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Homemade energy bars: Where deliciousness and frugality meet.

Any snack enthusiast has probably already noticed: the energy bar (and bite, and chew) section of the grocery store aisle has grown exponentially over the years. And if you’re anything like us, your spending on energy bars has also grown. Don’t get us wrong—many of the store-bought bars are tasty, and they promise to fuel us with advanced nutritional superscience and all-natural ingredients. But with prices tallying multiple dollars per bar, keeping yourself properly fueled on a hike, bike, ski tour, or backpack suddenly gets really expensive. It’s a cost we used to take in stride out of necessity, until one day the wondrous possibilities of homemade bars dawned upon us. A quick Google search later, we found countless recipes. We enthusiastically jumped into recipe testing. At first, the experimentation process felt a little overwhelming—we saw ingredients most folks don’t use day to day, and tools like food processors, which we weren’t sure about. Here are a few tips if you want to embark into the wonderful world of homemade trail bars. If you can muck through the learning curve and a bit of trial and error, you can land on incredibly fun and fulfilling recipes you’ll want to use over and over again. You can add in anything you wish, such as your favorite dried berries or some protein powder for an extra kick of muscle power. Get crazy with the flavor combos—cardamom pear walnut oatmeal bars? Boom. Peanut butter and jelly bars? Hellyeah. Chocolate almond coconut bars with flax seeds? The stuff of legend. Photo by Hayley Maxwell on Unsplash

A few tips before you begin

We’re not going to get into the details of recommending specific recipes here, because finding recipes is the easy part. Any internet search for “homemade energy bars for hiking” will turn up countless appetizing results, whether you’re browsing on Google or Pinterest or elsewhere. Most recipes with great ratings will work well. A few tips may help, too: Make friends with parchment paper! If you’re unfamiliar, parchment paper is found on rolls just like aluminum foil and plastic wrap, right next to them on the grocery store shelves. You can line a pan with parchment paper before baking your bars. They’ll be really easy to pull out of the pan after. You can then wrap each individually sliced bar in parchment paper for storage. Photo by Rachael Gorjestani on Unsplash “No bake” has its limits. Many bars are billed as “no bake,” which means you mash all the ingredients together, then press the batter into a pan and chill or freeze the pan. These bars are typically held together with coconut oil, peanut butter, or some other substance that binds the ingredients into a bar shape very nicely when the bar is chilled, but completely loosen and crumble if the bar gets warm. This is fine if the bars are going ski touring with you on a cold day, but if you take them out on a summer hike, you’ll end up with a shapeless clump of crumbly goo in your pack. So opt for baked bars on summer outings—they’ll hold together like cookies or brownies do. Extend shelf life by freezing. Bake a batch of bars, then cool and slice ‘em. Store them individually wrapped in parchment paper, stashed inside a tupperware in your freezer. Then, for a big day out, just grab and go. A food processor is handy, but not always essential. Many bar recipes call for you to blend ingredients together with a food processor. Food processors are da bomb, but they can be darn expensive. If you can’t pony up for a name-brand model, no sweat—you can pick up a simpler model for a fraction of the cost, or find a gently used or refurbished one. And if buying a whole new appliance sounds overwhelming, skip it. You can pulverize many of the ingredients that need pulverizing by using your normal household blender, then mixing them thoroughly. Food processors are a time-saver, but they’re not always the only way to get the job done. Photo by Taylor Kiser on Unsplash Go crazy with the customizations. This is the amazingly fun part. Start with an established recipe, then go bananas. (Maybe literally!) … Play with different dried fruits, chocolate chips, shredded coconut, cinnamon, nuts, sugar, and salt. Toy around with a little added protein powder or collagen powder. See how chia seeds might fit into the mix (they’re said to support hydration). If a recipe doesn’t quite work, tinker. Like any baking project, bars often need a little experimentation. If they turn out too dry, crumbly, moist, dense, or bland, you can experiment with variables in the next batch. Don’t give up. Any experienced baker can tell you that different ovens, different elevations, and even different baking pans yield different results. Don’t despair if your bars are sub-par. Just play around to improve. Usually, any bar recipe you find can be tweaked for your own dietary needs or preferences. For instance, a quick Google search will give you guidance on veganizing a recipe by swapping coconut oil for butter or substituting ground flax seeds for egg. If you know you need more carbs, look for recipes incorporating whole wheat flour. If you’re in need of fats, load up on the nuts and nut butters. The amazing thing about homemade bars—besides being very budget friendly—is that you can tailor the nutrition to what your body specifically needs on your adventures. A little delicious fine-tuning can lead to the most perfect-for-you trail nutrition that you could ever dream up. Stash ‘em in a little sandwich container, and giddyup. And don’t forget to tag us in your energy bar pics. We love inspiration. Beth Lopez is a seasoned writer and creative director who loves to tell tales of adventure and discovery—and finds writing a powerful way to give a voice to people, causes, and places. Beth runs amok in the Wasatch mountains when untethered from her computer. She believes there’s no such thing as a bad ski day and considers animals her favorite people. Don’t tell her mother about her Instagram mountaineering photos. Follow us on Instagram + Facebook: Tag us @geartrade with the hashtag #unnewoutdoor #wearitout on your post or story for a chance to be featured on our page.

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