Hi, after hearing homemade rice cakes mentioned a lot on the podcast id like to try making some as I could do with a good snack for early morning training. Could anyone share any good recipes they have used? I’m in the uk and the only rice cakes I’ve tried here are supermarket bought ones that are hard crispy plain polystyrene ish cracker type ones! I have googled them obviously but thought I’d see if I could get a tried and tested version! Any other good homemade snack ideas welcome!
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Scratch labs has a cookbook with several rice cake recipes…here is one:
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I second the skratch labs book. The Portables one gives you all kinds of recipes for on the bike.
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I tried making rice cakes but honestly found it a faff, and not worth it when they have limited life even in the fridge. Also, very easy to get the consistency wrong and have them either fall apart or be impossible to swallow.
I might make a batch if I had a big multi-hour event. Otherwise, I stick to my diet of Soreen, bananas, Nutrigrain breakfast bakes, Eat Natural Bars, and homemade flapjack (easy and lasts forever in a tupperware box)…
Cycling Flapjack recipe (makes 12)
Ingredients optimised for on-the-bike digestion - substitute with what you have in the cupboard, but these work for me.
150g coconut oil
170ml sweet sticky syrup - date syrup is great, maple syrup, golden syrup, and honey ok too
100g soft brown sugar
Put these into a pan and let them gently melt / dissolve / come to the boil. Then stir in…
100g raisins / sultanas
A few chopped medjool dates, or perhaps some chopped up stem ginger*
200g oats (at least; add more oats if necessary until the mixture is quite stiff)
Other ingredients like seeds or nuts (but only if you know you won’t be riding too hard as these will be harder to digest)
Pour the mixture into a tin lined with greaseproof paper and bake (depending on thickness) for 20-25 minutes at 180 / 160 fan.
*I made a batch recently where I used stem ginger, and instead of date syrup, used the syrup from the ginger jar. My god they were good.
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I tried a recipe that i found in youtube a few time ago and…i cannot eat them…bah
I’m a terrible cooker 
Nutritional value per portion:
220kcal
3g protein
33g carbs
9g fat
Ingredients:
-380g sushirice
-200ml cocoscreme
-200ml cocosmilk
-200gr cristal sugar
-100gr coconut powder
-a pinch of cardamom powder
Instructions:
-put the sushi rice in a bowl with a royal amount of water.
-let it sit for 4 hours, drain afterwards
-preheat over on 180 degrees Celcius
-cover a tray (preferably a square or rectangle) with parchment paper
-put the rice with 600ml water in a pan: bring to boil
-when the rice starts to boil: lower the heat and wait until all water is gone. Stir so the rice won’t burn.
-Take a sauce pan: mix coconut cream / milk with sugar and bring to the boil.
-When all sugar is dissolved: add 70 grams of coconut powder, cardamom and rice.
-Put the mixure in the tray, add the extra 30 grams of coconut powder on top, bake for 45 minutes (or until most of the moisture is gone)
-let it cool down, put in the fridge
-divide in 16 portions, put it in silver foil if you want to put it in your back pocket.
Edit:
Recipe is by Stephanie Scheirlynck, who is working with Wout Van Aert, GVA, Nafi Thiam, Trek Segafredo,… Her books are great, not sure whether they are available in English.
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Thanks for everyone’s input, will give some a go at the weekend! And if all fails it’ll be good old flapjack! Cheers
This lacks the advanced culinary skills and nutrition science, but it’s fairly easy and works for me. Amounts needed to get a firm consistency may vary based on your ingredients or taste preferences.
Mix together thoroughly 400g of white Calrose rice fresh from the rice cooker and 150g of cooked, peeled sweet potato potassium, other good stuff), ensuring sweet potato is mashed completely into the rice. I use hands in disposable plastic gloves for mixing.
Add 2 tbsp honey (helps bind everything together) and 2-1/2 tbsp well mixed, natural peanut butter (protein, sodium).
Mix together thoroughly.
Add cinnamon or similar to taste. More honey/peanut butter to taste.
Press firmly into a parchment paper lined pan (9x13 was right for me). Lay plastic wrap on top of mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and aluminum foil.
Refrigerate 2-4 hours.
Remove coverings. Pull parchment paper from pan. Square up edges with your hands. Cut. Wrap individual cakes in parchment paper. Pack in plastic zipper bags and refrigerate.
If you put the cakes in a plastic zipper bag, then put that bag in plastic “freezer” zipper bag, they’ll survive a week or two in the freezer fairly well. You can also make rice balls, but they don’t pack as tightly as bars.
I tried making Skratch’s bacon and egg rice cakes. They were tasty, but wouldn’t stick together for me. Probably something I did wrong. 
After experimenting with rice I switched over to corn meal. This is my staple for long endurance rides at this time of the year. For me the main advantage is that the corn meal I use requires to add 4times water. Water is always in issue on these long rides in winter. I don’t want to stop and go into a gas station.
100 g corn meal (I use Leverno … this one requires more water)
50g oat meal (the fat content of oatmeall really adds to the flavour)
50g honey
400-500 ml hot water
Mix
9min into the microwave at low temp
Let cool
Slice & wrap
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My aproach is an easy one:
I cook rice (risotto rice), take whatever I like (chocolate chunks, brown sugar, dates, raisins, sunflower seeds, fried bacon, smashed banana,…), stir it together and spread it on a backing tray or sheet and let it cool down. If its too moist you can bake it for some minutes.
Thats all.
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GCN Energy Bars are my go to. Keep for ages in the fridge, and not too complicated to make compared to rice cakes. Obviously sweet though - I keep meaning to try savory rice cakes, but bringing a sandwich just seems easier!
I sub out the oil for equivalent grams of butter, and after discussion the facebook group, I now reduce that by half, as it’s less crumbly.
GCN Energy Bars
Ready made energy bars are perfect fuel for cycling, but if you want to make your own, here is the secret GCN recipe for Uber Bars! Click “Show more” for the full ingredients list.
Subscribe to GCN: http://gcn.eu/gcnsubsSunflower Oil – 120ml/3/4 cup
Soft Dark Brown Sugar – 200g/1 cup
Golden Syrup – 2 tbsp
Peanut Butter – 1 tbsp
Vanilla Extract – 1/2 tspMelt these ingredients in a pan over a low heat until melted and mixed together.
Next, add:
Sesame Seeds – 25g / 2 tbsp
Sunflower Seeds – 25g / 2 tbsp
Flaked Almonds – 50g / 1/2 cup
Sultanas – 50g / 1/2 cup
Chopped Dates – 50g / 1/2 cupGradually stir in thick cut porridge oats/oatmeal – 225g / 8 oz
Transfer mixture to a baking tin lined with parchment. Roughly 25 x 15cm or 10 x 6 inches.
Press down firmly with a metal fork.
Place in an oven at 180degrees c, 350 degrees f or gas mark 4 for 10 – 15 minutes, keeping an eye on them so they don’t get over done.
Finally, leave to cool in the tin before you take them out and cut them.
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Do you find yourself chewing less with these than with rice cakes? I just tried rice cakes for first time and they were great (currently making my second batch).
The only downside of rice cakes is that I find myself needing to chew more than I’d like when I’m trying to catch my breath and eat at the same time during 75-85% ftp efforts. Maybe I should add more water to the rice cooker…
The corn meal cakes sounds interesting!
Can’t really say, haven’t eaten rice cakes in a very long time. But could be. On the other hand, due to the higher water content it’s quite bulky, per amount of carbs more volume to chew.
However, I must say that I only use these for long endurance rides. Just came out of my final build block for my A-race. Long rides with max time at Tempo/SST (up to 3-4hours at target zone in 5h rides for example). I went with liquid food. Simply easier to deal with. And refill is easy with all the fountains here and powder in zippers in the jersey pockets.
More water needed. You should be able to shove whole thing in your mouth while riding at tempo and just crush with your tongue to swallow. If you are chewing it is far too dry
Just to clarify, do you mean that you could do this, i.e., crush with your tongue to swallow, for rice cakes? Or for the corn meal cake? Thanks.
For rice cakes if they are moist enough (which gives you the true benefit of real food and proper hydration) you can basically eat it like soft serve ice cream. No need to bite anything as it’s soft enough that you can just shove the whole thing in your mouth if you are on the rivet and just swallow.
When they start to dry out you might need to chew a bit but not much.
I quite often make m own rice cakes with grated apple and mixed spice, or coconut milk, or emental cheese. Its worth the effort making them.
But at a recent track event a friend told me to try his rice cakes and I have to say were brilliant - turns out he buys tins of rice pudding, drains the liquid, compresses them in sandwich bags and sticks them in the fridge overnight - easiest rice cake recipe Ive come across…
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Thanks, RONDAL. I didn’t read any instructions and just simply made the rice in our cooker the way it’s made for meals. Seems like more water is in order!
1L of water per 500g of dry rice.