Les Petits Chefs make strawberry, rhubarb and yoghurt pies with Emily Richards

We made it! Today is the final day of school and it’s with a hint of sadness that I am posting this, the last Petits Chefs post for the 2012-2013 school year. I’ll miss the guys over the summer but I can’t wait to head to Paris in a couple of weeks to learn a few new tricks to share with them  next year!

How fitting that we end the year on a sweet note – with a strawberry and rhubarb yoghurt pie and the sweet Emily Richards working with the boys.  Emily worked with the boys in December (remember, she made gnocchi and brought each one of them their own personalised gnocchi board!).  Apart from being fabulous and generous, Emily is a highly experienced and well-regarded Professional Home Economist with extensive know-how in the food industry, strengthened by her Bachelor of Science (Home Economics) specializing in Food and Nutrition from the University of Western Ontario and over 15 years experience in the food world. A lot of the Petits Chefs mums were excited to hear she would be working with their sons – having been avid viewers of Canadian Living Cooks on Food Network.

The boys learned about the different varieties of rhubarb (check out this site for more info on that – who knew there were so many varieties?) and worked with regular rhubarb as well as “strawberry rhubarb” (it has the bright pink/ red stems and a milder flavour than the regular) and strawberries. Emily had brought the rhubarb from her own garden 🙂

The boys didn’t much enjoy chopping the rhubarb (it was apparently “too hard”) but they managed to do a good job…

Et voilà – strawberries and rhubarb in the pot with some sugar, ready to boil down into syrupy deliciousness…

Since Emily had already brought pre-baked pie crusts (“We’re each getting a WHOLE PIE?”), she taught them how to make the crust whilst we were waiting for the  filling to cook… They were fascinated with the pastry cutter/ bench scraper and wondered how sharp it was…

And then they got to work…

Emily showed them how to roll out the dough…

And they rolled out their own mini pie crusts…

They LOVE working with dough…

Check out the precision below… (and yes, we sometimes wear our aprons inside out…)

With the pie crusts safely in their mini pie tins, we worked with a little gelatin and yoghurt for the filling. The boys very much enjoyed watching the gelatin form. Again, who knew that it was so exciting?

And then Emily helped them fill their pie crusts while they got to decorating with a few leftover strawberries.

So much fun.

Not pictured: The monsoon-like conditions outside at dismissal time. The pies were not set so I had to perform a “pie valet” service ferrying the boys and their wobbly pies to their cars under an umbrella. It must have been quite the sight!

This pie rocks. Although it looks a little strange (it’s VERY pink!), it’s got a great flavour – not too sweet. I love the idea of this with perhaps some glazed strawberries on top or, as Emily suggested, with crumble topping.  You can find a version of Emily’s strawberry pie here.  If you like the look of this, check out Emily’s latest cookbook “Get in The Kitchen and COOK!” – a book to get you in the kitchen preparing tasty meals quickly so you can enjoy time with family and friends both for weeknight meals as well as casual kitchen entertaining with friends. Check out what Emily’s up to by visiting her website or check out her blog and follow her on Twitter ERiscooking.

Emily, thank you so much for coming out to work with the boys in the crazy last few days of school. The generosity of the Toronto food community towards me and my Petits Chefs never ceases to amaze me. What a great year we have had – and I already have people signed up for next September to come and work with the boys. I can hardly wait!

* Congratulations Laura and Paula – you each won a copy of Jennifer Perillo’s Homemade with Love from last week’s giveaway! I’ll be in touch soon to get all your details!