Kids Kitchen

Mumstop is pleased to introduce our new regular columnist Suzanne Elman. Suzanne runs a children’s cooking class called Kids’ Kitchen and she will be providing delicious recipes from her classes for our young readers to try out at home.

Suzanne says: “The recipes are all tailor made for young hands, although supervision will be needed for small children. I think it’s fun for children and adults to work together in the kitchen making lovely homemade goodies, and healthier too as you know what’s going into your cooking.
“Being the season we look forward to the most, I would like to start off with a simple recipe of apricot and

chestnut stuffed chicken breast with cranberry sauce followed by edible Christmas tree decorations. The stuffing is a real favourite in my family and the tree decorations make thoughtful presents for teachers and friends. I hope you will enjoy collecting the recipes and putting them to work. Happy cooking!”

Apricot and Chestnut stuffed Chicken Breast with Cranberry Sauce

You will need:

• One chicken breast per person

For the stuffing – makes about 16 balls:

• Two large onions, chopped
• 50g butter and extra to butter the chicken skin
• 75g chestnuts
• 140g ready to eat dried apricots, chopped
• 175g fresh white breadcrumbs
• 20g parsley, finely chopped
• Finely grated zest of one lemon
• One egg, beaten

Method:

• Fry the onions in the butter.
• Stir in the chestnuts, fry until golden.
• Remove from the heat, add the apricots, breadcrumbs, parsley and lemon zest.
• Mix in the egg and season.
• Stuff under the buttered and seasoned skin of a chicken breast and shape the rest into balls and place in a baking dish.
• Cook the chicken and separate stuffing in a hot pre-heated oven for 30 minutes.

Cranberry sauce – serves eight:

You will need:

• 100g light muscovado sugar
• 100ml orange juice
• 250g pack of fresh or frozen cranberries

Method:

• Tip the sugar and orange juice into a pan, then bring to the boil.
• Stir in the cranberries, then simmer until tender but still holding their shape – this will take about five minutes if using frozen cranberries or eight – 10 minutes if using fresh.
• The sauce will thicken as it cools. It will keep in the fridge for one week.
• On the day, bring to room temperature before serving.

Edible Christmas Tree Decorations – Makes 35-40

You will need:

• 300g plain flour, plus more for dusting
• Pinch of salt
• One tsp baking powder
• One tsp ground cinnamon
• Sprinkle of freshly ground pepper
• 100g soft unsalted butter
• 100g dark sugar
• Two eggs
• Four tbsp runny honey
• For the icing and trimmings:
• 300g instant royal icing
• Gold balls
• Ribbon for hanging

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and pepper in a food processor or by hand.
• Add the butter and sugar then slowly add the eggs and honey.
• Dust a work surface with flour, roll out the pastry, also floured, to about 5mm thick and cut out your Christmas decorations with cutters which could include stars, angels, snowflakes etc.
• Make a hole in each biscuit for threading the ribbon through.
• Bake for 20 minutes.
• Ice when cool or use white writing icing that you can buy from supermarkets.