Les Petits Chefs make Breakfast Fruit Pastries from The Redpath Canadian Bake Book

Redpath Canadian Bake Book on eatlivetravelwrite.comThis week, for the final week of “cooking the books” with the Petits Chefs for the term, I decided to make a sweet treat from The Redpath Canadian Bake Book, which I wrote about last year when it came out:

Redpath Sugar has been a staple in kitchens across Canada for more than 160 years and this year, they released their first first full cookbook with over 200 recipes highlighting Canada’s culinary traditions. With chapters featuring Cookies, Bars & Brownies, Muffins & Breakfast Treats, Cakes & Shortcakes, Cupcakes & Other Small Cakes, Frostings, Icings & Decorating Basics, Pies, Cheesecakes & Favourite Fruit Desserts, Holidays & Special Occasions, Breads, Quick Breads & Doughnuts, Puddings, Custards & Sauces as well as Candies, this is a baking bible for all year round. There’s an excellent section at the front of the book called The Baker’s Kitchen where essential ingredients and equipment are listed. This is a book to pore over, dreaming of future treats…

There are so many recipes in this book that I know the boys would love but as we only have an hour in club, it’s always a challenge to find a recipe that will work in such a short timeframe.  I couldn’t stop looking at the photo of the Breakfast Fruit Pastries (aka homemade pop tarts) and I figured if I made the dough in advance, we’d have a fighting chance!

Redpath Canadian Bake Book breakfast fruit pastry dough on eatlivetravelwrite.comOnce the dough had rested, we worked on rolling it out to the right thickness…

Kids rolling Redpath Canadian Bake Book breakfast fruit pastry dough on eatlivetravelwrite.comAnd cutting it to the right size…

Kids preparing Redpath Canadian Bake Book breakfast fruit pastries on eatlivetravelwrite.comThen filling and shaping the tarts…

Kids making homemade pop tarts on eatlivetravelwrite.comTo be perfectly transparent, these photos don’t tell the whole story by a long shot. This session was pretty hectic (even by my standards!) – 14 boys in a cramped space plus a ticking clock plus dough is a recipe for a lot of noise and mess (these are the photos/ videos I don’t share LOL!). But in the end, with the threat suggestion of not being able to take home any of the finished product, the boys got it together to produce adorable little pop tarts (albeit varying wildly in thickness and size = #reallife).

Kids making Redpath Canadian Bake Book breakfast fruit pastries on eatlivetravelwrite.comIt IS rewarding for kids to make something that turns out “like it’s supposed to”. These were deemed “real looking” (always a bonus!)

Redpath Canadian Bake Book breakfast fruit pastries on eatlivetravelwrite.comOnce out of the oven, we had 5 minutes (no joke) to cool and ice them…

Redpath Canadian Bake Book homemade pop tarts aka breakfast pastries on eatlivetravelwrite.comWe don’t have a fridge/ freezer in close proximity but we DO have a wall of windows which is where we cool things when we need them to cool quickly. Probably the only time I’ll say winter in Canada is a benefit…

Cooling pastries by the window on eatlivetravelwrite.comIn the end, though, things worked out (just, by the skin of our teeth!) and the boys ended up with these:

Homemade pop tarts made by kids on eatlivetravelwrite.comAdorable no?

A couple of things this post made me think about:

1. Yes, I made a sweet treat with the boys. A homemade version of a store-bought favourite that’s highly processed. This version? Not processed at all: flour, sugar, butter, cream, eggs, jam and a little glaze and sprinkles. I think it’s ok for kids to indulge in a treat from time to time, especially if it’s homemade. If they’re going to have a treat, they might as well learn to make it themselves, right? I’ve recently had a couple of conversations about teaching kids to cook which were solely focused on the nutritional aspect (i.e. suggesting kids should only learn how to make healthy food). I say everything in moderation and homemade is better than store-bought (not to mention all the skills that go along with learning to make your own treats).

2. This session was probably one of the more hectic sessions we’ve had in club recently. End-of-term excitement (March Break is nigh) combined with a less-than-ideal space to work in, combined with an overly ambitious (for the amount of time) recipe = craziness. The kind of scene that might make some people think twice about cooking with kids. But you know what? Though at the time it was crazy, a lot of boys made sure to thank me (more than once) at the end of the session (they generally do but this week it felt kind of like they knew how challenging this had been! Kids know stuff, you know!) and a number of the boys came up to me the next day to tell me how much they enjoyed their treat. And even though someone accidentally put a paper towel in the washing machine (again #reallife) and I spent close to 30 minutes dealing with that the next day, it was still all worth it. Would I do it again? Probably (because I like to get stuff right). Would I do it differently? I would. Because at the end of the day, cooking with the boys is all about lessons for me as well.

Redpath Canadian Bake Book on eatlivetravelwrite.com

 

 

 

Buy The Redpath Canadian Bake Book on Amazon (this link should bring you to the Amazon store closest to you). Or for free worldwide shipping, buy from the Book Depository.

 

 

 

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Disclosure: I received a copy of The Redpath Canadian Bake Book for review purposes from the publisher. I was not asked to write about these books, nor am I being compensated for doing so.  All opinions my own.

 

 

 

1 thought on “Les Petits Chefs make Breakfast Fruit Pastries from The Redpath Canadian Bake Book”

  1. Nothing wrong with a sweet treat. Too many people – most with no nutrition knowledge at all – demonise food. We keep reading about healthy and unhealthy foods. I don’t believe there is a single food that is unhealthy – sure, there are many unhealthy diets but no individual food, as such, is unhealthy. You can surely eat everything in moderation, as you say.
    And, letting them make a sweet treat, normalises things. Good for you.

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