Recipes with Julie Van Rosendaal: Kids' baking recipes

This summer on The Calgary Eyeopener, we've been taking requests, answering questions and taking new recipes for a spin, contributed by our young listeners.

This week, seven-year-old Lachlan shared the recipe for his herb-infused no-knead bread — a wonderful project when it's not too hot to turn on the oven. 

Mardes asked how to cut squares and bars cleanly, so they aren't a mess — the answer: freeze them first!

A pan of baked, cooled bars can be lifted out easily if the pan has been lined with parchment first, and then wrapped and stacked in the freezer to slice as needed.

They take up less room than cookies, and with less surface area, they don't dry out as quickly.

Gooey lemon bars are a perfect example of bars that benefit from being frozen first — the sugar and fat prevents them from freezing rock-hard, so you can slice them straight from the freezer.

In summer, I like to scatter the base with some chopped rhubarb first — I use the thinnest stalks. 

Lachlan's Rosemary No-knead Bread

Seven-year-old Lachlan has been making this bread recipe for over a year now, and has become his family's resident bread maker!

He especially loves it with rosemary and thyme. He does get some help handling the Dutch oven since it is pretty heavy and hot to handle.

Ingredients

• 1½ cups water, at 100 degrees F
• 2¼ tsp active dry yeast
• 3¼ cups all purpose flour
• 1½ tsp. salt
• Dry rosemary and thyme (or chopped fresh)

In a large bowl, mix warm water and yeast, and stir until dissolved. 

Add flour to bowl all at once along wit the salt and stir until a sticky dough forms.

Add a generous amount of rosemary and thyme and continue mixing. We never measure this, but it should be visible when mixed in the dough.

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Scrape down sides. Do not overwork the dough — it should be wet and sticky. 

Cover bowl with damp towel and leave for two to three hours to rise. 

30 minutes before dough is done rising, preheat the oven to 450˚F.

Place a Dutch oven in the oven with the lid on to preheat. Sprinkle flour on parchment paper. Place the dough on the parchment. 

Remove the Dutch oven (wear gloves!) and flip the dough into the pot so it's flour-side up.

Bake with the lid on for 35 minutes., then uncover and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from the pot and cool on a cutting board or wire rack.

Rhubarb Lemon Bars

So many people love love lemon bars — in the summer, I often make them with a scattering of chopped fresh rhubarb over the base before pouring over the filling.

In winter, I use cranberries — and sometimes a thin layer of coconut underneath.

If you freeze the baked bars once they've cooled down, they'll slice much more cleanly.

Ingredients

Base:

• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ tsp. fine salt

Topping:

• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• ¼ tsp. baking powder
• 2 large eggs
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• Juice of 1 lemon (about 3 tbsp.)
• ½-1 cup chopped thin rhubarb
• Icing sugar, for sprinkling 

Preheat the oven to 350˚F.

In a medium bowl, blend the butter, sugar, flour and salt with a fork or your fingers until you have a damp, crumbly dough.

LISTEN | Julie Van Rosendaal talks about kids' baking recipes:

Press into the bottom of a parchment-lined 8x8-inch pan and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until set and barely golden around the edges (don't worry if it cracks.)

In the same bowl (no need to wash it!) whisk together the sugar, flour and baking powder.

Add the eggs, lemon zest and juice and whisk well.

Scatter the rhubarb over the baked base, and pour the filling mixture overtop.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until set and golden around the edges.

Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack (freeze if you'd like them to slice more cleanly), cut into squares or bars and sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.

Makes: Nine to 16 bars or squares.