Kart-Wheels, Jam Filled Pastries

Kart-Wheels

I must admit that this morning was hard for our little guys.  Jeremy had been off for the last two days and I guess Cole woke with a gut feeling that Daddy wasn't going to be home to play today.  From the moment Cole woke, he ran to find Jeremy and he pleaded with him relentlessly to not go to work. Braydon quickly followed suite ... not so much pleading for him to stay, but crying because Jeremy was getting ready for work, rather than cuddling and watching the morning cartoons.  When the tears begin at 6:30 in the morning, you know it will be a rough day.  As hard as it is to watch my boys be so sad, I am equally happy to know that they have such a great relationship and friendship with their Daddy.

Considering the difficult morning we began with, I thought it would be a good idea to have a simple breakfast, but one the boys could engage in with me.  Cole has a favorite ABC cookbook.  This cookbook was a gift to myself from my grandpa when I was probably 5 or 6 years old.  I found how to order a copy of it for Cole and now he has a copy for himself too.  I love to use this cookbook with the boys because the recipes are not too complicated and they are kid friendly, using 26 recipes featuring a different letter of the alphabet.  The letter K's  recipe is K for Kart-Wheel.  The boys LOVE these pastries and I love to make them with them!

Heat your oven to 375 degrees and grab a bowl to begin mixing your ingredients.  Mix 3 c flour, 1 c softened butter, 1/2 c powdered sugar, 1 tsp baking powder and 2 tbsp of milk.

I love that all the ingredients can just be mixed together, it makes it so easy for you to bake with your kids!  Both the boys love to use the hand held mixer, so they took turns mixing the ingredients.

The consistency of the dough will be crumbly, so slowly continue to add additional tablespoons of milk into the bowl and mix.  Repeat this until the dough has a pliable texture for rolling into a ball.

After the dough is ready, prepare your pan for baking.  I have fallen in love with the Silpat mat.  You bake directly on the mat with no need for oiling it.  The best part about it for me is that it is nonstick.

If you have this mat, place on a cookie sheet.  If you are baking without the mat, oil the cookie sheet well to prevent sticking.

Take the dough in a cluster and roll into a ball.  Place the ball onto the cookie sheet.  I typically don't place more than 9 on a sheet.  

You will need to make an indention in the center of the ball.  If you have a pastry press or tamper this workers perfectly!  

If you don't have this tool, a spoon or your thumb works well too.  Gently press into the center of the ball and create a hole for your filling.

This is a great job for your kids to do, as well as rolling the dough into balls.  Just make sure that when the dough is being pressed, try to keep the edges sealed.  By doing so, the filling will not pour out.

Continue to press the dough until all are ready to be filled.

Double check that the holes that have been made are deep enough to hold about a tsp of filling.

You are now ready to fill!  You can use pie filling or jam ... today we used strawberry jam.  Fill the dough to the rim- do not fill too much, because the filling will pour out and burn if baking on a cookie sheet!  With the Silpat mat, the overflow of the jam peels right off, it is awesome!!

Again, continue the process until all have been filled.  

Place the pan in the oven and bake for 25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown.

Let cool slightly so that when you bite into the pastry, you don't burn yourself on the hot jam!  If you have leftover dough, you can also roll into a ball and dip in cinnamon and sugar to bake too!

We had so much fun sharing our breakfasts for the week and hope you had fun trying some out as well!  Enjoy your weekends!!