Les Petits Chefs work with “rough puff” pastry!

Apple tartlets on eatlivetravelwrite.comAren’t these amazing? Gorgeous, puff pastry apple tarts made by boys aged 10 – 13 in just under an hour! Cool, huh?

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while will know that I don’t think kids necessarily need their own special cookbooks – just some well-written recipes which teach them basics and useful techniques. And you’ll know that when it comes to my cooking clubs – Les Petits Chefs and Cooking Basics – I don’t shy away from recipes that some might find “too hard” to make with kids.

Which is why this week, I felt I’d start the term off as I mean to continue – with high expectations and with not one but two recipes. Ever since I’d seen Clotilde Dusoulier’s “rough puff” pastry (a shortcut method to making puff pastry), I’d wanted to try it. Also, I’d had this Jamie Oliver Magazine recipe for Apple Tart bookmarked for ages simply because it looks so beautiful. So I figured why not take two recipes from trusted sources that I KNOW will work and teach them to the boys. Because, let’s face it – what boy wouldn’t like a tasty mini apple tart made with all-butter puff pastry? 😉

I made a batch of the pastry the night before at home, to make sure that it *really* did only take 15 minutes (it did!). I was blown away at how easy it was and knew the boys would love the rolling and folding 🙂 I planned to use that to make completed apple tarts, then, while they were baking, we’d make another batch to send home with the boys – enough for them to make another mini tart with a different filling.

We started out peeling and slicing the apples…

Kids cutting apples on eatlivetravelwrite.comThen the boys got busy rolling the pre-prepared pastry out…

Kids rolling puff pastry on eatlivetravelwrite.com(the boys LOVE rolling pastry)

Then we got assembling our mini tartlettes…

Kids constructing apple tartlets on eatlivetravelwrite.comKids making apple tartlettes on eatlivetravelwrite.comKids making Jamie Oliver apple tartlettes on eatlivetravelwrite.comAhem, you’ll notice that the shapes of the tartelettes aren’t exactly round… Well that would be my fault – I forgot to show/ tell the boys to make a ball with their dough before they started rolling it out. So, we ended up with some very rustic shapes. But no matter. I think they have character 🙂

While the rustic tartelettes were baking, we got to making Clotilde’s “rough puff”…

Kids rolling and folding puff pastry on eatlivetravelwrite.comBased on Lucy Vanel’s fast feuilletage, Clotilde’s recipe is “an easy, fuss-free way of making puff pastry” that doesn’t involve rolling out the butter and enclosing it into a détrempe nor does it “confine you to the kitchen with incessant refrigeration steps”.  In this version, you simply cut the butter into the flour, add the water to form a rough, wet dough, then do four (or more) rounds of rolling, folding, and turning, just like you would for a classic puff pastry, with no need to refrigerate the dough at each turn – just at the end for an hour or so. The boys did a great job. Note: both times I made this, I used a food processor, explaining to the boys that using a food processor is much faster and eliminates too much “hands on” time which can make the pastry get too hot and hard to work with.

Kids making Clotilde Dusoulier rough puff pastry on eatlivetravelwrite.comWe all agreed it was very easy and I hope I’ve inspired a few of the boys to make this at home with their parents. I mean – flaky pie pastry? sausage rolls? tarte tatin? Who wouldn’t want to know how to make food like that?

When the finished tartes came out of the oven, we brushed them with a little apricot conserves that we heated to make a glaze. Et voilà:

Clotilde Dusoulier rough puff pastry with Jamie Oliver apple tarts on eatlivetravelwrite.comDidn’t they do a great job?

Ok so some of us were a little heavy handed rolling out the pastry, we didn’t have a chance to chill the tarts before we baked them and I forgot to “knock” the edges of the pastry with a knife to encourage rising in the oven but hey, for 60 minutes they did really well, don’t you think?

Get the recipe for Clotilde Dusoulier’s “rough puff” pastry.

Get the recipe for Apple Tart from Jamie Oliver Magazine.

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13 thoughts on “Les Petits Chefs work with “rough puff” pastry!”

  1. They did a great job indeed: under an hour – who’d have thought possible?

    Welcome back for the final term, LPC!

    Reply
  2. Great job! I love the freeform shapes of their tartlettes. I can’t wait to make this pastry again. I’ll try it with the apple tart recipe. Weekend dessert plan shaping up.

    Reply

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