Mini Pies By Mini Hands
Little hands can do so much in the kitchen. And you know what? They love it! They are naturally curious about everything related to making food and kitchen stuff: the feel of flour on their hands, the noise a blender does, how hard an egg shell is…
Jamie (not his real name) cooks with me once a month. He’s been my “kitchen buddy” for almost two years and we have cooked all sorts of things together: pizza, crackers, soups, burgers, meat balls, garlic bread…
Our last shenanigans were with mini pies. Chicken and blueberries mini pies:
Ingredients
Commercial puff pastry (thawed)
Blueberries (fresh or frozen)
Corn starch (aka corn flour) – 1 tbsp per punnet or cup of berries
Sugar (about ¼ cup)
Chicken mince or shredded cooked (sauteed with onion and garlic)
Tasty cheese (cheddar or parmesan, if you like), grated
Mix the blueberries with sugar and the corn starch in a bowl. In another bowl, mix the cooked chicken with the cheese.
You can use a muffin tray or mini pie moulds or ramekins or even cups. We used frilly circle cookie cutters to cut out the pastry: a circle a little larger than the diameter of the baking mould for the base and a smaller circle for the lid.
Press the larger circle on to the bottom of the mould. Press well with finger tips, especially corners and sides. Note that Jamie mastered it! 😉
Fill to the top with a spoon, place the lid and gently press the edges to close well.
Sprinkle sugar on the blueberry ones and grated cheese on the chicken ones. To know which filling each pie had, we made different shaped holes or used different shaped lids: plain (normal) lids for “boring” chicken and less-conventional shaped lids for the “exciting” sweet blueberry ones.
With a knife or a toothpick or a fork, puncture a small hole on the top for steam to release during baking.
Bake in hot oven (180 degrees) for 20-25 minutes.
Let them cool a little on a metal rack and enjoy!
Kids love to cook and I’ve been writing quite a bit about the benefits they heap from it. Check previous articles like Cooking With Children These School Holidays, Non-Feeding Food Exposure (part 1) and Never Too Young To Learn How To Cook.
All images by Fern Rodrigues
