Toddler cooking (3)

It's been a while since our last cooking post, a combination of finishing work pre-maternity leave, family illness and a new found obsession with messy play means I've been a bit distracted. But anyway here it is... 

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Pizza krispie slices

I first saw this recipe on Nurturestore's blog where they made snowmen krispies. I thought Doof would enjoy making various different animal shapes instead, especially as he is really into making animal noises at the moment. However keep reading for why it mutated into a pizza...

Toddler age: 20 months

Ingredients: rice krispies, mini marshmallows, unsalted butter, icing/sprinkles to decorate

Equipment: mixing spoon, plastic bowl, saucepan, cake tin (we used a round one), baking paper, sharp knife

Recipe:

1. Weigh out 120g rice krispies and set aside

2. Melt 25g butter in a saucepan and mix in 150g mini marshmallows

3. Take off the heat as soon as the marshmallows have melted and pour into a plastic mixing bowl

4. Immediately pour in about ¾ of the total rice krispies and mix until they are all coated with marshmallow mix. Slowly add more rice krispies as needed

5. Spread mixture into a cake tin lined with baking paper and put in the fridge to set (we left it for an hour)

6. Remove from fridge and decorate with icing/sprinkles

7. Peel off baking paper and use a knife to cut into ‘pizza slices’

We kept the slices in an airtight container and they were still nice and chewy 2 days later.

  

What did Doof enjoy doing?

- pouring the rice krispies into the weighing scales and then transferring them between bowls

- patting down the mixture into the cake tin

- carrying the tin to the fridge and finding a shelf to put it on (love how he enjoys doing the most simple things!)

- decorating! It was the first time he had used the icing tubes and once he got the hang of squeezing them he went to town with all the different colours. And may have also worked out he could squeeze them and then suck the end…. hmmm…

What was Doof not interested in or unable to do?

- I did not let Doof be involved in the melting of the butter or the marshmallows (I think he’s still way too young to be allowed to cook near the lit hob) and neither did I let him cut up the krispie ‘pizza’ as it was quite difficult to cut and so I had to use a very sharp knife

- he tried to mix the krispies into the marshmallow goo and gave it a good try but it was actually quite tricky to do so I had to take over in the end (and even I struggled to mix them properly!)

This was actually much more tricky to make than I thought it was going to be – the melted marshmallow goo was very sticky and so nearly impossible to properly mix the krispies into. It also set much harder than I thought it would and so the original idea of making animal shapes (using cookie cutters) from a giant krispie square had to be abandoned in favour of a pizza. Next time I will make it with a bit more butter and add in some golden syrup to try and make the marshmallow mixture a bit more manageable. I’ll also spread it much thinner in the pan (I’d spread the amount of mixture we made across 2 pans rather than just one so it is about 1-1.5cm deep) so it is easier to cut after it has set.

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Croissants

So this is a bit of a cheat recipe but we're staying with grandparents at the moment and so have minimal time/space/equipment to make anything properly. But I still want Doof to have fun in the kitchen as he really enjoys cooking. So we made* croissants yesterday morning. 

* in reality this means we opened one of the fresh cans of dough, unrolled the dough, tore the sheets apart and rolled them up into croissant... So, clearly not a proper recipe, but ticked all the boxes of being easy, simple, something fun for Doof to do and with the added bonus of freshly cooked croissant for everyone's breakfast :)

Toddler age: 21 months

Ingredients: ready roll croissants (we used Jus Rol ones)

Equipment: baking tray (told you it was simple!)

Recipe:

1. Open can and unroll pastry

2. Tear along perforations to separate each individual croissant

3. Roll each 'triangle' into a croissant shape and place on baking tray

4. Place in oven and cook according to instructions

5. Enjoy fresh hot croissants :)

 

What did Doof enjoy doing?

- tearing along the perforations to separate the croissants

- rolling the individual ones up 

- arranging them on the baking tray

(he also enjoying squishing them out of shape and stretching them but we'll gloss over that... Lol)

What was Doof not interested in or unable to do?

- I had to open the can and take out the initial lump of dough

- he also needed some encouragement to stop playing with the dough when it was time to cool them!

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You can see our previous cooking posts here and here and I'd love to hear about any cooking you do with your toddler :)