Tag: cooking with kids

The giant choc chip cookie

The recipe for the giant choc chip cookie kept coming back on a Facebook cooking group. So I gave it a go. The recipe is from a French blogger Claire au Matcha.

Of course, this is very successful with children! Imagine, a giant cookie! I must say the first time I baked it I was quite excited also.

cookie geant

chip choc cookie cake

Ingredients:

For the giant choc chip cookie you will need a cake tin 20 cm wide, buttered and floured.

  • 180 g of plain flour
  • 1 tsp of baking powder
  • 180 g of brown sugar
  • 120 g of soft butter (must be soft, not melted).  Apparently, you could also use margarine according to the initial author.
  • 1 pinch of salt (omit if using salted butter)
  • 1 egg
  • 80 g of dark chocolate chopped in 1/2 cm pieces
  • For the top, 100 g of milk chocolate chopped into pieces (you can use dark chocolate if you prefer)

Note: I find the recipe a bit too sweet as such, bring the sugar down to 160 g or use dark chocolate which is not as sweet

Method
  1. Butter and flour the baking tin
  2. Preheat the oven to 180°C
  3. Cream together the soft butter and brown sugar, add the egg and mix well
  4. Add together the flour, salt, baking powder and 80 g of chocolate. Mix only until combined. The dough is rather compact, don’t worry.
  5. Transfer the dough into the tin and spread. Place the 100 g of chocolate over the top and gently push down a bit.
  6. Bake for 25 min or until golden brown (like a cookie).
  7. Turn over on a cooling rack, then on a dish.

Santa madeleines, a fun Christmas treat to prepare with children and adults

Those are Santa madeleines. This is a fun Christmas treat to prepare with children and adults.  My older daughter – who is 11 years old – ha that idea for her classmates. The teacher had placed a Christmas sock at the back of each student’s chair. I think those Santas did not stay long in the socks!

It is fun to make those Santa madeleines, not just for the children, I found that pretty cool too!

Before you start, it may be a good idea to wear aprons.

The concept of the Santa madeleine

Make a bunch of madeleines. You will need the special madeleine prints for this. The recipe I use is HERE. If you aren’t a fan of the lemon taste, don’t put any, you can put a dash of good quality vanilla extract.

You will need food colouring of a rich red colour from your supermarket.

Once the madeleines have cooled down, you can start the icing and complete your Santa madeleines! Note that the icing will need a few hours to dry fully, overnight is better.

You will need to make a white icing, a red icing and have found some little eyes bits (from the shops) for the eyes. If you want to add a pompon-like item, you can find little sugar stars for example. you will find those in the baking section of the shops.

Making and applying the icing

To prepare the icing, you need:
  • one lemon or two squeezed lemons
  • 2-3 cups of icing sugar sifted (to avoid any lumps)
  • the red food colouring

For the white icing, place a cup of the sifted icing sugar in a bowl, add about 1/2 lemon juice. Just add a little at the time and start mixing. You basically want something quite pasty, a bit like Nutella when at room temperature (or maybe a tiny bit more fluid). If you went too far, i.e. your icing is too liquid, add more sugar!

For the red, start with the red food colouring and then add the lemon juice. Aim for the same consistency a the white. Be mindful to not mix the utensils you are using.

To apply the icing on your Santa madeleines

When there are kids involved, I am all for simple tools. We used toothpicks to draw the hat border and small spoons for the beard and hat.

To attach the eyes on your Santa madeleine, put a little white icing underneath each eye and “glue” them to the madeleine.

To clean your kitchen bench

The red icing is messy (the white as well but it cleans without a trace).  Use baking soda and a bit of water to form a paste and rub your kitchen bench. it should come off very well!

Reine de Saba

La Reine de Saba or The Queen of Sheba is a beautiful chocolate cake.  It is great for many occasions: morning and afternoon tea, accompaniment of a dessert cream, lunch box or parties birthday cake. I have also used it as a basis for a birthday cake (a crocodile chocolate cake).

You will find some versions of this cake which have almond meal instead of flour. It is also delicious, not as light though. I liked this one from the goodfood magasine.

Ingredients
  • 150 g of white or caster sugar
  • 100 g of plain flour
  • 2/3 sachet of raising powder or 2/3 teaspoon if using it from the box
  • 150 g of dark cooking chocolate (if you are using a 70% cocoa chocolate, decrease the chocolate quantity to 120 g, it would be too strong for children).
  • 120 g of butter
  • 4 egg yolks and 4 egg white beaten to snow.
Method
  1. Heat the oven to 180 °Celsius.
  2. Butter and flour a tin, or butter and line.
  3. Melt the butter and chocolate together.
  4. Mix in the sugar, then the egg yolks one at the time.
  5. Add the flour and raising powder together, being careful not to create any lumps.
  6. Fold in the egg whites (in snow) gently.
  7. Transfer to the baking tin and insert in the oven.
  8. Cook until dry in the center (20 to 30 min depending on ovens and thickness of the cake in the tin)

 

 

 

Black and white checkers cookies

This black and white cookies recipe is taken from the Williams-Sonoma Baking Book.  It is a recipe my eight year old daughter decided to do on her own.  As the recipe provides measurement in both the imperial american systems and universal metric system, there was a little confusion for her upfront on the different values.  Once that was sorted out, she ended up doing the cookies pretty much on her own (I was downstairs working).  With or without help from adults, this recipe is a great one to teach children some basic aspects of baking: making a shortcrust, measuring, diving, measuring, using egg yolk as a “glue”.

Makes about 40 cookies. Below is the recipe taken from Williams and Somona. The tips are my addition.

This type of cookie is made by forming dough into a log or rectangular block and chilling it thoroughly. You can also use different types of dough together (vanilla and chocolate, peanut butter and chocolate) to make patterned cookies. Cookies are then sliced off the log or block and baked. When slicing the dough, give the log or block a quarter turn after every half dozen or so slices to keep the cookies perfectly square or round.

black and white

Ingredients:
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour (315 g)
  • 1/2 cup sugar (125 g)
  • Pinch of salt –  Tip: remove if using salted butter
  • 250 g cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  • 1 whole egg plus 1 egg yolk
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 tbs unsweetened Dutch cocoa powder

Tip: for the butter, you can use soft butter or half melted butter.  When you rest the dough the first time, either leve it longer or use the freezer. 

Method:

Tip: I am not using a food processor here as in the original recipe. I find that best learning is achieved by doing by hand and also the mixing is not really hard, so does not warrant the use of a food processor.

  1. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Then, add the butter, vanilla  and egg yolks until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs and eventually holds together. Divide the dough in half. Transfer one-half to a lightly floured work surface and knead in the cocoa until incorporated. If the dough is very soft, wrap in cell-wrap and place in the fridge for 15 minutes.
  2. Lightly dust the work surface and a rolling pin with flour. Roll out each dough half into a 8 by 21 centimetre about one centimetre thick.  Trim the edges to even out.

    Tip: instead of trimming the edges, you can use a dough scrapper to push and distribute the dough in a rectangle.     
  3. Place each rectangle on a large baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until well chilled, about 30 minutes (Tip: or 10 minutes if using the freezer). Meanwhile, in a small bowl, beat the whole egg until blended. Set aside.
  4. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Using a sharp knife, cut each rectangle into 4 strips about 2 cm wide (you should have 4 strips of each color). Arrange 2 chocolate strips and 2 plain strips in a checkerboard pattern, brushing the beaten egg between the strips and gently pressing them together. Repeat with the remaining dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and use a knife to square off the edges of each block. Refrigerate until well chilled, about 30 minutes or 10 minutes if using the freezer.
  5. Preheat an oven to 180°C. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets or line them with parchment paper. Remove the blocks from the refrigerator, unwrap and cut each crosswise into slices 6-8 mm thick. Place them 4 cm apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the cookies feel firm when lightly pressed, about 15 minutes. Let the cookies sit on the baking sheets for 2 minutes, then use a spatula to transfer them to wire racks to cool completely.

 

Banana Bread

This recipe of banana bread is moist, rich and delicious.  This is pretty much what you get in cafes all around Australia.  If you would like a lighter recipe of banana bread look HERE.

Serve on its own, with jam, butter or salted caramel. After the second day, toast and spread some butter on it.

You will need a loaf tin to bake it (Frenchies, the loaf tin is wider than the “moule a cake”).

LOAF CAKE BANANA BREAD

Ingredients
  • 250 g butter
  • 200 g brown sugar
  • 1 tsp of vanilla extract
  • 4 eggs
  • 3 to 4 ripe to super ripe bananas (400 g)
  • 125 ml of buttermilk (or homemade substitute by adding 1 tsp of white vinegar to one cup of milk)
  • 300 g of plain flour
  • 2 tsp of baking powder
  • 1 tsp of sodium bicarbonate (bicarb soda)
  • 1 tsp of cinnamon
  • 1 tsp of mixed spice
  • If using unsalted butter, a pinch of salt
Method
  1. Pre heat oven to 180 °C.  Butter and line with baking paper a loaf tin
  2. Mix butter and sugar until pale and creamy, add the eggs one at the time. Add the vanilla.
  3. Mix in the mashed bananas, the cinnamon, mixed spice and butter milk.
  4. Add all at once the flour, baking powder and bicarb soda. Mix from the centre out to avoid making lumps.
  5. Pour the mix in the loaf tin and bake for just over an hour (up to 1.5 hour depending on your oven).  If you oven is generally strong, reduce the heat to 160 after ½ hour in the baking.  A baking needle inserted in the loaf must come out just moist, with no uncooked dough on it.
  6. Let the banana bread cool in the tin for ½ h before turning on a rack.

LOAF CAKE BANANA BREAD

Gift from the heart

The joy of offering a little something, a gift from the heart

Today, I am going back to one thing cooking and this time of the year is about: the family.   I love involving the children in the cooking activities, I enjoy seeing them exploring and taking initiatives, not just my children, all children!

Welcome into the “Silly Season”

In Australia, this time of the year is called the “silly season”.  It may be called the same elsewhere.  In the Southern hemisphere, not only is it Christmas and New Year Eve, it is also the start of the summer holidays and the end of the school year!

A lot to celebrate, gifts to exchange and opportunities to indulge!  The great thing on that aspect is that being summer, there are lots of opportunities for swims or water activities to stay away of the treats or use the calories brought by those extra treats (assuming some get guilty).

Chocolate truffles, the plain, the salted caramel ones and the kids party ones!

This week my daughters have wanted to make little presents for their teachers.  They decided to make something with chocolate, it quickly became truffles.  Not the classic plain chocolate truffles  I normally do, but a salted caramel chocolate truffle.

 

They were having lots of fun getting their hands really messy and once we were done licking every finger, of course.  As they make me notice when I sent them washing themselves in the bathroom, we all ended up like “Rudolf, the red nose reindeer” if not for the wrong colour! That was not the end of the truffle season here, a few days after that first episode, Ambrine had to bring something for her class party.  Guess what? Truffles! Yes, but this time she decided to adapt it to children’s tastes (RECIPE HERE). She did well!

Kids chocolate truffles. Replacing the cocoa coating with 100s&1000s

Now, rapidly before loosing you, truffles are simply a chocolate ganache, cooled down, rolled in small balls and coated in dutch cocoa powder.  From there, there are many variations possible.  So, go for it, it is EASY and YUMMY!!!

Truffles anyone?

 

 

 

 

 

Kids chocolate truffles

These kids chocolate truffles is a must try (and adopt!).  Chocolate truffles can be a bit bitter for children when coated with cocoa.  Well, just change the coating!  Here we used 100s & 1000s.  Great result!  My daughter initiated it for the school end of year class party.

Making chocolate truffles is a great activity for kids and they can pretty much do it all on their own. Oh yes, they will love getting their hands dirty for rolling the chocolate in small balls! You may need a few “no licking the fingers” rules there!

This recipe makes about 30.

Ingredients 

Use a good quality chocolate, a couverture chocolate is even better but you can also use a compound dark cooking chocolate, it will still be delicious.

  • 330 g of dark chocolate 70% cocoa
  • 25 cl (250 ml) of cream
  • 50 g of good quality soft butter (real butter please, no substitute here)
  • a pack of hundreds&thousands or other small size sugar coloured decoration.

Tip: you can always use the mortar or food processor  to further reduce the size of the pieces if to long.

Method:

  1. Cut the chocolate in small pieces with a large knife, place in a bowl.
  2. Boil the cream in a saucepan
  3. Pour the cream on top of the chocolate, cover for one minute then mix well until all the chocolate is melted.
  4. Add the butter, mix well.  Place in a shallow container (aim at 1.5 cm thickness of chocolate) and refrigerate for 2 hours minimum until firm.
  5. When ready to shape the truffles, you have 2 options:
    • Either use a teaspoon, scoop out the equivalent of a macadamia nut (for those who don’t know macadamia, it is between a walnut and a hazelnut). Roll in your hands to form a ball
    • Reverse the chocolate preparation on a chopping board, cut stripes 1.5 cm thick, repeat in the other directions to obtain cubes and roll each cube in a ball
  6. Transfer the balls to a large based plate with 100 & 1000s and roll them until coated (different techniques below).

 

7. Transfer to a storage box and keep in the fridge until you ready to serve.  The truffles can remain at room temperature for some time, it all depends on the temperature.

 

 

Halloween Menu

Halloween is a couple of weeks away. I have been preparing a Halloween menu for the local school fete and doing some trials.  I know some of you may be curious to get a few ideas to get the children involved in the kitchen or to be able to bring something topical for a party.

I will now share with you some of the Halloween specific menu items.

The witch’s hat

The concept:

A large cupcake, preferably
in a shiny casing,
a strongly coloured icing and a chocolate glaze painted ice cream cone!

Tips for the making:
  • Use a chocolate cupcake. As a recipe take any good moist chocolate cake.  I Halloweenlike to use the reine de Saba but there would be other nice options.
  • The ice cream cone is painted, using a kitchen brush, with a mix of dutch cocoa (darker than the normal one), icing sugar and a little hot water.  It dries out and remains stable for a while.  As a base mix 2 tbsp of cocoa, 1 cup icing sugar and 2 tbsp of hot water.  Make it darker adding more cocoa if required.  Some recipes add 2 tbsp of butter or margarine.
  • For the hat buckle, use for rolling icing.  Add a few drops of food colouring to change the colour and if it becomes to wet, add corn flour.  Similarly, use corn flour to prevent it to stick to the surface and rolling-pin, you can later brush off the excess corn flour.  Use a drop of water to attach together pieces of fondant.

The ghosts

halloween

The concept:

I used individual brioches drapped with white fondant, just add then the eyes!

Tips for the making
  • Use the brioche recipe in here.  This will make 20 individual brioches. Bake them in a muffin tray.   Make sure you butter and flour well your tray.
  • To drape the ghost esthetically, it is best to rise the height of the draping.  Use a lollipop, place fondant around the ball then plant the stick in the brioche.  Place the ghost draping over the lollipop.
  • For the eyes, you can use melted chocolate or some of the decorative pens sold in food sections of supermarkets.

The not so creepy bugs

halloween

The concept:

This one is easy.  I love it, it is very cute. Just a madeleine covered in coloured white chocolate partly on one side.  Eyes are made using chocolate cupcake decoration balls and the antennas are pieces of pretzels.

Halloween

Tips for the making

The white chocolate must be coloured using powder food colours, those are found in specialty stores.  The liquid food colours will make the white chocolate seize.  You may manage to get it again nice and smooth (by warming it again) but it may not fully dry out (like on the photos here, my prototypes).

The fairy wands

The concept:

Very easy again. Buy some grissini (those long narrow bread sticks).  Melt some white chocolate. Brush it on one end and roll the grissini in hundreds and thousands! My 4 y.o had a great time making them!

halloween
rolling hundreds and thousands
Tips for the making

Just be careful not to burn the white chocolate. Melting it in a bain marie is safer.

HAVE FUN!

Foraging for mulberries

Today, when we went back to our car after a few hours spent at the beach, we saw three young girls rushing away from a front yard with something that appeared to be very precious in the hands.  They were mulberries. The careful attitude had a lot to do with avoiding having blackened hands and squashing the fruits! This did it for us, it was time to go and check our neighbourhood trees and go foraging for mulberries!

Mulberry Trees

Mulberry trees are not an Australian native tree species and because of that, many councils have simply cut the mulberry trees over the last five to ten years.  In our area, this has not yet been the case.  The tree we went to is quite large, the season is just starting.  The fruits this year do not appear to be very big but there are plenty.

mulberry tree

 

A child’s adventure

This foraging expedition is best shared with children.  The children love it!  They get really excited, so I got them to gather our “kit” and we were ready.  We took boxes and a stool and off we went.

The first berries are easy to get to…

Then, a bit more strategy and skills are required…

20161003_152516

The other solution? Shake gently one branch and gather the fallen fruits, it is quite effective.

Now, our rule is to gather just what we need and no more.   It is a lot of fun and a great adventure!

After that, when we got home, we washed the fruits and removed the stalk. As a result, we did end up with fingers very purple, most of it has not washed off.

Mulberry Pie

The end purpose of collecting mulberries was to make a mulberry pie.  It is after dinner now and the left over of our pie is standing on the dinning table not far from me, I can smell its distinctive fruit and buttery aroma!

The full recipe can be found on its page HERE.

mulberry pie

mulberry pie

mulberry pie

 

 

Classic Mulberry Pie

If you have some mulberry trees in your neighbourhood, you could try to collect some of the fruits and bake this classic mulberry pie.

You will need about 2 L of mulberries.  Your fingers will get quite coloured by the juice, it takes a few washes to wash off, otherwise use thin nitrile or latex gloves.

mulberry pie

Ingredients:
For the short crust pastry.

The quantity below can be a bit tight (you have just enough), so feel free to increase it by half to give you some space to move, that new quantity is noted into bracket.

  • 100 g of butter softened (or 150 g)
  • 200 g of plain flour (or 300 g)
  • some cold water, about 1/2 glass (about 3/4 of a glass)
For the filling:
  • around 2 L of fresh mulberries
  • 4 tablespoons of flour
  • 4 tablespoons of white sugar
  • Whipped cream – for serving
Method:

1. Prepare the shortcrust pastry

Place softened butter cut in cubes and flour together in a bowl.  Rub the soft butter and the flour together until all of the butter sticks to the flour. Add water little at the time to obtain an homogenized ball.  If you have put too much water, add 1 teaspoon of flour at the time.  Wrap in cling-wrap and rest for at least half an hour at room temperature before using.

If you want to see pictures and tips, consult my page dedicated to shortcrust pastry.

2. Clean the mulberries gently and drain. Remove all the stokes.

3. Mix to the mulberries, the flour and sugar.

4. Divide the dough in 2 pieces, one slightly larger than the other. This will be the bottom part.  Roll the dough (you will know when to stop, the dough should not be forced, it will spread under the push of the roller to its final size).  Place the dough over the tart tin.  If you have only little extra, do not remove it, if you have plenty extra, cut the pastry 2- 3 cm away from the edge.

5. Place the fruit mix in the pastry. Level.

mulberry pie

  1. Fold back the edges. You could very well choose not to place a lid and eave it as such, it would be beautiful.  I like this as a pie.  Roll the second part of short crust pastry. Using the point of a knife, cut a disk of diameter slightly smaller than the diameter of your pie.  Using a kitchen brush (use your fingers if you do not have any), brush the top of the lower pastry with milk and then place the disk over the top of the pie.  You can decorate with lines or other patterns traced with your pointy knife as wished, ensure you do not cut through.  Brush the top of the pie with milk or with eggwash (a beaten egg with drop of water).

mulberrie pie

  1. Bake in preheated oven at 170 °C until golden.  Allow to cool partly before serving.  Serve with whipped cream.

 

mulberry pie

 

mulberry pie

 

Baking aplenty!

These last couple weeks, there has been intense activity in the kitchen, I mean more than usual.  There has been renovation works, still are actually.  Now, I have, after 18 month of cooking on an outdoor stove, a good oven and cooktop and, ceiling lights and power plugs there and there! You can imagine I was pretty excited to get this new oven to the test! In addition to that, I will be managing the food stall at my daughter’s school Halloween Fete and I am trialing a few recipes! A great adventure.  Hence, cooking aplenty at the moment!

Last pears of the year

Pears are nearing the end of their season in Australia and I came across a bunch of them just begging to be used on the seconds trolley of my grocery store.  Of course I could not resist!  I have been willing to do an almond pear tarte for a while.

tarte poire et amande

I ended by using a Donna Hay recipe .  The recipe is easy.  There is no tart shell. The tart consists simply in a cake dough placed in a tarte tin with pears pushed in it. Cool it down it its tin and serve on a long platter.  I would advise to place some baking paper at the bottom, this would make the removal of the bottom part of the tin easy.  Click HERE for the recipe.

Tarte amande et poireLook how we recycled an old laundry wash board!

tarte poire et amande

Bread renewal!

With my new oven which keeps the steam (and the heat), I have made a try at semi-sourdough baguettes.  Mines were quite short, just to make sure they could fit in the oven.  Success!!!

mini baguettes

 

These below is the preshape stage.

mini baguette preshape

And another beauty, this one baked Friday night. A semi-rhye sourdough

semi rhye sourdough

Halloween pre-taste

For the school fete food menu, I have decided to expand a bit into some creative pieces that the children will beg their parents to get them.   I will speak more about it in a coming post, here is a little pre-taste!

madeleine bugs halloween

These creatures are madeleines covered in coloured white chocolate. The antennas are pretzels.

 

Have you had any palets bretons before?

The question is: have you had any palets Bretons before?

If you are French or have lived in France, the answer would be yes.  For others, you probably have not eaten any Palets Bretons.

I could not resist this recipe.  I am not being patriotic just now (no! 🙂 ), this is just that I LOVE those little biscuits and you can’t find them in Australia.

IMG_9606

So easy… yes, really!

They are very easy to make.  The only limitation is that they cannot be placed to cook on a flat sheet as they need support.  Turned out that I had a silicone mould for mini-muffin (which I never use normally) just perfect for it!

You can keep them in a cookie box for a couple weeks easily (please not in the fridge, just in an airtight container or cookie box).  They are perfect with a cup of tea, with desserts like yogurt or fruit compotes and can even be used for lunch boxes snack.

IMG_9600

There are only few ingredients, same as in most cookies: flour, butter (of course, we are speaking Brittany), eggs, sugar and baking powder.

Now I am sure you feel like making them!

Read on for the recipe…

Ingredients:

Makes the quantity you can see on the above photo.

  • 140 g caster sugar
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 150 g soft butter (either use unsalted butter and add 4 g of salt) or use salted butter
  • 200 g plain white flour
  • 15 g baking powder
Method:

In a first time, you need to make the dough:

  1. Mix egg yolks and sugar until white and creamy (use a whisk)
  2. Add the soft butter and combine (swap the whisk for a wooden spoon or similar)
  3. Add the flour and baking powder
  4. Bring the mixture into a ball. Wrap in cell film and place in the fridge for a few hours or even better overnight.

The second part is the cutting and cooking:

  1. Preheat the oven to 170 °C.
  2. If you are using metal muffin trays or pastry rings, grease them with butter and place the pastry rings on a sheet of baking paper on the cooking tray.  If you are using a silicone mould, no need to grease.
moule improvise palets bretons
My improvised cutter and moulds for the Palets Bretons
  1. Lightly dust with flour your kitchen bench and roll the dough to 5 mm thick.
  2. Cut out round shapes for your palets bretons using either one of the pastry ring or if using a muffin tray or similar something in your kitchen of same diameter as your moulds (for example: a small glass, an egg cup, a towel ring).
  3. Place in the cooking moulds.
  4. Cook for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Turn over or slide on a cooling rack.