Our Trail Mix Adaptation

We extended the Emmaus story to include verses 36-49 (Jesus Appears to the Disciples) and verses 50-53 (The Ascension of Jesus), so that kids could understand what happened to the disciples and to Jesus after he appeared to them on the road to Emmaus.

Another thing we added to the Emmaus Trail Mix was goldfish because Jesus was given some fish in verse 42.

Moved to correct forum and reformatted to improve readability by Moderator.

The following baking project follows a familiar technique in Rotation Model Cooking Workshops --  assigning meaning from the story to the ingredients as they are assembled to create a tasty and tactile memory of both the story and its meaning.

Emmaus Road Pastry Rolls

After reading the story, students will spread 4 different rows of fruit spread in a certain pattern on a sheet of ready-made pastry dough to represent the four emotions the disciples went through in the Emmaus story from sadness, hearts aflame, to joy, to purpose. They will then slice and bake their Emmaus Road Rolls.

The four suggested fillings or pastes*

1. Sadness: Blueberries (lightly mashed, or blueberry preserves)  "Feeling blue, bummed, bushed, bewildered"
   
   
2. Hearts Burned: Apples with redhots (redhots are cinnamon candies that will melt into the pastry), or apples with cinnamon (taste raw cinnamon as you mix)
   
   
3. Joy: Cherry filling, "Cherries Jubilee" -- seeing Jesus brought them joy.
   
   
4. Purpose: Pears with brown sugar, our pair returned to tell the disciples. Or "fig paste"
   
   

*Do not use gooey pie filling as it will run during baking. Instead, use real fruit or fruit mashed into a semi paste or jam/paste for easy spreading, with minimal water content so that it bakes nicely in the dough.

Possible alternate fillings:
  Black cherry filling: because their mood was dark
  Fig paste:  Remembering the good fruit that Jesus said we must produce.
  And anything else you can imagine and connect to the story.

Summary:

Once the fruits are applied in rows and the pastry is rolled, the roll is then sliced into individual rolls, which are then laid on their sides and baked on a baking sheet. This will create the appearance of a spiraled roll with its layering of fruit with each roll. This spiral in our imagination is the Road to Emmaus with its four emotions/eventsto be eaten in each roll. When eaten, the roll can be eaten from the outside of the spiral toward the center to follow the events in the story and get to the "purpose" paste filling for discussion.

Assembly Steps:

1. Roll out the dough into a large rectangle.
2. Spoon on a "smear" of the fillings in rows onto the rolled-out pastry starting with a row of "Purpose" filling first, then Joy, then Hearts, and lastly, a row of Sadness filling. Leave about an inch between each row of filling.
3. Once all the rows of fruit filling/paste are spread across the sheet of pastry, start rolling it beginning with the end that has the Purpose filling (so that the Purpose filling ends up at the center of the roll).
4. After the entire Emmaus Roll is rolled up, slice it into 1 1/2 inch slices and lay them on their side on a baking tray. These are the Emmaus Road Rolls that you will be baking.
5. Add an egg wash before baking to brown-up the rolls in the oven.

Baking, Finishing, and Enjoying:

1. Follow the purchased puff pastry's instructions for baking time and temperature (typically 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes, then check for done-ness).  Time often depends on thickness.
2. Use the baking time to watch a short video about the Road to Emmaus Story. The Saddleback Kids animated video is the one we used. https://www.rotation.org/topic...4#691647440107217944
3. After baking, add a bit of pastry icing (powdered sugar mixed with water) when the rolls come out of the oven. What's "sweet" about this story, i.e. what does it tell us about US and OUR relationship with Jesus? (that he doesn't wait for us to figure it all out, instead, Jesus finds ways to come to us).
4. Then distribute the Emmaus rolls and ask the students to "deconstruct" them, i.e., explain the ingredients as they relate to the story.
5. Add additional insights and discuss what we can do to live a "purpose-driven" life for Jesus -- one that produces good fruit.
6. Package rolls to go home in foil, and have students practice "explaining" how the rolls and their fillings related to the Emmaus story.

From a project first posted by members Neil MacQueen and Lucy Kemp, Peace Church, Bradenton