Gen-Z’s. The Digital Natives. As expected, most of them are surgically attached to their electronics. iPhone, iTouch, PSP. With these portable friends, they can surf the net, play games, listen to music, take photos, communicate with each other.

You, who were born during the era of black, rotary dial telephones and television sets that came with their own cupboards, cannot comprehend this new breed. You complain that the kids these days don’t anymore go out and enjoy the sun. That they don’t anymore know how to be creative and build things from scratch.

Truth is, you’re old-fashioned and haven’t caught on with technology. And more importantly, you just want to spend a few moments with your children without letting them feel that you’re robbing them of their precious ‘me’ time.

Enter baker’s play dough. What do you know? The idea alone managed to peel my 12-year old off of his Nintendo DS. Mentioned that I invited his fave cousin to join us, he switched from ‘ok, I’ll help you’ to ‘what time are we going to start?.’

It only took us 4 hours from start to finish but in between, it was an uber-fun (albeit messy) affair. The kids kneaded their own dough, cut them into pieces and rolled them into balls. Then came the greasy construction interspersed with the occasional flicks of bacon fat and semi-molten chocolate at each other.

After clearing the table of butter drips and two kids’ faces of meaty slicks and chocolate smears, we admire the towers of bubble rising inside the oven. And noticing their eyes beaming with absolute pride, who says kids these days can’t build anything from scratch? We may have arrived at the age of the Avatar but I’m confident these digital natives will do just fine. Especially with a little help from imaginative Gen-X’ers!

xxx

Karima

Monkey Bread

Makes 6 4-inch breads
Adapted from Chocolatier Magazine, June 1996 Issue

Ingredients:

Dough

Assembly

Bacon and Cheddar

3 tbs unsalted butter, melted
100 gms bacon bits, pan-fried
1/2 cup grated white cheddar
1/2 cup grated red cheddar

Italian Herbs and Garlic

3 tbs unsalted butter, melted
4 tbs dried Italian herb blend
2 tbs chopped fresh garlic

Chocolate Chip

3 tbs unsalted butter, melted
2 oz mini semisweet chocolate chips
2 oz mini white chocolate chips

Method:

Combine yeast and 1/2 tsp sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir in the warm water. Heat the milk, butter and 1/2 cup sugar in a saucepan until the butter melts. Remove from heat and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Let stand until just warm. Whisk in the eggs one at a time into the milk mixture then add the yeast mixture.

Combine 3 cups flour and salt in a separate mixing bowl. Pour over the yeast-egg-milk mixture and stir to form a thick batter. Add the remaining flour, half a cup at a time, to form a soft dough.

Turn out onto a well-floured board and knead until smooth and supple, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle additional flour as necessary to prevent it from sticking to the board.

Transfer to a well-buttered bowl, swiping the dough to get an even slick of butter all over. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and let stand in a warm place for about an hour and a half.

When the dough has doubled in size, coat the inside of tube pans with softened butter. Gently punch down the dough and turn out to a lightly floured board. Divide dough into portions equal to the number of pans you are using (in my case, 6 4-inch mini bundt pans). Then further divide each into smaller pieces and roll into balls.

Assembly:

Dunk the balls in melted butter then roll into the desired flavoring. Drop the dough balls into the pans, making sure they’re evenly distributed. Doesn’t have to be perfect. Just cover spaces as much as possible. It is a good idea though to keep the top surface balanced so that they brown evenly.

You may choose to coat each dough ball in butter, arrange a layer at the bottom of the pan then sprinkle with desired flavor blend. Repeat layers until dough balls fill three quarters of the pan.

Cover the top with cling wrap and let rise for the second time until doubled in volume. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit 15 minutes before baking.

Bake the breads on the middle rack of the oven for about 20 mins. Halfway through the baking time, lay a sheet of aluminum foil on top of the pans, to completely set the top of the bread and prevent it from over browning. You may check doneness by sticking a wooden toothpick into the center of the bread. It should come out dry.

Let cool on a wire rack then carefully remove bread from pans to cool completely. Enjoy right away or leave some for breakfast the following day, if they’re not gone by then!

I grew up loving flan. My mum has a PhD in making this caramel-doused dessert. I remember the impatience that accompanied every baking session. Barely had the pan come out of the oven when my brothers and I launched a strike at the still-hot custard, not able to wait a minute longer for it to cool down.

I like custards in general – whether delicate and cozy inside ramekins, luscious underneath a sugary crackle or sitting proudly on a pool of amber syrup.

Now with a child of my own, I shared this predilection with my son by baking some petits pots de creme. They fall right in between a rich creme brulee and a sturdy flan. The difference among the three is essentially the cream-milk-egg ratio. Creme Brulee is made with heavy cream and egg yolks. Pot de Creme has half milk, half cream plus egg yolks. Flan, also known as Creme Caramel, has more milk than cream, whole eggs and egg yolks.

Now asked whether he preferred vanilla or chocolate, my son replied, “Both!” So we worked on two. Why not? I’m not about to go stingy with sharing the love.

xxx

Karima

Petits Pots au Chocolat et a la Vanille

Makes about 8

Ingredients:

Method:

Pour the milk and the cream in a pot. Bring to a boil and then immediately remove from the heat. Stir in vanilla extract and set aside.

Over a pot of simmering water, melt the chocolate. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 320F.

This is the time you can ask your child to join you. In a bowl, have him beat eggs and yolk with the sugar. Slowly add the hot milk (adult-task here!) in a steady stream while beating. This is to ensure that the hot milk doesn’t shock and cook the eggs right away.

Divide the cream equally between two bowls. Add the melted chocolate to one. (This will yield more chocolate pots than vanilla.) Oh, the bowl where you melted the chocolate? I’m sure your child will be happy to clean it up!

Pour the vanilla and chocolate creams into small ramekins or jars and place them in a roasting pan filled with hot water. Make sure the hot water comes up to half of the custard.

Bake in the oven for 30 mins. The creams should appear set but the centers should still jiggle a little.

Take the ramekins or jars out of the water bath and set aside to cool completely. Transfer to the fridge and chill thoroughly.

Here’s one way to let your children participate in the kitchen: hold a pizza night! No, you are not going to have Yellow Cab or Pizza Hut deliver the pies to your door but you are putting them together yourselves. You need not make your own pizza dough from scratch; several are available in the frozen food section of the supermarket. But if you want this to be truly an exciting (and educational) food experience, why not use a varied selection of bread instead? Visit a few ethnic bakeries and grab yourself some specialty breads. This is a great way to introduce to kids foods from other cultures. Choose about four types: khubz or pita from the Middle East, rye bread from Sweden, baguette from France, bagel from Poland.

Next have the little ones help prepare pesto and salsa in addition to store-bought sauces like pizza and alfredo sauce to slather on their bread. Then present them with all-time favorite toppings like grilled chicken breast strips, bacon, cold cuts, sliced vegetables and of course, mozzarella cheese.

Play up the theme by having maps serve as placemats. While their pies take a quick trip to the oven, let kids point to the country where their bread of choice originated. Then get ready to go around the world. Who knows? Maybe next time around, they’ll be enticed to sample feta from Greece or gruyère from Switzerland. Hmmm…how about a new twist to that grilled cheese sandwich?

Karima