Essential festive baking for little hands …

Festive baking has been a part of my life forever. I used to bake at my grandmother & mother’s knee & it always sets the scene that Christmas is near..

My Godsons baked alongside my daughters Baking & carried on the tradition for years until well into their teens. We always made an evening of it & the baking was decided by what they enjoyed. 

Little one baked with me last year - biscuits for little hands & it was a good session so I was delighted that he could join me again. 

This year, gingerbread biscuit mixture & little one decided to use the little stocking / boot & a little gingerbread cutter. 

The springerle (embossed) rolling pin is popular & it adds a lovely pattern to the shapes.

While they baked, we decided to treat the others to some cheese straws. 

A roll of puff pastry & some grated cheese was all we needed. The ready rolled pastry had a shake of sweet paprika with grated Red Leicester cheese on half the pastry. It was folded over & then rolled to seal the cheese in to the pastry. 

Little lad cut it into strips with a blunt knife, brushed with an egg wash then baked at 220 for about 10 min. 

They puffed up nicely & as soon as they were cool enough to handle, they were eagerly eaten by all. 

We used icing tubes in white, read, green & blue to decorate the cooled little boot shape biscuits.  They looked lovely & were boxed up to go home with the little lad & his sister. 

It is good to encourage the next generation to take up baking & to enjoy it. Hopefully it will be part of the traditions they enjoy for years. 

The lifelong teacher in me  knows that baking is more than just baking - it uses a wide range of skills in that simple activity. This year, at 3.5 years old, the little lad needed no help with rolling, cutting, putting it on the baking tray all spaced out. Last year he needed more help - so this year shows progression in his skills & ability as he is making independent choices about the cutters used, counting to make sure there is enough (1:1 correlation is a vital early maths skill). The social  interaction is so important for language development & he was using both small & large motor skills in rolling & cutting.  His creativity was evident in icing choices he made while decorating the biscuits - choices made with little input from adults gives children confidence to try new things. Most impressive was how absorbed he was in the activity - a good 30-50 minute concentration is impressive & that is an essential development to prepare them for school.  

It is important to appreciate how simple tasks develop so many skills. 

Are you baking? What is in your tins? Tell all .. 

Thank you for stopping by, 

Dee 🧈👩‍🍳👨‍🍳🥠⏲️