Culinary Crofton: Kids in the Kitchen

Crofton school bells will soon ring in the winter break and hundreds of students will be home for the holiday.  While it is a great time of year for young ones, it is also a challenge to keep them engaged in non-electronic activity.  To curtail video-tv-computer overload in my house, we turn to the kitchen.  My sons Patrick, a second-grader at Crofton Elementary, and Cameron, 5 years old, are typical of most kids.  They like activities with dad and mom, especially when the activity leads to something good to eat.

We recently made No-Bake Chocolate Berry Crunch.  This recipe meets the crucial "working with kids" requirements: it's easy, quick and tasty.  The bonus is that these sweet clusters contain dried fruit and make a wonderful, edible gift for others. 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels or Milk Chocolate Morsels
• ½ cup sweetened dried fruit berry blend - we used cherries, cranberries and blueberries.
• 2 ½ cups Golden Grahams cereal – I like this particular cereal because it contains honey.
• 1 cup Thin Stick Pretzels
• Small Marshmallows – as a garnish on top- suggest 1-2 marshmallows per cluster

Also needed:

• plastic bags
• wax or parchment paper

Place pretzels and cereal in plastic bags and crush them.  Mix crushed pretzels & cereal with dried berries in a bowl. 

In a separate bowl, melt chocolate morsels in the microwave.  The key to melting chocolate in the microwave is to heat it one minute at a time and GENTLY stir between heatings.  You are not looking for a liquid pool of chocolate.  Rather, you'll notice that from the edges of your bowl toward the center, the chocolate will become 'shiny..  Stirring the shiny part into the duller chocolate in the middle is what I mean by gently stirring between heatings.  Depending on the microwave, it will take 3-5 minutes.  

Add your pretzel-cereal-berry mix to the bowl of melted chocolate. Fold your ingredients together until completely incorporated.  If you notice that the mixture appears soupy, add a few more ingredients until it begins to stick together. The heat from the chocolate and bowl will help in the adhesion. 

Spoon clusters on to cookie sheets covered with wax or parchment paper.  Garnish with marshmallows or even your favorite nut.  We made a few with pecans on top. 

Refrigerate until firm, which is usually 30 minutes to an hour. 

This recipe makes approximately 24 clusters, depending on the size.

Children can measure the ingredients and mix.  With our test group, crushing the cereal and pretzels was the hands-on favorite.  The finished product got a thumb's up from my sons and their friends.  The kids loved the sweetness and I felt good about sneaking in some nutritional value with dried berries.

Children love to give something they've created themselves, making the No-Bake Chocolate Berry Crunch a great gift.  Put a few clusters on a holiday plate, cover with plastic wrap, add a festive bow and send your little ones to your favorite neighbor's door with a holiday surprise.

You can also assemble the ingredients in a large jar to give as a gift.  We layered the ingredients in a large pasta jar, separating the layers with cut wax papers.  Add ribbon and a copy of the instructions and you can give another parent a way to enjoy the holiday with his/her child. 

This season should be about time spent with friends and family.  Working in the kitchen with your children will create memories and lead to traditions they will cherish for years to come.