Cooking in our house is a broad term that basically means splatting the walls with cake mixture and stirring pancake mixture with bananas. Thats fine by me to a certain extent, most things are washable and I wouldnt want to be accused of stifling my sons creativity, but I have developed a couple of strategies to make the whole cooking process a lot less stressful for me. Firstly I get all the ingredients out so he doesnt have to find some other way to entertain himself while I look for something. I try to prepare a few things in advance too, like cutting the tops off onions ready for him to peel. He is getting quite good at stopping pouring now, but before he had that self-discipline I would measure out liquids before handing them over to him to add to mixtures. I try to clear the surrounding area of non-food items too, fridge magnets and cat crunchies do not cook well. My 2 year old helps me with washing veg, pouring, measuring, cutting (heavily supervised), mixing, cracking eggs, rolling out, kneading, filling pastry cases or paper bun cases, stamping out biccies, icing, decorating and eating the end results. He would probably cook all day if he could. We have the odd argument about biscuits staying on baking sheets and them having eventually to go in the oven, but on the whole cooking is a good hours worth of entertainment. More if I get him to do the washing up afterwards. I dont let him put stuff in or take it out of the oven yet though and I think he is too young to do cooking on the hob. We make all sorts of stuff, he likes cutting mushrooms up and mixing chickpea flour, water and chopped up veg for pakoras. His biccy cutter of choice is the piggy and his bread kneading is spectacular, if unorthodox! Bread ideas:
Most bread flours or packet yeasts have recipes on them, you need to let the dough rise first so unless you have a child that understands the concept of delayed gratification I recommend making the dough in advance. After it has risen the child can punch the air out of it and knead it again. Sultana spirals: Roll dough into a rectangle, sprinkle with sultanas (and sugar if you like), roll up in a spiral and cut into thick slices. When put onto a baking sheet they will rise and join up. Hedgehog bread: take a fist size bit of dough and roll into a ball. Pinch one end into a point for the face and snip into the ball with scissors to make the prickles. Add raisins for eyes. Glazing with oil, milk or beaten egg is good fun too. Biccy ideas:
As long as you are not too fussy you can make biccys with all sorts of random ingredients. You basically need twice as much flour as fat and a bit or sweet stuff and liquid. something dry; flour, or oats,
something wet; milk or water,
something oily; oil or marj,
and sugar. If you use normal flour it is easiest because the gluten in it makes the pastry stick together. If you use flour without gluten it can be easier to use if you chill it for half an hour before you roll it. If it cant be rolled it can usually be pressed into a flattish shape. Grated coconut (the type that comes in cardboard boxes), mixed with a little honey and hot water makes great and not too sweet icing. |
