENTS:

(Yields 18 bars / 0.37 EUR per bar / 6.67 EUR for all)

500 grams of old-fashioned oats (0.80 EUR)

2 cups ground walnuts (2.00 EUR)

2 cups raisins (0.80 EUR)

1 tsp ground cinnamon (0.07 EUR)

½ tsp ground nutmeg (0.03 EUR)

6 bananas (1.60 EUR)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract (0.03 EUR)

¼ cup coconut oil (0.67 EUR)

¼ cup honey (0.67 EUR)

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 150°C. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together oats, walnuts, raisins, cinnamon and nutmeg. Throw peeled bananas in a food processor and pulse until creamy. Pour banana cream, vanilla, coconut oil and honey over dry mixture and stir until everything is fully combined. The mixture is gonna be a pretty thick, so this will require some elbow grease.

Dump the mixture on a prepared baking tray and completely flatten and even out with a spatula. Make sure that it’s evenly thick in all places so it doesn’t burn. Especially pay attention to the edges and even them out as much as possible. Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until darkened and crispy on top. As soon as you remove the tray from the oven, cut out the bars. Allow them to sit on the tray undisturbed to cool down completely, before storing for later. The bars will firm up as they cool. They will hold refrigerated in an airtight container for a month and will keep at room temperature for at least five days.

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U kolovozu smo otišli na epsko planinarenje kroz južni Velebit. Priroda je bila doista veličanstvena, a u tri smo dana sreli sveukupno niti 15 ljudi. Loša strana takve izolacije je da smo morali apsolutno sve nositi sa sobom u ruksacima, uključujući i svu hranu. A tu na scenu stupaju ove energetske pločice. Napucane su vrijednim nutrijentima, ukusne i jako kompaktne, pa zauzimaju minimum vrijednog prostora u ruksaku. Također su nas izašle puno jeftinije nego da smo energetske pločice išli kupovati, pa su stoga bile apsolutni uspjeh.

SASTOJCI:

(Za 18 pločica / 2,78 kn po pločici / 49,95 kn za sve)

500 grama krupnih zobenih pahuljica (6,00 kn)

2 šalice mljevenih oraha (15,00 kn)

2 šalice grožđica (6,00 kn)

1 žličica cimeta (0,50 kn)

½ žličice muškatnog oraščića (0,25 kn)

6 banana (12,00 kn)

1 žličica ekstrakta od vanilije (0,20 kn)

¼ šalice kokosovog ulja (5,00 kn)

¼ šalice meda (5,00 kn)

PRIPREMA:

Zagrijte pećnicu na 150°C. Obložite veliki protvan papirom za pečenje i stavite na stranu. U velikoj zdjeli pomiješajte zobene pahuljice, orahe, grožđice, cimet i muškatni oraščić. Ubacite oguljene banane u multipraktik i pulsirajte dok ne postanu kremaste. Prelijte kremu od banana, vaniliju, kokosovo ulje i med preko suhe smjese i promiješajte dok se sve u potpunosti ne sjedini. Smjesa će biti poprilično gusta pa ćete morati malo uprijeti.

Iskrenite smjesu na pripremljeni protvan i skroz špatulom skroz poravnajte. Obratite pozornost na to da je sve jednake debljine kako vam ne bi zagorilo. Posebno pripazite na rubove i poravnajte ih koliko je god moguće. Pecite 1 sat i 15 minuta, dok sve ne potamni i ne zahruska se. Čim maknete protvan iz pećnice izrežite pločice. Pustite da sve odmara u protvanu dok se skroz ne ohladi, a prije nego što ćete pločice spakirati za kasnije. Pločice će se još dodatno stvrdnuti kako se budu hladile. Hermetički zatvorene pločice će držati u hladnjaku mjesec dana, a na sobnoj temperaturi barem pet dana.