Vanilla/Salted Caramel Rice Cakes

The Vanilla Rice Cakes are ready to refrigerate/freeze and then go on your next endurance adventure.

I recently have been discussing fuelling options with coached athletes and thought I'd share some gluten free options that I enjoy in cooler months. These are fabulous in that they are gluten free and address fuelling needs beautifully if you are coeliac. They're also cheap as chips which is great in times of economic slowdown - they taste good - like eating rice pudding, but on the run. The other big plus is that they are low in fat and easy to digest.

Enter the humble "rice cake" - eaten by plenty of procyclists in both training and racing.

There are a couple of ways you can incorporate "rice" into fuelling - first being "rice Krispie squares" made popular by sites like Pock-It fuel - which are Rice Bubbles held together by melted marshmallows. Personally, I have found that combination to be sickly sweet and as I couldn't find white marshmallows (only white and pink), the actual finished product looks like kind of suspect. These are also quite dry in texture overall.

The other method is the "rice cake" used in training and popularised by the book "Feed Zone Portables" - you can make the cakes in lots of different ways - and can make them savoury or sweet and scale that sweetness up and down, whilst still getting a decent amount of carbs in.

My current favourites are a salted caramel vanilla type concoction. The condensed milk holds things together nicely and adding salt balances the flavours. The original version is by Dr Gemma Sampson who is an accredited dietitian, who currently works for UAE-ADQ and specialised in cycling nutrition.

Recipe to make 16 large cakes:

Ingredients:

2 cups of arborio or sushi rice (long grain doesn't work)

3 cups water

some salt flakes to taste (a pinch is enough for me)

1/4 cup caster sugar (can go more, but prefer subtle sweetness)

approx 1/2-3/4 cup condensed milk (go with what holds the rice together but doesn't make it too wet)

vanilla paste.

Method:

Put the rice in a saucepan with the water and bring to a low simmer with the lid on (helps it to thicken). Stir minimally - also helps it to thicken, just enough to keep things evenly distributed.

Rice will be done when it's soft to eat.

Towards the end of this process, add your condensed milk, a good glob of vanilla paste and your salt. Mix for even distribution.

Pour into a square shaped container. Let cool on your kitchen counter for 20 minutes or so, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Cut into 16 squares - obviously the more rice, the more chonky you can make them. A big boi packs about 50g carbs and smaller ones 20-30g.

Wrap individually using a layer of baking paper, and foil over the top, leaving a tab where you can label them with date etc or a motivational message!

If you're not eating straight away, you can chuck them in the freezer in a ziplock bag. I usually put a couple into my pocket (Or Snacket!) and they defrost as you ride along.

They're great for winter, but possibly not so good in warmer temps.

Other variation - reduce condensed milk, add 1-2 tablespoons of coconut and lemon rind for a lemon/coconut treat. If you want to give them the real salted caramel treatment, substitute brown sugar for the caster sugar.

Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.