Happy Pancake day sports fans!
To celebrate we’ve got one-time Wideopen team rider Mark Scott (now Santa Cruz Factory racer) to share his tried and tested Power Pancakes recipe!
Mark swears by this one. It’s his go-to breakfast for physical days of racing or training and gives him tonnes of fuel to power on through till lunch time. It takes 5 minutes to make, is full of power-giving ingredients and has zero crap. Also – there’s no milk or eggs meaning dairy intolerant riders are safe.
Best yet, you can buy all the ingredients in your local shop (or the one down the road from the race venue) and cook them at home on your hob or at a race on your camping cooker. It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s good for you.
So … give the double sausage and egg muffin the boot and try this next weekend eh?
Recipe:
5 Minute Power Pancakes!
Ingredients:
Half a cup of oats
1 fair trade banana
Organic honey
Cococnut oil (or olive oil if you don’t have any!)
Tools:
Frying pan
Something to mash with
A knife
A mixing bowl
Gas or electric hob (at home or in a field)
Step 1: Oats
Measure out half a cup of oats and bosh it in your mixing bowl.
Oats are damn good for bike riding. They give you energy without the spikes you would get from sugary foods. These keep you feeling steady for longer and reduces production of fat. They’re also full of magnesium which is great for energy production. Oh – and they last for ages and don’t need to be stored in any special way. Chuck a bag in your race-box and leave it there all season.
Step 2: Bananas
Chop up a Banana nice and fine and sling it in the bowl too.
Bananas are easy to find, pretty cheap and don’t need to be stored too carefully. They’re literally packed with good stuff to help you perform well. They aid digestion, they’re packed with potassium and loaded with digestible carbohydrates that give you loads of fuel for your ride. Unlike a chocolate bar, you won’t get a sugar spike with a banana. Have one in this recipe, then stick another in your Camelbak for mid-ride.
Step 3: MASH!
Mast the oats and bananas up into a paste. You could add some raisins at this stage and some water to make the mix a bit more ‘porridgey’, but Mark doesn’t bother.
Your mashed up power mix should look like this …
Step 4: Frying time
Get your frying pan on the hob on a medium heat. A gas or electric hob works fine. So does a camping cooker, Trangia or anything you can fry on. Bonus points for back-of-the-van cooking on race day!
Pop in a little bit (less than we used in the photo!) of cooking oil and bring the heat up – not too hot though!
MTBStrengthFactory Protip: “Coconut oil is the king of healthy fats. Great tasting, healthy stable at high temperatures and readily available in bigger supermarkets and health food shops. Look for organic, virgin oil that has been cold pressed.”
Then, scoop out your power pancake mix with a wooden spoon and pop it in the sauce-pan.
Keep the mix together and work it into a solid pancake shaped lump. As the mix starts to heat it’ll stick together and start to brown. Flip your pancakes carefully with your wooden spoon and stop them from sticking to the pan.
When your power pancakes start to go a nice golden brown (not dark brown and definitely not black!) they’re ready to eat. They should only need about 5 minutes in the pan.
Step 5: EAT!
Now for the good bit. Season with a little bit of organic honey and get stuck in. Wash down with a cup of tea, of course. Then, go shred and feel the power!
Mark says: “Yeah, they don’t quite taste the same as your pancake day lemon and sugar jobs but with a bit of honey they taste pretty good! I swear by them this year and pretty much have them every day before training. I’ll be fuelling up on this one at the Enduro World Series this year!”.
Need a bit extra? Try adding a bit of brown sugar, a pinch of salt and some raisins into the mix for a bit of extra flavour. Don’t go mad though, just a little bit. You can also add water to the mix when you mash everything up to make a more traditional runny porridge.
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OR … why not share your own recommendations for your favourite recipes with us? We’ll share the best on here and send you some goodies.
Mark Scott is Wideopenmag’s Enduro expert. He’s racing the full Enduro World Series in 2015 and building on a amazing season of results in 2014. Look out for his first big race of the year at the Rotorua Enduro World Series in March.
Follow Mark on Instagram @markscott259.
