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:
Cut the chocolate in small pieces with a large knife, place in a bowl.
Boil the cream in a saucepan
Pour the cream on top of the chocolate, cover for one minute then mix well until all the chocolate is melted.
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.
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
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.
Strawberry tart, yeah! This dessert is at its best when you have good supply of tasty strawberries. This is also a very easy recipe to involve kids in.
There are three versions I make alternatively at home. All require a sweet short crust pastry precooked. The difference is in the addition of a layer between the pastry and the strawberry. All have a glazing above the strawberry made from diluted strawberry (or other red berries) jam and brushed on.
VERSION 1 – the most simple version and the quicker: placing the strawberries directly on top of the cooked pastry. It is better made in the morning or at least a few hours before eating to allow the fruits and jam to soak a little and soften a little the pastry.
VERSION 2 – Using roasted berry which have been reduced to a puree over the pastry, then placing the strawberries on top.
VERSION 3 – The most elaborate and often seen in pastry shops. Placing a layer of creme patissiere (thick custard) over the pastry before placing the strawberries.
The dough
250 g plain flour
125 g softened butter
125 g white sugar
1 egg
Mix all ingredient together and form a ball. In a large bowl, mix all ingredient together and form a ball. Over a few movemnts, knead it on the kitchen bench to ensure cohesion (20 seconds max).
Place the dough on a sheet of baking paper and spread with your hands. Dust with flour to prevent sticking. You can also place another sheet of baking paper and roll with the rolling-pin. I like to push it with my hands. Once you have the size and thickness desired, remove any excess (you can use it for biscuits with the kids). Place in your tin if using a tin (or just use a pizza tray), trim as needed. Using a fork, make little holes all over. This prevent the formation of bubbles in the oven.
Bake 10-15 minutes on 160 degrees Celsius until light blonde. Remove from the oven and slide the base on a cooling rack using the baking paper. Allow to cool.
The Topping
VERSION 1
You need:
Strawberries, end trimmed
Strawberry jam diluted slightly with hot water for brushing over.
Place the strawberries on the base, then brush over with the diluted jam.
VERSION 2
You need:
balsamic vinegar
caster sugar
Strawberries, end trimmed
Strawberry jam diluted slightly with hot water for brushing over.
for the roasted strawberry, place 1 cup of strawberries (if very large, half or quartered) in a small roasting dish. Mix 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar with 2 tablespoon of caster sugar. Coat the strawberries, if excess, leave it at the bottom of the roasting dish. Roast under the grill or in the oven for 10 minutes or a but more until just soft. Use a blender to make a puree.
Place the puree of roasted strawberry over the base. Then place the full strawberries.
Glaze by brushing over with diluted jam.
VERSION 3
You need:
For the creme patissiere (custard)
25 cl milk
30 g caster sugar
30 g plain flour
2 egg yolks
a drop of vanilla
for the rest of the tart:
Strawberries, end trimmed
Strawberry jam diluted slightly with hot water for brushing over.
For the custard, warm up the milk and sugar together. In the meanwhile beat the egg yolks with the flour in a large bowl, use some of the milk to get it more liquid.
When the milk is about boiling, transfer to the bowl with the egg-flour mixture and beat together until combined.
Pour back into the saucepan and place on low over the stove. Keep mixing until the cream thickens and then transfer to a clean bowl. If not using straight away, place a plastic film right on the surface to prevent the formation of a skin.
Madeleines are very versatile biscuits. They taste great and look good. The madeleine recipe is also super easy!
Madeleines can be served on their own for the afternoon snack, or with coffee or tea. They can also be used for picnic and parties , they do not require cutting and always present well.
You will need a special madeleine print mould, use a metal one or silicone one, both work well. A number of online stores sell them. It is better to have two of those, as it will ensure a prompter cooking time.
Makes 24
Preparation – 15 minutes
Cooking – 15-18 minutes per batch
Ingredients:
125 g of butter
2 large eggs
150 g of caster sugar
1 pinch of salt (omit if using salted butter)
150 g plain flour
The zest of one lemon (non treated)
Method:
Warm up the oven to 160-170°C
If using metal madeleine prints, butter the bottom of each print.
Melt the butter and set aside
Mix together the eggs and sugar until creamy and light (use a whisk).
Add in the butter, salt and lemon zest. Mix well.
Add the flour. Mix well.
Using a spoon, fill each print of the mould halfway.
Place in the oven until cooked for 15-18 minutes. The cooking time will vary between ovens.
Turn over on a cooling rack, making sure the madeleines are not on top of each other and allow to cool before storing away.
Yoghurt cake (gateau au yahourt) is a french classic. Each kid would have made it quite a few times. One of my brother use to make it for quite a while every Wednesday (we didn’t have school Wednesdays) for afternoon tea (he was about 8 and unhelped after a couple weeks). The cake weight reference or rather volume reference is the little pot of yogurt. Since here, yogurt is found in larger quantities, I use a measuring cup as a reference or a glass.
This recipe is the “original version” as you will encounter most of the time. I love the crusty edges of the cake and the unctuous interior. It is very good as well dipped in tea or milk.
You can reduce by 1/3 the sugar if you find it to sweet as this is quite a sweet cake. You may found this cake a bit floury, sometimes it annoys me, this is why I alter with another recipe (CLICK HERE).
One very important thing, respect the quantity of baking powder (1 level teaspoon, which is less than the amount suggested on the baking powder box per cup of flour), or your cake will have a great ride (it has happened to me)!
In the photo here, I used the mix as a base to cup cakes. Two 7 y.o. did the recipe and obviously decorating under light supervision. I have used this recipe for birthday cake (reducing the sugar) with pink food colourant added.
A yoghurt cake is normally cooked in a round cake tin 20-25 cm diameter.
Ingredients:
1 yoghurt pot (about 125 g natural yogurt, unsweetened) – the container is then used to measure the other ingredients
3 pots of white sugar (about 300 g)
3 eggs
3/4 pot of oil (I use a light taste oil such as sunflower)
1 pot of cornflour
2 pots of plain flour
1 level teaspoon of raising powder (or one sachet if it comes under that format)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 170°C . Butter and flour you tin well, alternatively line it with baking paper.
Empty the yoghurt in a large bowl. Rinse and dry the container. You will use it to measure the other ingredients.
Add the sugar. Mix
Add the eggs one at the time mixing well between each addition.
Add the oil and mix.
Add all at once the cornflour, four and baking powder. Mix from the centre including in your circle the dry ingredients as you go. If there are lumps, use a large whisk and mix energetically.
Transfer the mix to the tin and place in the oven.
It takes about 40 minutes to cook (until a skewer come out dry) and may have a little hump and a crack in the middle. If it becomes too dark early either reduce the oven or cover with aluminium foil.
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.
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.
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:
Mix egg yolks and sugar until white and creamy (use a whisk)
Add the soft butter and combine (swap the whisk for a wooden spoon or similar)
Add the flour and baking powder
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:
Preheat the oven to 170 °C.
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.
My improvised cutter and moulds for the Palets Bretons
Lightly dust with flour your kitchen bench and roll the dough to 5 mm thick.
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).
Place in the cooking moulds.
Cook for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Turn over or slide on a cooling rack.
The Palets Bretons are a specialty from Brittany in Western France. I discovered how simple they are to make. The only constraint is having a mould (silicone or not) with little cavities between 3 to 5 cm wide. You can have the children helping to cut out the biscuits and place them in the mould.
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:
Mix egg yolks and sugar until white and creamy (use a whisk)
Add the soft butter and combine (swap the whisk for a wooden spoon or similar)
Add the flour and baking powder
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:
Preheat the oven to 170 °C.
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.
My improvised cutter and moulds for the Palets Bretons
Lightly dust with flour your kitchen bench and roll the dough to 5 mm thick.
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).
Place in the cooking moulds.
Cook for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Turn over or slide on a cooling rack.
You can keep your palets Bretons in a cookie box for a couple weeks. Use them to go with desserts such as apple compote or apple puree, a yogurt mix or even chocolate mousse. Have them with a cup of tea. Palets Bretons are also great for lunch box snacks.
Why not a small pannacotta to finish of a weekday dinner? Why not, indeed.
Pannacottas are rather quick to do, easy (plenty browny points here!!!), you can (have to actually) make them in advance, put them in the fridge an forget about them until serving time.
Why a pannacotta this week? Well, cooking in the evening is becoming a little less amusing as my kitchen has no doors now and the weather has got much much colder suddenly (cold, really cold!). So mid day cooking in lieu of a coffee during a work break (obviously while working at home) is a solution some days.
We (my 7 y.o and myself to be exact) have been following Masterchef (browse through this link, there are a few interesting ideas an recipes). One night was a special Nigella Lawson challenge and include the preparation of a coffee pannacotta. I did not understand why everyone was having a fit to ensure it was perfectly silky, mine always seem to end up that way. The one I really love is a chai tea pannacotta. CLICK CLICK for the recipe. Apparently (according to Masterchef) the test is having a sexy wobble! I remembered that just in time, check the video below. AhAh! I would have preferred serving it with a rhubarb compote (which was ready) but the children insisted to have it with chocolate sauce as in Masterchef.
Another mid-day cooking dish was a pork belly roast. I cook it on top of sliced apple and garlic heads, it is great dish, just have to prepare a few greens and dinner’s ready!
Having chocolate marble cake when I was a child was a treat, I would eat along the different colours keeping the chocolate bit for the end. This cake is easy to make and is great as an afternoon tea cake or sliced for lunch box treat (cell wrap the slices individually, freeze and place frozen in lunch boxes, it will be unfrozen by the time the child gets to it).
Ingredients
100 g of chocolate 64 to 70% cocoa
180 g butter melted
150 g of brown sugar (cassonade in French)
a drop of vanilla essence
4 eggs
200 g of self raising flour or 200 g of plain flour and 1 heaped teaspoon of raising powder (if using raising powder in sachet, one sachet).
Method
Butter and flour well your tins. Warm up the oven on 180°C.
Mix the sugar and butter well, then mix in the egg yolks one at the time, add the vanilla.
Mix in the flour and raising powder and divide in two bowls.
Melt the chocolate. In one of the bowl, add the melted chocolate.
Beat the egg white to snow. Divide in each of the bowls and fold gently.
Pour in the tins alternating the mixes.
Bake for about 45 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out dry. Then turn on a cooling rack.
“C is for Cookies, that’s good enough for me Oh, cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C”
I use these choc chip cookies for many occasions: lunch boxes, presents, travels, picnics, playdates, …
What I like with this recipe is that you can make them very small, bite size like or maxi over indulging size! This recipe describes medium (normal) size biscuits.
Ingredients
200 g of butter, melted
150 g of white sugar
200 g of brown sugar
2 eggs
450 g of flour
1 teaspoon of raising powder (1 sachet if using that version)
300 g of good cooking chocolate chopped with a knife (or use packets of chocolate chips from the shop)
Method
Heat the oven up on 180°C
Mix together the eggs, white sugar, brown sugar
Add the butter and mix well
Add together the flour, raising powder and chocolate chips. Mix by hand.
Cover 2 baking sheets with baking paper, with a spoon (or with your hands) place on the baking sheet little mounds the size of an apricot,push down very slightly. Make sure the mounds are not to close to each other (at least leaving space of the size of one mound between two mounds) as they will spread during baking.
Bake until the colour starts to change slightly golden brown. Do not overbake.
Slide the baking paper with cookies on it on the cooling rack. Leave to cool for a few minutes before moving them.
You should expect to need two bakes if using two baking trays at the same time.
Ingredients:
