French culture: Teaching children about other cultures through food

One of the best ways to have fun and bond with young people is to cook with them as partners. Children are inherently creative; the smell and taste of the dishes produced will stay with them permanently. Here we share a small aspect of French culture with a simplified, approachable and friendly croissant recipe that will take our children on a delectable culinary voyage leading to a lifetime of lasting memories.

In France, food is more than fuel. Cooking is a serious art form and a source of pride for the French. We are tying to make dishes, with the intention of making connections with other cultures through our love of food. Our intention for the month is to begin exploring countries from around the world and the food that they eat. Today we began our journey with croissants.

For our croissants today, our ingredients consisted of:

+ Fillings with chocolate buttons, strawberry jam, marmalade, melted cheese, blueberries and baby spinach.

+ Thank goodness, there is excellent quality puff pastry widely available in the freezer section of our grocery store (we could take a culinary shortcut with these)

+ Egg replacer + 1 teaspoon water, lightly beaten

+ Powdered sugar, for sprinkling

To begin we softened the pastry by rolling this out flat on the table. We explained that we need it to be as thin as possible or the inside will not cook. We encouraged the children to cut the thawed out pastry into triangle shapes and practiced division by making six rectangles and then two triangles out of each rectangle.

Once the shapes were made, we selected our filling and took the bottom of each triangle and folded it up, rolling it up into a croissant-like shape as we curled it around into a crescent. We learnt a bit of patience and to be gentle with the pastry since it can easily tear. We brushed pastry edges lightly with egg replacer.

We lined our baking sheet with parchment paper and placed these creations in the oven and watched as the layers puffed up and then baked through for that compelling and explosive crunch.

These treats were served for afternoon tea (after we ate the healthy stuff). They were crunchy on the outside and tender and pliable inside. We had the hard decision of choosing between the chocolate, strawberry jam, marmalade and melted cheese fillings.

Nothing beats the satisfying unfurling pull of the hundreds of layers in the middle of our croissant. We were hoooooked.

Bon appétit! Yelled out Sophie.

We came away with not only a severe sugar rush, but also a newfound respect for pâtissiers. Not only are the quintessential French treats tasty and pleasing to the eye, but also a lot of work. (Which is why we went straight for puff pastry)

Understanding the French food culture isn’t something that we can even pretend to say we’ve mastered, but we’ve come a long way. Our ultimate goal, however, is discovering a deeper understanding of the French and their relationship with food. For us, that will be icing on the éclair.

Are we ready to open up our own Michelin-starred restaurant?

Please share your thoughts