Baking With Children: Two No Fail Recipes
Baking with children is a nice idea in theory, less so in practice. It begins with a plaintive call, “Mommy? Can I help you?”
Here’s where you stifle a sigh. Under no circumstances is involving your child in kitchen tasks any sort of “help.” But if you say so, you’ll be a bad mother.
So instead of saying no, you push down your impatience and give your child some kind of task to do: sifting dry ingredients, cracking eggs, measuring chocolate chips, knowing it will be the dickens to clean up the mess after the fact, knowing that there, too, a “good mother” will involve her child in cleanup as well. Everything can be a learning experience.
After the fact, you’ll feel good about it, especially when you bring out dessert and say, “Laurie helped make this.” As everyone makes a fuss over her wondrous cooking talents Laurie will be grinning so hard you wonder it doesn’t hurt her face. You think, “I should really do this more often, but make it part of our schedule—something we can do together that’s fun and teaches her something, too.”
The problem is, the most realistic time to have a parent/child baking session is during the summer vacation. But that’s when people LEAST want to bake. Why heat up the kitchen when you can purchase baked goods?
It’s a conundrum, no doubt.
The other problem is in finding recipes that:
1) Children will actually eat
2) Aren’t beyond a child’s capabilities
As to the first problem, when it comes to baking, as opposed to cooking, children like almost everything. If it’s sweet, they will generally eat it. So no big deal there.
But as for the second problem, that one’s a bit trickier. There are no-bake cookies where all one needs to do is mush a lot of stuff together with one’s hands, but what does that really teach a child? If you want to stretch a child’s mind and skill sets, you have to set the bar of achievement ever higher.
You want the recipe to teach something, don’t you? If your kid can easily do all the steps, she’s not really learning anything. So you’ll need to let her try and fail to crack eggs cleanly and sift flour without making a mess all over the counters. These are skills she has the RIGHT to learn.
The following two recipes are my fallback recipes for when I don’t feel like going all out on a home baked dessert. Both recipes take little effort and produce results so tasty that you’ll be embarrassed when friends and guests request the recipe. You may not want them to know just how easy it is to make these mouthwatering treats.
Kids will need help using the mixer on both recipes. You want to point out to your child what the butter mixture looks like when properly creamed, and how to know when the cookies and bars have reached the proper degree of doneness. Let your child get a good whiff of vanilla and ask her to describe the smell. Most of all, have FUN!
The first recipe combines peanut butter and chocolate, a popular combination. If your child is allergic to peanut butter, you can substitute almond or cashew butter.
Nutty Buddy Bars
Ingredients:
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 6 T. butter or margarine, softened
• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ t. salt
• 2 cups chocolate chips, divided
• 1 t. vanilla
Method:
Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit. In large mixing bowl, beat peanut butter and butter or margarine until smooth, about 1 minute. Add sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract; beat until creamy. Blend in flour and salt. Stir in 1 cup chocolate chips. Spread until ungreased 13”x9” rectangular baking pan.
Bake 25-30 minutes, or until edges begin to brown. Immediately, sprinkle remaining chocolate chips over cookie layer. Let stand 5 minutes until chips become shiny and soft. Spread melted chips evenly over top. Cool completely. Cut into 1 ½ inch bars. Makes 48 bars.
The second recipe here is an easy cookie recipe, which unlike some cookie recipes, doesn’t make a huge amount, which means you won’t be committed to the project for an entire afternoon! These cookies are plain, yet divine, with a crackly outside and a rich, dense center. What’s not to love?
Butter Balls
Ingredients:
• 1 cup butter
• ½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 t. vanilla
• 2 ¼ cups sifted cake flour
• Granulated sugar
Method:
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in vanilla. Add flour gradually, mixing until smooth. Chill, if necessary, then form into balls and roll in granulated sugar.
Bake on a baking parchment paper-lined cookie sheet at 350° Fahrenheit for 12-15 minutes, or until a delicate tan. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.
