Thursday 19 May 2011

Snack Bars for Hiking


One of the joys of the Homemade Heaven staff kitchen is hiking. Over the years I have shared many hikes throughout Cape Town as well as some of the more adventurous hikes in Namibia. 

The most important thing in preparing for a multi-day hike is planning your food. Everyday has to be broken down into breakfast, lunch, supper, snacks and extras. Each meal has to be thought out from convenience of preparation, weight to calorie ratio (empty calories don't make the cut), space and not least of all taste.

If you fail to plan, you will fail to eat. When you are hiking an average of 20km's per day, you need the maximum energy you can get from your food, without wasting energy carrying heavy loads. All this planning falls into my portfolio, as I am the one who has too feed the troops.

The first hike I prepared for was a huge learning curve. We ended the hike with huge smiles and bags still filled with food! All this after reading every hiking website and blog.

  The real lessons come from discovering just how much 2kgs of sugar weighs and that while taking potatoes and butternut sound like great hiking foods,  peeling and cooking them is not as practical when you've hiked 7 hours and have 20 minutes of daylight left before it's tools down for the day.

I have fine tuned a recipe for a great snack bar that is not only tasty, easy to prepare ahead, travels well and has plenty of goodness thrown in for good measure. It's actually a hikers take on the old marshmallow treat.


Hiking Treat Snacks

 400g bag of Toasted Coconut Marshmallows
60ml Coconut Oil
2 Cups of Granola
1 Cup Raw Almonds (Chopped roughly)

Topping
180g Chocolate

Grease a baking tray.
In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt the marshmallows stirring regularly.
Once the marshmallows are melted, remove from the heat and quickly stir in the other ingredients.
Press tightly into the baking tray and smooth the surface using damp hands.
Allow to cool before cutting into bars with a sharp knife.

Topping
Melt the chocolate over a double boiler.
Spread a layer of melted chocolate on the bars

8 comments:

Nina Timm said...

Wow, Rose, I love the toasted marshmallow in there, must have a huge taste difference from normal ones.

Great snack!

Marisa said...

Agree with Nina, the coconut-rich ingredients immediately caught my eye (well after the delectable chocolate topping that is...). These look super yummy!

Pinkpolkadot said...

This sounds so delicious and easy!! My childen will love these!!

Joyti said...

Those do sound like a perfect hiking idea. And I love how you styled the photographs - very creative and gorgeous!

Juliana said...

Yummie, this bars look great at anytime...I am saying this because I am not into hiking but want to have this bars :-) Hope you are having a great week Rosemary!

Margaret Murphy Tripp said...

Wow! those look great and I love every ingredient in them! I'm bookmarking this recipe right now. I have a son who loves to hike and is in Africa right now too! A town in Uganda that is on the north shore of Lake Victoria.

Jeanne @ CookSister! said...

Oh that's inspired!! never mind hikers - I want to take these to the office with me ;o) Yum.

Sam said...

Rose these snack bars look stunning and packed with the kind of energy you need for a long hike. Reading your posts on the Fish has inspired me to hit the trail again. Its one of my favourite activities in the world.

Jeremiah 17: 7-8

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water."

It is not your business to succeed, but to do what is right : when you have done so, the rest lies with God.
C.S. Lewis

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