Mini Quiche by 4H Cooking Kids

I have a confession to make.  In all of my years of baking and cooking, I have never, not even once, made quiche.  I haven't even seen one being made/baked until this past Sunday.  My niece, Morgan, suggested a quiche baking class for 4H cooking group....how difficult could it be, right?!

Actually, my co-leader, Karen, has made many a quiche in her life so I felt completely secure with her knowledge on the subject.  And I was able to learn something as well...win win!

First thing's first....prepare and pre-baked store bought pie crust.  We used Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts.  Roll one out and place in the bottom of an aluminum foil 6 inch pie tins.  Baked them for 12 minutes at 375 degrees.  While they were baking, the kids got busy chopping up whatever ingredients they wanted to include in their very own quiche.  {full printable recipe below for a 9 inch quiche}

After the crust came out of the oven, the kids egg yolk-washed the entire surface.

Placed shredded cheddar cheese in the bottom and loaded their chopped ingredients to the dish.

The wet mixture consists of heavy cream, egg, salt, pepper and nutmeg....no WONDER quiche is SO tasty.

In 4H cooking group we learn many things along with the cooking or baking of a recipe.....team work, patience, tolerance just to name a few.

After the wet mixture is whisked, we poured it over our dry ingredients, already in the pie tin.....

Every quiche had its own unique look...

Cooking group ended at noon so I was able to sample a slice of Paige's creation.....Oh MY!  Delicious.

Quiche 
{this recipe was adapted from The Joy of Cooking and is for a 9 inch quiche but we used once recipe to make two 6 inche quiches}

Ingredients:
Beaten egg yolk
cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup heavy cream
3 eggs
1/2 small onion
scallions
any sort of vegetable you may enjoy
ham, cubed
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Place pre-made pie crust in the bottom of pie tin, prick it with a fork, bake for 10-12 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Egg yolk wash the pie crust.  Place pie tin on baking sheet and sprinkle with grated cheese then add chopped veggies and ham.

Whisk together the heavy cream, eggs, onion, nutmeg, salt and pepper.  Pour the mixture evenly over the cheese and chopped ingredients. Bake for 35-40 minutes.  Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.

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A Six Year Old and a Mallot & Guest Bartending

December is about the craziest month of the year....always......I'm sure we are in agreement on this.  

The middle part of the weekend.....way too early on Sunday morning....I had scheduled our 4H Cooking Group to meet at my house to make Gingerbread houses but at last minute decided to have them make something a little less time consuming.......Melting Snowmen Cookies.

I was reminded JUST how much noise a six year old can make with a mallot while crushing cookies.

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Rainbow Cupcakes via 4H Cooking

Yesterday morning my house was filled with kids, cake batter and food coloring.  I, along with my co-leader, Karen taught our 4H cooking group how to bake rainbow cupcakes.  We used just regular white cake mix from a box....so easy.  I think the most time consuming part was when all 10 kids had to agree on two colors to use for the batch of cupcakes.

Here's how it all went down.

Mix up the cake batter with water, oil, egg whites, {recipe below}.  Fill the cupcake liners, in a standard muffin tin 1/3 of the way full, set aside.

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Guy Fieri's Pretzels and Super Bowl Wrap-Up

Since we decided to have a small get-together over at our house for Super Bowl, I thought I may as well schedule the 4H cooking group on the same morning.  Clean the house once and have two functions on the same day.

In theory, this sounded like a great idea.  In reality, it all worked fine but I felt just a bit frazzled having both functions almost overlapping one another.

4H Cooking group began at 10 a.m.  I found Guy Fieri's Pretzels With a Twist recipe in the January issue of Food Network magazine and thought the kids would really enjoy baking them.  Plus, Guy Fieri is a local guy.  He's from Santa Rosa and he is a big supporter of kid's education.  He has been known to frequent our local county fairs in the past.  Wouldn't it be great if the 4H cooking kids spotted him at the fair and were able to tell him they made his pretzel recipe in 4H cooking!

As I'm snapping some photos, Karen, my co-leader was talking to the kids about what yeast is and what it's used for.

This was a great experience using hands to roll out the dough, cut the dough into strips and then roll and twist into a pretzel shape.  I think getting the shape right was the most difficult part.  {recipe below}

We had a choice of two toppings; rock salt or cinnamon-sugar.  Most of the kids opted for the cinnamon sugar.

Here they are fresh out of the oven....

The kids definitely enjoyed eating the pretzels out on the deck after they had cooled....especially my carb lover, Paige.

After pretzel eating, it was play time.  Bryce was a good sport about being buried in the sand.

Looks quite comfortable, doesn't it?!

On to party two.  Super Bowl. 

Chloe enjoys all the excitement and caos surrounding a party also.

It happened to be the warmest day of 2011 so far......75 degrees!  Almost all of the 14 kids we had over enjoyed playing tackle football on the lawn.....except maybe Emily who is on the bottom.

Today, on the way home from picking Paige up at preschool she asks,

"When can we have another Super Bowl party?"

Guy Fieri's Pretzels With a Twist

1 1/2 T dry active yeast

1 T agave nectar

2 !2 cups whole-wheat flour

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour plus more for dusting

1 tsp. sea salt

2 large eggs

Directions:

Mix 1 1/2 cups warm water (110-115 degrees), the yeast and agave in a bowl.  Set aside for 5 minutes.

In a food processor fitted with the dough blade, pulse the whole-wheat flour, 2 cups all purpose flour and sea salt.  Add 1 egg and yeast mixture and pulse in 10 second intervals until the dough comes together, about 3 pulses.  Turn out onto a floured board.  Knead 10 to 12 times, adding up to 3/4 cup more flour if the dough is too sticky.  Cut the dough into 4 equal portions; cover with a clean, dry towel.

On a floured board, roll out one piece of dough into a 14 by 11 inch rectangle, 1/4 inch thick, with a shorter side facing you.

Cut the dough rectangle into seven 11 x 2 inch strips.  

One at a time, pinch the cut long edges of each strip together and roll into a 12 inch rope with your hands.  Transfer the rope to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Grab the ends and bring them toward each other, forming a U shape, then cross the left end over the right end to make a pretzel shape.  Cross the left end over the right again to make a twist in the middle.  Repeat with the remaining dough, spacing the pretzels 3 inches apart.  Set aside for 10-15 minutes; preheat oven to 475.

Beat the remaining egg in a bowl.  Brush each pretzel with the egg; sprinkle with salt or other toppings.  Bake until browned, 16-18 minutes.

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