“Salty” bar?

[Jane McMichen]

Hi everyone,

I love Clif builder bars and a few regular Clif bars, but I find that when I'm out hiking I don't want a sweet taste during the day – I crave salty. I don't care for something that's mostly nuts, though. Any suggestions?

I'm also going to cruise through Sarah and Laurie's books again to see if anything stands out, but any help would be appreciated!

[Laurie Ann March]

Jane – my husband feels the same about energy bars so I am currently working on a recipe (that will also be for the second book) to make him a savoury bar. If you like I can post or email you the recipe once I have it perfected.

[Jane McMichen]

That would be great, Laurie. Thanks! Any other ideas out there?

[Lynn Tramper]

Hey Laurie, that sounds great. I would say my only criticism of your first book (not to mention all the commercial bars on the market), was a lack of this type of snack food/MRP. I can see real potential for something like a "Pizza bar", a "burger bar", "satay chicken and rice bar", or maybe just a good old "bacon and egg bar", etc…I don't have the slightest hint of a sweet tooth, but I'm usually happyenough with the likes of jerky and nuts. If you come up with something more interesting, I would love add some variety to my trail snacks.

[Devin Montgomery]

Please post it! I would also be immensely interested!

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

One thing I love doing is pan bread and or biscuits. Think of it like this:
Either using a commercial or from scratch mix, make enough for two servings. Add in herbs, spices, bacon, cheese, rehydrated vegetables, etc – anything you like. Then heat up a Tablespoon of oil in a non stick fry pan or pot lid. Mix the dough up in a sandwich bag, then drop the dough in. Lower the heat on your stove and pan fry for a couple minutes, drizzle oil on top, flip and do again.

Make 'em in the morning or evening for the whole day.

Really good…yes, it uses fuel/time so not for the truly hard days but it can be good. I take stuff like that for first day out as well, make it the night before.

[Laurie Ann March]

There really isn't much in the line of bars that aren't sweet. That's okay for a few days but on longer trips it can become monotonous – and quite quickly so.

We make a Pizza Gorp that is good but the idea of a bar is something I've been playing with for a long time. I'm experimenting with some unusual spice combinations too… we'll see if they pass Bryan's criteria (he's a little too honest sometimes – lol) and then I'll post the recipes.

[Jane McMichen]

Here's a thought you food gurus might be able to run with.

I was dehydrating quinoa the other day and tasted it when it was about 3/4 dry. I cook mine with garlic, thyme, summer savory and a little salt. Anyway, at that dryness level it was "done" enough for short term use (maybe last a couple of weeks in the fridge)and had a good mouth feel -not as tooth breaking as granola but nicely crunchy. I'm going to try some trail mix using this, dried tomato bits, and maybe crumbled cheddar crackers. Will let you know how it goes.

But from that base, can you folks share any ideas that come to mind about a bar type snack? What "binders" come to mind besides peanut butter or corn flour type stuff?

[Laurie Ann March]

Jane – I actually have a quinoa based bar in my current cookbook and there will be another in this one. Both of those recipes are sweet though. The bar I am working on now (the savory one) has some quinoa and a few other grains in it. The great thing is that the quinoa is so good for you too.

I've been using shredded carrot with some success and for a binder I've been using agave syrup, quinoa flour and cashew butter.

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