I have had my eye on this recipe since first getting my hands on this book - Delia's recipe for
Chocolate Marbled Energy Bars appears on page 182 and she tells us the history, that these were made on TV with Dawn French for Comic Relief. By a happy coincidence, my own energy bars have been helping towards another charity (more on that later).
There were quite a few ingredients in this one that you wouldn't necessarily have in the cupboard, but luckily, I happened to have a few leftover packs from a Kellogg's variety pack (since everyone always grabs the Coco Pops and leaves the boring stuff) so my 25g of Rice Krispies and Bran Flakes were taken care of (just the right quantity too - it's like Delia knew!). Dried fruits, pecans, oats and condensed milk as well as (quite a lot of!) chocolate and I was all ready to rock.
Once you've got hold of all the ingredients, putting them together is really quite simple. Toasting pecans then chopping everything up took a bit of time but then it really was just a case of melting the condensed milk and syrup and mixing it all together then packing it into a tin a popping it in the oven.
You could leave it there - Delia says they are also tasty without the chocolate on top, and if you wanted a healthier energy bar very similar to (but much nicer than) cereal bars you can buy in the supermarket, all you'd need to do was chop. The oaty look makes you think you're getting something like a flapjack, but by using condensed milk instead of butter and sugar, they feel much lighter and crisper.
I decided not to leave it as a healthy option, but went for it with the chocolate. Delia said 150g each of dark and white chocolate, but I'm not a fan of plain chocolate so I went for milk and white instead. Both were melted in a bowl over simmering water, and then came the fun bit - marbling. You can see from the pictures how easy it was - just blobs of melted chocolate swirled with a cocktail stick up and down, and then across. The result is really effective.
Very unlike me, I was patient with this one and left the whole thing in the fridge until the chocolate was really solid. I cut it into 16 pieces with the intention of sharing it around, but I have to confess I probably ate at least 10 of those! Those who did get a piece really liked it - it got the thumbs up from Julie and Laura, and by my friend Vic who was in need of the energy having been up half the night with a brand new puppy.
Now time for the shameless plug... part of the reason I made these energy bars was to keep me fuelled for my training - on Sunday 18th October I'm running a half marathon (The Great Birmingham Run) to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Care. Unfortunately chocolate, oats and dried fruit are not all I need for motivation - raising money for a great cause will get me out training so I can last the distance (only managed 8 miles so far of the 13.1!). So please visit my JustGiving page and give what you can! Thank you!
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