Spring is coming!

Are you ready?

I placed a potato order with Eagle Creek Farms which included my new favourite, French Fingerlings! YUM!
Oh, and I'm really looking forward to getting out to the farm for some spring-time foraging. But that's still a couple months off.


I meant to get a post up on my attempts at making a Homemade Fruit-Filled Cereal Bar for my toddler (I have pictures and even measured as I did it!) but it involves turning on my old noisy -about to explode any minute- desktop to edit/upload the pics, so I'll do that tomorrow while working on photos from my latest shoot.




Why yes, I do dabble in the world of photography.  Lifestyle and Boudoir/PinUp/IWantToFeelSexy/INeedAnExcuseToDressUp&FeelGoodAboutMyself type shoots mostly. There's a link to a Flickr account which hasn't been updated for a bit at the top of the righthand column.

Back to the recipe...
I'm not 100% happy with it yet.  I'm using Gold Forest Grain Soft Wheat flour for the majority of it (1cup) + 1/4cup all-purpose white.
Oats (1cup, LOCAL!) are finely chopped in a food processor with a bit of honey (2tbsp, local!) and some salted butter (1/4cup, local! again).  An egg (local free-range organic is best!) and plain yogurt (1/4 to 1/2cup, also local) hold it all together.
I'm trying to decide if baking powder would help it or not.
For the fruit filling apart I'm using the applesauce we made last fall with OFRE fruit.
I divided the dough in half, spread/rolled it out to 2-3mm thick, placed a line of applesauce down the middle and folded the sides up. This allowed for the bar to stay a little more flat, which results in more even baking and is easier to cut afterwards.

It's healthy, it's locally-sourced ingredients (almost 100%), it's tasty!  ... It's not quite perfect.
Londyn eats them, but the crust is still too chewy for her so if she takes a big bite it's harder for her to handle.
My first version was basically the same without the white flour and egg, it had baking powder.  It was a touch too crumbly.
I need to find the middle ground.

So, for all you eagerly awaiting the recipe, I encourage you to take what I've already done and find something that works for you.
I hardly ever follow a recipe exactly, I don't expect you to either.


What are your experiences with recipe development?  What projects have you been working on lately?