Chocolate Yam Cookies

 

There are a million different energy bars on the market.   Everything from unpalatable, dry masses of calories to tasty treats are available. Throughout my riding days, I’ve tried them all, or at least a large majority of them.   When they come in a race schwag-bag, I happily eat them. But I hate shelling out the money to actually buy them.  So I started making my own.  Reading the ingredient labels of pre-existing products and trying to recreate their recipes resulted in a varied amount of success.

Then I joined the Paleo Diet Lifestyle, or cult, depending on who you ask. Wheat-free, dairy-free, sugar-free. My search for the perfect energy bar to take on long rides became significantly narrower.  Anything containing wheat, oats, soy, or rice sugar is to be avoided and, in reality, I can only carry so many bananas in my Camelback before they squish into an unrecognizable mass of goop.

So I set out on a quest to create good ride food: healthy, nutritional, carbohydrate dense, and most of all, tasty.

Chocolate Yam Cookies may sound strange.  But package them in a small ziplock baggie, and you have a good source of slow-burning carbohydrates (via the yams), a little bit of protein, and a delicious chocolate taste for any ride.  Plus, these are super-easy to make and hard to mess-up, all major bonus points in my book.

Chocolate Yam Cookies – Ingredients

1 medium yam, peeled

2 egg whites

1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tbsp almond butter

Dash of cinnamon (depending on how much you like cinnamon, my dashes tend to be large)

Instructions

Peel and cube the yams. Place in boiling water for 7-10 minutes until soft.

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. The consistency should be a little runnier than normal cookie dough.

Place on a baking sheet and bake on 350 for 10 minutes and 300 for 20 minutes. I generally make about 8 cookies.

Allow to cool. Enjoy on your next ride. Make your friends jealous.

By Eszter Horanyi – Crested Butte, CO - girl bike rider and ride food maker extraordinaire.