Book Review by Norene Gilletz
Batter Up Kids: Delicious Desserts by Barbara Beery is a delightful, easy-to-follow kid’s cookbook, with simple, scrumptious dessert recipes that any kid can make. In this spiral-bound cookbook with a wipe-clean cover, you’ll find tasty treats, fruit-based snacks, cakes and cookie recipes, plus a child-sized cloth chef’s hat that will transform any ordinary kid into a talented chef!
Batter Up Kids is ideal for beginner culinary experts and even the littlest chefs who can’t yet read.
The recipes include Flowerpot Ice Cream, Mountains of Mud Pies, Candy-Coated Dragonflies, Pink Princess Cake and Bonkers for Banana Bread. Fun for any occasion, the recipes use inexpensive ingredients and teach children basic cooking techniques and kitchen safety.
The inside front cover teaches children how to “Measure Up!” including the Wet Stuff (liquid ingredients), the Dusty Stuff (dry ingredients) and even How to Measure Brown Sugar and Shortening. On the inside back cover, children will “Learn the Lingo,” which includes a list of cooking and baking terms – “Sous-Chef: That’s you! A person learning to be a chef.”
Barbara Beery teaches about 100 kids a month in her children’s cooking school which she founded in 1991 in Austin, Texas. She also has created Batter Up Kits – theme baking kits with durable child-size bakeware, gourmet mixes, a unique recipe and more. For more information, visit www.batterupkids.com.
I firmly believe it is important to get children involved in the kitchen at a very early age. Cooking and baking will help children develop their reading, mathematical and co-ordination skills, while having fun at the same time. Also, if kids help cook it, they’ll eat it!
Finding “well-done” cookbooks for kids is always a challenge, but finding kosher ones is almost impossible. The recipes chosen here from Batter Up Kids are perfect for the kosher kitchen. I hope you enjoy preparing these easy, delicious desserts with your kids (or grandkids), at home or at the cottage. Now go “stir up” some sweet memories!
Children’s cooking school:
1. Get ready. Push your sleeves back, tie on your apron, wash your hands and make sure your work area is clean and spotless.
2. Now get all of the bowls, utensils and ingredients you will need for the recipe you are going to make. Place them in your work area and make sure you have everything ready.
3. Ask a grown-up to be your chef’s assistant.
4. Now it’s recipe time! Read through the recipe with your assistant and make sure you both understand what to do.
5. Remember, it is much easier to clean up as you go. Fill a big sink or washtub full of soapy water and get a sponge or washcloth. Wipe up as you go. Put each dish and utensil into the sink after you’ve finished with it. When your recipe is made, you’ll almost have everything cleaned up, too. Easy as pie!
6. Don’t forget to thank your grown-up assistant for helping you. Do you know the best way to say thanks? Offer them the first bite of your delicious dessert. With a reward like that, you’ll want to help you every time.
A SKILLET FULL OF COOKIES
½ cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2½ cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 cups milk chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375°F. In a large bowl, use a mixer to cream together the sugars and the butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla and add eggs, one at a time. Add the flour, baking soda and salt. Mix well. Dough will be stiff. Using a large spoon, stir in the chocolate chips.
Spray a 10-inch skillet (with an ovenproof metal or wooden handle) with nonstick cooking spray. Pat cookie dough into skillet and bake approximately 30 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Cool for 15 minutes, then slice.
Makes 1 giant cookie, 16 slices.
IGLOO ICE POPS
1½ to 2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries, blueberries, sliced kiwi or strawberries
1 cup apple juice or cranapple juice
3 to 5 tbsp. granulated sugar (to taste)
a tiny pinch of salt
powdered/icing sugar (optional)
Combine all ingredients except powdered sugar in a large bowl. Stir carefully, trying to keep the berries whole. Divide fruit mixture evenly between Popsicle moulds or small paper cups. If using paper cups, cover each cup with a foil square. Poke a hole in the foil and insert a wooden Popsicle stick or the straight end of a plastic spoon. Place ice pops on a cookie sheet and freeze for 3 to 4 hours.
Makes 12 to 15 ice pops.
Chef’s Secret: For a cool way to serve these pops, sprinkle with “snowflakes” of powdered sugar.
LADYBUGS ON-A-STICK
12 seedless red or green grapes
12 (6- to 8-inch) wooden skewers or colored toothpicks
12 whole strawberries with stems
1 package mini-morsel chocolate chips
Place a grape on a wooden skewer, sliding it all the way to the end of the stick. This is the ladybug’s head. Next place the strawberry on the skewer, stem end first, and slide it down to touch the grape. This is the ladybug’s body. Lay the ladybug down and carefully push the pointed ends of several chocolate chips into the strawberry to make the ladybug’s spots. Now you have a ladybug on-a-stick! Makes 12 ladybugs
Batter Up Kids: Delicious Desserts
by Barbara Beery Gibbs Smith
$19.95 US/$27.95 Cdn
Order Now from Chapters.Indigo.ca or Amazon.com