Well, after the return of in-person cooking (baking) club last week, we continued on our merry way this week and made Apple Turnovers (Chaussons aux Pommes) from French food for everyone: le petit déjeuner (breakfast).
Lots of useful skills are involved in this recipe, starting with: peeling and chopping apples:
They did a great job and even had enough for leftover chef treat snacks!
Then we worked with store-bought frozen puff pastry (not easy with hot little hands in a very warm classroom)…
We managed ok, though (I gave them a little help 😉 ) and used our problem-solving skills to cut shapes that worked for us because we didn’t have the right cookie cutters available.
Yep, we figured triangle shapes were “just as good” 😉
We learned how to make eggwash and use it sparingly around the edges of the pastry as our “glue”.
We didn’t have a TON of filling (hmm, perhaps we should have eaten less apple!) but the kids made it work!
I know they don’t look *quite* as pretty as the ones in the book, but I love this triangle-shaped version of the recipe!
The most important lesson we learned this week was that a “gentle touch” is always a good thing when working with pastry!
Not bad for a too-hot room, many hot little hands and just the basic equipment! I’m not sure how many of these actually made it home but one student told me he wasn’t allowed to eat these in the car anymore because they were “VERY FLAKY” 😉
Stay tuned to see how our exploration of baking evolves over the next 5 weeks!
Get the recipe for Jam Tartlets and Shortcrust Pastry in In the French kitchen with kids) or here
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Buy my books! In the French kitchen with kids and French Food for Everyone: le goûter (after school snacks), le dîner (dinner) and le petit déjeuner (breakfast) are out now! Click here for details and how to order!
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