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Friday, March 25, 2011

Trying Something New


Do you ever try a food and just love it and wish you could make it at home so you have it all the time??  Well, I've decided that I really like  KIND BARS.  They have a lot of different bars and all the ones that I have tried have been delicious!  The other day, I decided that I would try to make some KIND BARS.  I walked around the grocery store and carefully thought of the items that I thought should go into my Kind Bars.  I went down several isles more than once!  Here are items I thought should go into my Kind Bars.


As you see, I thought a lot about a variety of items. 
I used most of the items pictured for my bars.
  Some of my ingredients were what I had at home
 and some I bought for the recipe attempt.
  Some ingredients were organic and some were not.










I used some very tasty roasted almonds- without any salt. 
I roughly chopped the almonds. 
I had to do them in about four little "batches" because
they moved around on the cutting board when I chopped them. 


I chopped up some dried apricots, too.
They didn't hop around on my cutting board ;0) 
I  mixed the apricots in with a little water and some fruit pectin and then
heated it up in the microwave for about a minute.



Then, I started adding  the other dried fruit (cranberries, blueberries and cherries), granola, sesame seeds, honey, flax seed and pepitas.



I mixed it all up. 
Doesn't it look yummy?



Then I gently folded in the unsweeted coconut shreds.



I then spread it into a lightly greased 8 x 8 pan.


After I spread the mixture into the pan, I covered it with waxed paper.



Then, I placed another 8 x 8 pan on top of the pan and the waxed paper.


I then pressed the pan.
 I made sure I pressed all the edges, corners and in the center.
 I pressed it kinda hard.


Doesn't it look great? 
 Doesn't it look nice and smooth? 
Doesn't it look delicious?


I brushed the top with a little bit of apricot fruit spread and a little bit of pectin and a tiny bit of water.  I heated this up for about a minute and then covered the surface.  Then, I decided to lightly bake my bars.
  I baked them for ten minutes in a 325 oven and then I let them cool for a while. 


 My Kind Bars taste great. 
The almonds have stayed crisp- even three days later! 
 I thought they might get soggy, but they haven't. 
They are a little bit crumbly on the bottom...but not too bad.
 I cut my bars a little bigger than the real KIND BARS. 
My bars were also a little bit thicker than the real thing.
I think the whole experiment was a success!

1 comment:

Teresa said...

Wow~zee!
I'm impressed Marsha!
Think you might need to OVER~NIGHT some of those KIND Bars out here!
The Northwest needs a taste of those babies!
LOVE how you pressed them with the other pan...clever indeed!
I know the COCONUT is YUmmerS in these!
You ROCK!
LOVE it that you created your very own KIND Bars!
xo
Love the bunny too!
So cute!