Little Chefs

Kids Cooking Play Day Part II:

 Pastry Chefs

Originally I was just going to let the kids frost and decorate their own cupcakes. Then we invited our little friend down the street, and I remembered that he can't eat gluten. I know that kids with special diets (especially something major like gluten, milk, or eggs) have to often bring their own stuff or do something different than everyone else, and they are used to that. But, I just wanted him to not have to feel different this time. So I came up with a new plan--cream pies! Graham cracker crust, pudding, whipped cream and sprinkles. There's no gluten in the filling or topping so I just needed a gluten-free alternative for the crust. These cookies were the perfect option. 

So I let the kids choose what they wanted to use to make their crust: honey or chocolate graham crackers, or gluten-free ginger snaps.

Each kid chose four graham cracker squares or five gingersnaps. We sealed them in sandwich bags and rolled them into crumbs.

Then each chef poured their crumbs into a little bowl so we could mix in the rest of the ingredients. They also chose a pie tin. 

To the crumbs we added one teaspoon of sugar and three to four teaspoons of melted butter.

Then they pressed the mixture into the pie tins. We baked them at 350° for five minutes. I looked up some recipes later and saw that you could also put them in the fridge, which would have been better because we had to wait for them to cool down. And you know how much kids like to wait. I did a trial fridge crust later and liked it better because it was a little chewier--more cookie-like. Next time...

While the crusts were "baking" I gave each chef a 1/2 cup scoop of vanilla pudding and they each picked out a food color to add. 

Once the colors were all mixed they were ready to fill their pies.

Then for the kids favorite part: whipped cream and sprinkles.

There's a lot of different philosophies when it comes to sprinkles: color coordinating, pockets of color. and your good old fashioned more is more.

The kids seemed to really enjoy doing all the different stages of this "recipe." It was simple and easy enough for them to feel like they really made it themselves. 

See you Friday for one more Kids Cooking Play Day installment. 

Thanks for Reading.

-Haley