On a recent afternoon, my 10-year-old, Wyatt, was looking for something to do. His brother was on a play date, he’d already finished his homework, and his daily dose of screen time was hours away. Before the refrain of “I’m bored!” could start, I suggested that we cook something together. He was game, so we set to work on a fake-out apple crisp inspired by the box of Cinnamon Snack Grahams on our kitchen counter (from Horizon Dairy, a sponsor of this blog).
I first started giving Wyatt cooking lessons several years ago and he got pretty good at quesadillas, scrambled eggs, Caesar salad and a few other dishes before I sort of forgot to keep teaching him new dishes. It’s definitely time we start adding a few new recipes — and cooking skills — to his repertoire. This apple crisp comes together pretty quickly, so it provides instant gratification and it’s also a great way for Wyatt to practice using a knife.
Here are the ingredients we used for this dish:
- Horizon Cinnamon Snack Grahams
- 3 or 4 apples (we had three in the fruit bowl, but I wish we’d used one more)
- 1 Tablespoon of butter
- Brown sugar
And here’s how we made it:
I started by teaching Wyatt how to trim, core and chop the apples. I had planned to have him peel the apples before he cut them up, but the vegetable peeler was in the running dishwasher, so we skipped that step. No matter — no one even noticed the peel in the finished product and we got a bonus hit of fiber!
Whoop! Whoop! Fiber!
We don’t have an apple corer so Wyatt used a paring knife to cut the cores out of the apples. He had a hard time at first and I talked a lot about keeping his fingers behind the blade of the knife (sometimes more frantically than others), but after a few chunks he got the hang of it pretty well.
When all the apples were cored I took a minute to show him the difference between a chop, a dice and a mince. We were going for diced apples for this recipe.
Dicing the apples was much easier than coring them and pretty soon he started getting silly.
Oops! Too silly. He nicked his finger with the knife!
Fortunately the cut wasn’t too bad and once he was patched up with a band-aid he could get back to work. Of course it would have been better if he hadn’t cut himself, but a tiny little cut can sometimes be a good reminder that you should never get silly when you have a knife in your hand. Am I right?
Time to move over to the stove. He set a saute pan on medium heat, then added a tablespoon of butter. Once it was completely melted, he added the apples and tossed them until they were entirely coated with butter. We put a lid on the pan and let them steam in their own juices until they were soft all the way through. This took about 10 minutes, but you should give them a stir and check them every few minutes.
When the apples were soft we turned the burner off. Next Wyatt sprinkled in some brown sugar, stirring, tasting and adding more until he thought they tasted just right. I think it goes without saying that he was quite liberal with the sugar!
When the sugar had melted and the apples were nicely coated with the sauce, he divided them equally between four bowls.
Next, it was time for a crispy topping. This is were the “fake-out” part of the apple crisp comes in. Instead of making an oat, sugar and butter topping and baking the crisps in the oven we took a major short cut. I pulled out a big handful of Horizon Cinnamon Snack Grahams and then Wyatt smashed them up with a rolling pin. Next he sprinkled a healthy amount on each bowl. It added a nice crispy crunch without a big mess.
Finally, it was time for Wyatt to sample his creation. His reaction: “Amazing! This is the best thing ever!”
And then he asked if he could make a second batch!
Do you give your kids cooking lessons? What have you taught them to cook?
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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Horizon Organic. The opinions and text are all mine.
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