Kids in the kitchen
Get your kids in the kitchen and you’re in for an hour or two of messy, yummy play. It’s fun to do on a wet day and a great educational and bonding activity, but it also needs good planning because it can be slow and messy. So here are our top tips for making the most out of cooking with your children!
Left image source: mandygodbehear Right image source: sipaphoto
Make sure you have enough time to make your recipe and clear up afterwards; remember everything you use - food, flour, water, you name it - will go everywhere. You’ll both need aprons and your kitchen may well need a serious clean afterwards, so brace yourself. Of course, it goes without saying that safety - keeping little hands away from sharp implements, hot stoves and other dangers - is a major priority.
A great way to build kitchen confidence is to get your children involved with making family meals. They’ll love the opportunity to help out and (eventually) you’ll have a handy kitchen assistant or two! There are plenty of small, safe jobs you can assign to your kids, such as measuring and weighing ingredients, chopping soft fruit or butter with a blunt knife, cracking eggs and mashing potato. Once they’re happy with the basic jobs you can promote them to sous chef and embark on more ambitious recipes - they’ll be baking biscuits and making ice lollies before you know it!
When choosing something to make with your kiddies, pick something that’s easy, quick and great to eat. Depending on how confident your children are, you can guide them through the recipe or hang back and let them take the lead. Still in need of some inspiration? Gingerbread men are a classic teatime treat so here’s a tasty, straightforward recipe, perfect for mini-chefs.
Gingerbread men ingredients (makes 20)
• 350g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 125g butter
• 175g soft light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 4 tablespoons golden syrup
Gingerbread man recipe
1. Sift together the flour, ginger and baking soda into a bowl.
2. Cut the butter into chunks and rub into the flour mixture to make breadcrumbs.
3. Add sugar, syrup and egg. Mix with hands to make a firm dough.
4. Tip out dough onto board. Using a rolling pin, roll it to 5mm thick.
5. Cut out gingerbread men using a cutter.
6. Grease 2 baking trays.
7. Lay the gingerbread men out on your trays (with plenty of room between them as they will spread).
8. Bake at 190oC /Gas Mark 5 for 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown.
9. Once cooled, decorate with icing, chocolate chips, buttons or whatever you fancy.
Getting your kids in the kitchen is fun, free and deliciously messy entertainment, so check out DotComGiftShop’s gorgeous range of bakeware and kids cooking equipment and happy cooking!