Kids Cooking and Cookbook Blog Site

I’ve invited my good friend, Lee Jackson, to share one of her favorite apple recipes with you. Lots of apples are now available at orchards and stores, so this recipe will help you know what to do with all those apples.

The recipe is from her newly revised apple cookbook, From the Apple Orchard – Recipes for Apple Lovers, which just won a first place cookbook award from Midwest Independent Publishers Association. Bookmark this recipe and serve it for Thanksgiving or any special time. You can see this recipe and many, many more at www.ImagesUnlimitedPub.com

Glazed Dutch Apple Cake

1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups apples, unpeeled, but diced
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup nuts, chopped

1 cups apple juice

In mixing bowl, place diced apples and sugar. Let stand for 15 minutes for the apples to become moist. Then stir in eggs, oil, dry ingredients and vanilla. Blend in nuts. Pour into greased and floured angel food cake pan or Bundt pan.

Bake at 350 degree F. for 50-60 minutes. Let cake cool in pan for 15 minutes, then invert on serving plate. Prick cake with toothpick and pour Hot Glaze over cake. Serve warm or cold.

Hot Glaze: Boil 2 cups apple juice over medium heat until it is reduced to 1 cup. Have an adult pour while hot glaze over cake.

This will make about 24 servings, good for a large holiday gathering.

How about baking some of these tasty savory cookies for a birthday party or just for a fun snack? They’re light and crunchy and you can use cookie cutters to make them any shape you want. The only thing is that they’re so good that you’ll have to make enough for the grown-ups too or they’ll be eating your share!

These turn out light and airy like cheese straws. This recipe isn’t at all spicy, but you can add a pinch or two of cayenne pepper if you like hot flavors.

Another great thing about these is that they are healthy, so if your teacher has asked for healthy snacks for a school bake sale, or your Mom doesn’t want you to bake too many sweet things, these should keep them all happy!

Collect together some different shaped cutters. The plastic shaped cutters that come with play dough work just as well as metal ones and often have fun shapes. Just make sure to clean off any dried up bits of play dough before you use them for these cookies!

If you’re making them for a little brother or sister’s birthday party they’ll love a variety of animal shapes. For the grown-ups stars go down well or hearts. If you can’t find any cookie cutters at all, you can cut the dough into strips, give them one or two twists and they make cool looking cheese straws.

If you feel like really treating the grown-ups you can substitute 1oz of fresh parmesan cheese for 1 oz of the cheddar for a really sophisticated flavor.

Cheese Cookies Recipe

1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) soft butter
8 ounces cheddar cheese, grated
1/4 teaspoon paprika

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Collect together these kitchen tools: grater, mixing bowl, rolling pin, cookie cutters, baking tray, measuring cups.

Grease the baking tray with a scrap of the butter paper.

Put all the ingredients into a big bowl and mix with your clean hands. It will take a while to come together, but if you squish and knead long enough, you’ll end up with a slightly crumbly, golden, soft dough.

Sprinkle a clean surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch thick. (If you don’t have a rolling pin, a clean bottle works just as well!)

Cut out as many shapes as you can and put them on to the baking tray.

Squash up the left over pieces into a ball and roll out again, as many times as you need to until you have used up the dough. Don’t worry if the dough crumbles when you roll it out. You can squish it back together quite easily and have another go. The more you work it the easier it gets.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until the cookies are a light golden brown.

Cool them on a rack, then store in an airtight container.

For a bake sale you could package these in the smallest size freezer bags – with 4 or five different shapes in each.

What is your favorite spread for sandwiches or toast? Have you ever tried lemon curd slathered on fresh white bread?

Lemon curd is a wonderfully satisfying spread with its slightly tart lemony flavor (like real old style lemonade), offset by the smooth velvety texture of the butter and eggs from which it is made. In Britain and South Africa it is mostly eaten as a spread, while in the U.S it is more often found filling cakes and tarts. This recipe makes lemon curd of the perfect texture and thickness for spreading.

As it is freshly made with butter and eggs this lemon curd needs to be stored in the refrigerator and eaten up within a month. But I’m sure once you and your family have tasted it that won’t be a problem! This recipe makes enough to store in one large jar, or two small ones.

Recipe for Lemon Curd

2 large lemons
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 eggs, beaten

Collect together: grater, lemon juicer, 1 large jar or 2 small ones, a medium-sized metal or ceramic mixing bowl that fits comfortably on a saucepan or else a double-boiler, or bain-marie.

The lemon curd is cooked in the bowl which sits over a pan of simmering water, to keep the temperature at a steady, not too high heat. The bowl should fit on the top of the pan without touching the water as it boils, and be steady enough, so that it won’t fall off as you stir. Ask an adult to help you set this up. If your Mom cooks a lot she may have a double boiler, which is a special pan with two sections to do exactly this.

Preparation

Before you start, make sure your jars are completely clean. Wash them in warm soapy water, rinse them out and leave to dry. Sterilize them to get rid of any bacteria by putting them when dry into an oven on a baking tray at 200F for 10 minutes. Switch the oven off but leave them there to keep warm, as they should be still hot when you put the lemon curd in after cooking it.

Wash the lemons well. If they are normal store-bought lemons they will have a layer of waxy coating to preserve them. Scrub them in warm soapy water and rinse them to remove the chemicals in this. If you can get hold of organic lemons or live in a state where you can pick un-sprayed lemons straight from the tree then just rinse them briefly and dry them.

Cooking method

1. Finely grate the lemon zest from the lemons into the mixing bowl – you need the outer yellow of the lemon peel without the white pith underneath. Halve the lemons and squeeze out the juice.

2. Put the juice without the seeds and pulp into the bowl with the zest and add the sugar and butter.

3. Put the bowl on top of the pan of simmering water and heat slowly until the sugar has dissolved and the butter melted.

From the next stage on you will need to stir the bowl without stopping for 15 minutes or so, so make sure you’re comfortable and have some music to listen to. Again, if needed, have an adult help with this.

4. Carefully and slowly add the beaten eggs, stirring the lemon mixture all the time. Make sure the water is just simmering gently, otherwise if the heat is too hot the curd can get lumpy.

5. Keep stirring gently over the heat for about 15 minutes, by which time the curd will have thickened to the consistency of a thin custard, or pouring cream. It will get thicker as it cools.

6. Pour it into your clean warm jars. Put the tops on tightly and leave to cool. Once cool store in the refrigerator.

Healthwise, home-made lemon curd is completely free of preservatives and colorings, which is not the case with the commercially prepared ones. The lemon juice is full of Vitamin C and you get some calcium and protein from the butter and eggs. You only eat a little at a time, (unless you like it so much that you eat it with a spoon!), so the richness of the butter and eggs isn’t too much of a problem for those who like counting calories.

Try this spread on bread and taste the difference!