One of the few packaged items I keep on hand is cereal bars. Rebecca eats them once in a great while (like maybe once every few weeks). Although we don’t eat them often, they are handy for when we’re traveling or need a really quick/no prep breakfast. They are natural/organic. But I’d still rather have them come from my kichen 🙂  The last box we bought was cherry flavored. And I thought…I wonder if I could make my own cherry bars? So I gave it a try yesterday. They turned out great! I still need to experiemnt with size/ratios/assembly but overall a great first attempt. We all like them. I decided to use my vanilla cookie recipe as the base since they stay quite soft. And I used our homemade cherry jam for the filling. I only made a small batch since I was experimenting. And I got 5 good size bars (will make them a little smaller next time). I’ll post the recipe for a full batch. You can probably make 12 or so bars from a full batch. It’ll be a handy treat to keep stocked in the freezer/cupboard. And they really are super easy to make. Love that. You can use any flavor filling you like. I just happened to have homemade cherry jam to use up. I’ll have to experiment sometime with sprouted flour and soaking. This time I just used regular whole wheat flour. I don’t have the  method down pat for forming the bars. But it worked pretty well to just spread some dough, top it with jam and top it with more dough.

Homemade Cereal Bars/Cherry Bars

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup sucanat
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/4 – 1/2 cup milk (enough to moisten dough)
homeade or organic jam/preserves for filling

Mix all ingredients except jam in a large bowl until well combined. On a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet spread bar size amounts of dough. Spread 1-2 Tbsp. jam on top. Top with a little more dough and spread. Bake at 425 for about 10 minutes. Let cool.

This post is linked to Monday Mania at The Healthy Home Economist.
 and Fat Tuesday at Real Food Forager.