One of my favorite cooking activities with kids are mini fruit tarts.  They are a perfect project for kids of all ages.  Kids get an opportunity to practice cutting, mixing and presentation. They are a great way to introduce new fruits  and best of all they can be eaten right after making them, no waiting necessary.

When choosing the fruit I keep in mind, who I am working with and what fruit is in season.  When working with the 4 year old kids in my daughter's preschool class I wanted them to work on cutting, so I chose fruit that would be easy for them to cut - strawberries, bananas, mango and kiwi were the answer.  I prepped the fruit before hand and cut everything into big pieces, with a flat size that would be easy for the kids to work with.

The filling and crust are just as versatile as the fruit.  This time I use leftover sugar cookie dough for the crust, but you can also use a pie dough, graham cracker crumbs or any sweet dough.  For the filling I used cream cheese lemon curd, but again this could be substituted   Any jam can be used in place of the lemon curd and a straight up pudding filling is always a favorite.

This is the perfect treat that gives kids the opportunity to create their own unique dessert that is a sweet treat for all!

Mini Fruit Tarts

• • 1 recipe sweet dough (sugar cookie or pie dough)
  • 8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 1/4 cup lemon curd (or any jam) - amount can be adjusted if you want more or less flavor
  • Assortment of fruit, cut into small bite sized pieces.

• Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Roll dough to 1/4" thick. Cut into rounds slightly larger than the cups of a mini muffin tin. Press a round of dough into each cup. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden. Let cool.
  3. In a mixing bowl combine cream cheese and lemon curd. Stir until combined. Place mixture in a pastry bag.
  4. Fill each cup with lemon curd mixture, top with an assortment of fruit.

Baked Oatmeal

It's time for another Secret Recipe Club reveal, which means I was introduced to another wonderful blog filled with mouthwatering recipes.

This month I was partnered with Tessa over at the Cookin' Chemist.  She has a lot of recipes on her site which made the selection difficult.  The recipe index is nicely organized and made the selection process a little easier.  I decided to go with something for breakfast, but even after narrowing it down to breakfast items I still had over 30 different recipes to choose from.

The final decision was based on the fact that I had one, and only one, ripe banana on my counter.  When I came across her recipe for Baked Oatmeal To Go I knew I had found the recipe.

This is a super easy recipe that can be made up quickly the night before or even in the morning.  Tess uses a food processor to blend the liquid ingredients, but I made it in just one bowl which speeds up the clean-up process and still results in a great final product.  I didn't make this batch with the kids, but suspect it would be a great recipe to get them involved with.  If you don't use the food process there is a lot of hands on activity that would be very enjoyable and easy for them to do.  Plus they can add their favorite mix-ins - I did pecans in mine, Tess used blueberries in her recipe, but any nut or berry, fresh, frozen or dried, would be great -  which would allow more hands-on involvement 

The muffins are very filling  and provide a great source of energy to start the day.  There is a nice hint of sweetness, but nothing over the top.  Perfect for grabbing on your way out the door for work or school.  I highly recommend making a batch for yourself and while your waiting for them to come out of the oven go check out some more of Tess's recipes.

Baked Oatmeal (from the Cookin' Chemist)

1 over ripe banana
1 cup applesauce
1 egg
1 1/4 cups Almond milk (any type of milk will work)
2 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
2 Tbsp. ground flax seed
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup pecans roughly chopped (or your favorite mix-in blueberries, dried fruit)
2 Tbsp. maple sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.  Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

In large mixing bowl mash banana  until smooth. Add applesauce, egg, milk, honey and vanilla stir until combined.  Add oats, flax seed, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder salts and pecans, mix until combined.
Using a large scoop fill muffin cups, muffins will not rise while baking so fill the cups to the top or desired size. Sprinkle tops of muffins with maple sugar.  Place in oven, bake for 25-30 minutes.

Free Form Mini Apple Tarts

This week Edy and I had two "Bacon" days.  We had our usual baking day on Tuesday and then on Wednesday we got to bake with all of her classmates, as I was the parent helper in her preschool class.

This was the first time cooking with this group of kids so I planned a snack that was primarily assembly.   Cooking with a group of young 3 year old kids always requires a lot of advanced prep and flexibility, but I have learned that the first project of the year requires even more prep, flexibility and patience.  As the kids get more comfortable cooking during class I will let them do more and more, but for this one we kept it pretty simple by making free form apple tarts.

Edy and I prepped the dough the day before.  We made a simple Pate Brisee (pie crust) which is one of those great hands on recipes for kids.  They get lots of opportunities to feel the ingredients come together and even if they play with the dough a lot it is hard for them to over mix it.

After we made the dough and let it chill I broke it into individual balls and flattened them out into small discs and left it to chill again until the next day when we were ready to use it at school.  I had planned on having the kids roll the dough out, but I had forgotten to bring some extra flour and the dough was pretty moist, so I decided to have the kids press the dough between their hands instead.  This worked well.  It provided a thicker base for them to work on and eliminated the frustration that sometimes comes with rolling out dough.

For the topping I had a bowl of diced apples, raisins - that had been soaked in apple juice, chopped pecans and cinnamon sugar.  I thought the kids would load up on the apples, but as often happens I completely misjudged and the raisins turned out to be the popular item.  A few kids even skipped the apples and just had raisin tarts with cinnamon sugar.

As always I had a hard time not adjusting the tarts after the kids were done.  I wanted to add some apples to those raisin tarts and wanted to flatten the dough on the tarts that were just balls with apples stuck in it.  As hard as it is the resist the temptation to help them too much and have them do it my way, the pride on their faces when they sit down to the snack they made, makes it worth it.


Free Form Apple Tarts
makes:  12 mini tarts

1 recipe Pate Brisee
4 apples, peeled, cored and diced
1 cup raisins
1 cup pecans or walnuts roughly chopped
1/2 cup cinnamon sugar

Preheat oven to 350
Divide dough into 12 equal size pieces, form into small discs and chill for 30 minutes.  After chilling roll dough in to 1/2" thick rounds, forming a thick lip around the outside edge.  Top each round with apples, raisins and nuts. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  Place on parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until dough is a light golden brown.

Pate Brisee
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, cold cut into 12 pieces
2 egg yolks
3 Tbsp. cold milk

Using a mixer with the paddle attachment, or by hand, combine flour sugar and salt.  Scatter butter pieces over top of flour mixture.  Mix mixture resembles a coarse sand.  In a small bowl whisk together yolks and milk.  Ad to the flour mixture, mix until the dough just comes together and has a shaggy appearance.  Pour onto work surface, using the palm of your hand smear the butter chunks into the dough and gather mixture together.  Gather dough into a thick disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Can be kept in refrigerator for at least 4 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Blueberry Muffins with Streusel

It's "Bacon Day" again and this week Edy and I decided to go with another classic favorite, the blueberry muffin.

I can't even begin to count how many batches of blueberry muffins I have made.  I have been making blueberry muffins, using the same recipe since I was about 10 years old.  I make slight modifications to it depending on my mood, but it is always basically the same.

This time Edy and I decided to add a little Streusel topping.  I am a big fan of Streusel.  Not only does it provide a wonderful sugary crunch on muffins, breads or pies, but it is a great "food" for kids to make. The youngest of kids can make it all by themselves and I love being able to give kids a project that they can take complete ownership of.

I also like giving kids tasks that allow them to get get their hands dirty and get to feel and "play" with the food.  It is great for sensory development, gives them a better understanding of what the food is and the buttery sugar snack they get at the end when licking their fingers is a bonus treat.

Blue Ribbon Blueberry Muffins with Streusel Topping
printer ready

Streusel Topping
3/4 cup Sugar
3/4 cup Flour
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 cup Butter, at room temperature


Muffins
1 c. Sugar
¼ c. Butter
1 c. Milk
1 Egg
1 ⅓ c. Flour
2 tsp. Baking Powder
¾ tsp. Cinnamon
¾ tsp. Nutmeg
½ tsp. Vanilla
¼ tsp. Salt
1 c. Blueberries


Preheat oven 375
Streusel Topping: In small bowl toss sugar, flour and cinnamon together. Break butter into small chunks and work into sugar mixture until crumbly. Set aside. 

Muffins: Toss ⅓ cup flour with blueberries, set aside.  In small bowl whisk remaining flour, baking powder, cinnamon nutmeg and salt together.  In mixing bowl cream sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.  Add egg, mix until combined.  Add milk and vanilla, stir until combined then gradually add flour mixture, blending until just combined.  With rubber spatula gently stir in blueberries.  Fill lined muffin tins ¾ full.  Sprinkle Strusel topping over muffins. Bake 20-30 minutes.

Cookie Swap

I love cookies swaps.  We had great cookie swap parties at the office where I use to work, but it has been a couple of year since I have been to a really good one.  The last one I went to most of the cookies were purchased at local bakeries which I found very disappointing.

This year I participated in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Exchange, and knew I wouldn't be disappointed.  It was hosted by Lindsay and Julie and over 600 bloggers participated each sending a dozen cookies to 3 other bloggers.

My family quickly devoured the cookies.  It was as if they had planned their mailings as we had just finished one batch when the next arrived.

• Our first batch came from Jessica  -My Kitchen Adventures - she sent one of her family's favorites - "Melting Moments" and some wonderful peppermint Fudge.

• Next, from Sofie - The German Foodie, we received "Mami's Hazelnut Shortbread" which is an amazing cookie made from an old German recipe.  

• Then came a batch of delicious Peppermint Mocha Chocolate Chip cookies from Brookie at Baking with Basil.

All of the cookies were delicious and as I said quickly devoured, which is why I have no pictures of them.

On my end I made Black Forest Crinkle Cookies, which went to The Dainty Chef, Greens and Chocolate, and Kudos Kitchen .

These are a super simple chocolate cookie and since there you don't need to use a mixer are great to make with kids.  Edy worked with me on this project and actually taught me that to get the best results you need to really coat the cookies in powdered sugar.  When I roll cookies in sugar I do a quick roll, when a two year old does it, it is a much more thorough process and yields much better results.  So if you don't have the pleasure of having a two year old assist you, just think like a two year - more is better.

Black Forest Crinkle Cookies
(recipe from Cuisine at Home)

Printer Ready

Ingredients:
¾ cup All-purpose Flour
¾ cup Sugar
¾ tsp. Baking Powder
¼ tsp. Salt
4 Tbsp. Butter
⅓ cup Cocoa Powder (not Dutch process)
1 Egg
2 Tbsp. Coffee (or 1 tsp instant coffee granules mixed w/ 2 Tbsp. hot water)
⅓ cup Semisweet Chocolate Chips
⅓ cup Dried Tart Cherries
¾ cup Powdered Sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°, line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large mixing bowl, set aside.  In a small bowl melt butter in microwave.  Once melted add cocoa powder to butter and whisk until combined.  Add egg, coffee and vanilla, mix until combined.  Add butter mixture to flour, mixing until just combined.  Fold in chocolate chips and dried cherries.  

Shape into 2” balls.  Roll balls in powdered sugar, place on to prepared baking sheets, spacing cookies about 2” apart.  Bake for 12-14 minutes, cookies will be cracked and soft - do not over bake.  Let cookies cool 5 minutes on tray, then transfer to cooling racking.  

Not sure how it happened, but the cookies got out of the house before I got a picture of the finished product.  Guess I will have to make them again!