StoryMakers in the Kitchen Emily Jenkins and Sophie Blackall Create A FINE DESSERT!
A dessert four centuries in the making!
Emily Jenkins and Sophie Blackall take us through the four different eras depicted in their new picture book, A Fine Dessert! Learn how to create Blackberry Fool, one of the oldest desserts in western culture. Sophie and Emily begin with a hand made twig whisk then progress to a whirring blender that sends whipped cream everywhere! Join us in celebrating family, food, and fun in the KidLit TV kitchen!
From Penguin Random House:
A Fine Dessert: Four Centuries, Four Families, One Delicious Treat
In this fascinating picture book, four families, in four different cities, over four centuries, make the same delicious dessert: blackberry fool. This richly detailed book ingeniously shows how food, technology, and even families have changed throughout American history.
In 1710, a girl and her mother in Lyme, England, prepare a blackberry fool, picking wild blackberries and beating cream from their cow with a bundle of twigs. The same dessert is prepared by a slave girl and her mother in 1810 in Charleston, South Carolina; by a mother and daughter in 1910 in Boston; and finally by a boy and his father in present-day San Diego.
Kids and parents alike will delight in discovering the differences in daily life over the course of four centuries. Includes a recipe for blackberry fool and notes from the author and illustrator about their research.
Connect with Emily
www.emilyjenkins.com
@elockhart
Connect with Sophie
www.sophieblackall.com
@SophieBlackall
StoryMakers
Host: Rocco Staino @RoccoA
Executive Producer: Julie Gribble @JulieGribbleNYC
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What a fun concept for a story! Thanks for sharing on KidLit TV Sophie and Emily and making is possible for our children to explore history through reading and cooking. Sophie the illustrations are gorgeous. Can’t wait to get my hands on a copy to read and admire! I see a lot of book activities inspired by this story.
Thank you for your comment, Kim! One activity I’m looking forward to sharing is painting with berry goop!
The other day when I was looking for my dad’s favorite dessert recipe, blueberry cheesecake, I found his famous recipe for bean soup written in his own handwriting. I have made the blackberry fool twice now. It’s as delicious as this book.
I still make a mess when I whip the cream for blackberry fool, but that’s part of the fun!
The book sounds like yummy fun!
Highly recommend grabbing a copy! There are lovely notes, from both Emily and Sophie, on how the book was created.
Love this story! Didn’t notice until you mentioned it, but the horse is shown in all four scenes. Cool!
Indeed! It’s in a different illustration panel for the 21st century — do you see where Sophie placed it?
Our big family recipe is gingerbread cookies. My grandmother used to make gingerbread boys and hand them out to trick-or-treaters every Halloween. My mom continued the tradition in our neighborhood, but made gingerbread jack-o-lanterns. She eventually had to hand them out to only kids she knew (due to poisonous candy scares!). Now I make them every year at Halloween time to give to friends or for preschool parties, etc.
Gingerbread jack-o-lanterns! A great Halloween treat–sounds yummy.
This has been one of my favorite books of 2015!
It’s one of mine, too. Thank you so much for watching!
My family fav is a berry treat too! Main ingredients when I was growing up were blueberries and zweiback, but Nabisco stopped making zweiback so now I make it with sweetened homemade whole wheat bread. It is much tastier than it sounds here!
Can you tell us what else is in it? I love blueberries :-)
Thank you for the lovely show! I Can’t wait to make this delicious dessert and read the book! I think it would taste delicious smothered between two layers of angel food cake.
You would think that’s favorite family recipe would be some type of cake but truthfully, it is my great grandmother’s made from scratch chicken noodles.
Do we put the recipe in the comments as well. I do have a wonderful chocolate cake recipe that was my great grandmother’s as well. It it on my blog.
Thank you so much for sharing!
Akiko White Cakelustrator
Hi Akiko! Oh how I would love to hear your recipe for chocolate cake! :-)
Here is my blog site with the recipe for Chocolate cake. I use a chocolate ganache in-between the layers. It’s so yummy!
http://akikowhite.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html
Thank you, Akiko!
We just loved this book! So great to see the author and illustrator on your video making blackberry fool. Blackberries are our most favorite berry.
Our favorite family dessert is my mother’s Peach Pie.
Chocolate chocolate cheesecake
I see a black horse statue that traveled through the ages.
I’ve been wanting to get my hands on this book for a while now! The closest to a family recipe I have may be my paternal grandmother’s cranberry sauce served at holidays.
I loved the concept of this book. There is so much rich information here and so many opportunities to use it in the classroom. My family’s favorite recipe is flan.
I have not read the book, but I do know from experience that food is always an interesting topic for children. A lesson using this book seems like it would get students’ attention.
I’m a big fan of food and I know my students are as well. I don’t make any family recipes but I’m an eager eater of my mom’s homemade noodles, my dad’s Beef Baronessa, and anything baked by my grandmother!
So glad I found this site through a friend’s Tweet. Lots to see and read – and thanks for the giveaway!
My favorite family recipe is probably the Lebanese kibbe dish that my dad makes. Ground lamb or beef, spices, pine nuts, and bulged wheat. Served hot in thin pita bread, it is SO good. Mmm…
It would most certainly have to be a dessert! But which one? Perhaps one that kids can help make like this Blackberry Fool. Love the historical value to this book and encouraging kids in the kitchen.
My favorite family recipe would be Potato Soup for a meal and Maple Nut Bars for dessert. YUM!
Yum! I love making gooseberry fool too!