The sugar tarte, known in Belgium and northern France as “la tarte au sucre” is a tarte based on a yeasted dough, soft brown sugar and cream. It is very simple to make and you can get the kids involved all along.
Ingredients:
For the dough
- 200 g of plain flour
- 100 g of butter
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp of milk
- 1 tbsp of caster sugar
- 10 g of fresh yeast (or 4 of dry yeast)
- 1 pinch of salt (omit if using salted butter)
For the toping:
- 125 g of soft brown sugar
- 1 dL (100 mL) of cream
Method:
- In a large bowl, place the flour in the bowl and with a spoon, make a well (a hole in the middle of the flour in which you will place all the other ingredients).
- Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk.
- Add in the well, the yeast, butter, caster sugar, egg and salt.
- Mix until you obtain a nice dough.
- Transfer into a large bowl, cover with a clean tea-towel and allow to rise in a warm corner until almost double.
- Preheat the oven on 180°C.
- Butter and flour your tarte tin. Transfer the dough and using the palm of your hand, spread it gently making a little edge. in the centre spread the soft brown sugar, then randomly pour the cream.
- Bake until the edges are golden brown.
- Eat warm or cold (do not place in the fridge).
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.
Kids in the kitchen is where it all starts. Although this is not true for all, I know some people who are great cook but ate a lot of boiled vegetables and canned and microwave meals as kids.
This page has a photo gallery that may give you some ideas on how to get the children involved in cooking. There are also generic topics and references. Be patient, it is building slowly, if you have a question, send me an email, I will be more than happy to answer. If you are after some cooking experience for a group of children, I am happy to provide that (definitely).
Simple tasks you can give the children are for example:
2 to 5 years old
- Fetching ingredients (if reachable and not too heavy)
- fetching tools
- Mixing
- Breaking eggs
- Buttering cake tins
- Pressing buttons on equipment (as long as safe)
- Cutting ends of beans for example (teaching and constant supervision required, my 4 y.o does that next to me and I make sure she does her bear paws and overall acts safely)
- Decorating cupcakes, kids biscuits or larger cake
- helping with seasoning
- Rinsing fruits and vegies
- Doing the dishes (some of them)
- Turn the salad drainer
- Help setting the table
6 to 8 years old (in addition of the above)
- break eggs
- Separate egg white and yolks (use additional container to do one egg at the time)
- measure ingredients
- Follow a simple recipe
- cut / prepare some fruits and vegetables (instructions given)
- Clean and prepare the salad
- Prepare a vinaigrette (under instruction & supervision)
- Use the micro wave
- Set up the table
- place dough in cake tins/prints
- Some of the bread making steps
- Folding egg-white
9 and over
From there, some use of the oven and hot plates can be taught. Also from that age , they can easily reach out for most ingredients and equipment, read and plan a recipe and carry out simple recipes. They can also graps a bit of techniques, and would be quite clued on balancing a diet and choosing treats.
Gallery clip
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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!
Welcome to the children’s kitchen. I am proposing this section of the blog dedicated to parents, au-pairs, carers who are looking for ideas to involve the children in the kitchen or to prepare something for them.
You can choose to explore:
