Teaching kids to cook

jamanda

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

On the Christmas presents thing: how about some peppermint creams? They're pretty easy to make and it might be fun to dip them or dribble chocolate on them as well to make them look professional. Or plain chocolate melted in a bain marie with unsalted butter, rolled into balls and dredged in cocoa: easy truffles! Plus, you can add all sorts of yummy flavours like grated orange or mint. MMMMMM! I'm getting peckish

Good ideas. Thinking about it I might make some of these for my Dad.

I think I'm going to need the pressure washer in my kitchen on a regular basis after the kids have been let loose. Probably need to bath the dog as well.

Thanks

BitterAndTwisted

I doubt any household with a dog ever needs a pressure-washer for the floor!

jamanda

Not this blooming dog. She's a lady and very choosy. She picked the wrong house here.

freyasmum

My daughter, who is three, loves cooking and baking with me, it's great for getting them used to the kitchen.

As well as the ideas above (pizza, bread, cakes, etc) she helps (under a very watchful eye!) to peel (with a safety peeler) carrots and grate them.

Soft veg like courgettes and mushrooms, etc can all be chopped with a palette knife. So I let her do them on a little chopping board next to me while I chop some onions and peppers. Put them all into a baking tray and let her wash and add some tomatoes, sprinkle with a little oil and then we roast until done. It's delicious served with some cous cous or chicken, btw.

jamanda

Yes, I think I need to alternate the sweet stuff with making their own dinner. I have a couple of peelers, and will get another so they have one each. It would be nice if they all liked similar things. I'll have to get a common denominator and shuffle the rest of the ingredients about a bit.

sooty&sweep

Hi

This is recipe from Bill Grainger that I've made lots of times with my two children (8 & 3)
150g unsalted butter ( I use marg)
230g soft brown sugar
1 egg lightly beaten
2 tsp vanilla extract
125g plain flour (I've used self raising and left out the baking powder below)
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
235g rolled oats
175g choc chips (I buy bars of basic milk chocolate and blitz in food processor)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C
Cream butter & sugar together until smooth & fluffy
Add egg & vanilla & beat until smooth
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt and mix.
Add oats and choc chips and mix
Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls and place on baking trays (I dollop large spoon fulls for a rustic look !)
Flatten the balls with a fork dipped in flour ( Don't flatten too much because they will spread)
Bake the cookies for approx 20 mins

The cookie is like a cross between a choc chip cookie and a hobnob and so far I've had no complaints !
They keep for a week in a tin.

Or

Choc Rice crispy cakes add baby marshmallows, raisins etc to make rocky roads no cooking involved and very tasty !

Jen

Silaqui

I learnt to cook at the age of about 5 (come from a family of chefs... :rolleyes:) and was making basic dinners, under supervision, from when I was about 7/8.

I don't see why you can't let the older ones do the oven bit though, they know it's hot so they should be fine, kids aren't that stupid

Maybe try stuff with them like spag bol, pizza from scratch (although sometimes all the kneading is hard for little hands), soups and fruit salads are good for getting them used to knives. Lasagne could be cool because you could have one in charge of the tomato sauce, one in charge of the cheese sauce and one to be in charge of the layering afterwards

xx

Penelope_Penguin

jamanda wrote: »

I have bought some kids cutters but don't seem to have a recipe suitable for cutters that would still be edible when the mixture has been mauled a bit.

Well done on teaching the children to cook :T WE have a thread on cutter-cookie recipes, so I'll find a link in a mo Here you go - cutter biscuits

As this has fallen from the front page of OS, I'll add it to the existing thread to give you more ideas.

Penny. x

smiler34

I have got my plan for the holidays and monday morning is going to be baking/cooking. I was thinking the best thing to do would be to get the kids making something they could eat for their lunch. We have done buns and biscuits to death lol. I was thinking tortillas and maybe pizza but would like some other ideas they could make from scratch.

Sam xx

meg72

Baked potato, choose their own topping,Same with toast,Scotch eggs,how old are the kids,could they manage to peel potatos and thenyou cut and cook chips.