{We're Thankful for Cookies}

This weekend we got together with a neighbor for the "Great Cookie Bake-a-Thon!".   There's a bunch of different ways you can tackle baking with toddlers- they key is making sure that everyone has a task, even if that task is simply holding onto a whisk.  

LuCk & Co. had a fun time in the kitchen.  Lucas honed his butter mashing skills. Abby, our guest, whisked a mean egg. Chuck just hung around the kitchen taking in the sites, and all three of them enjoyed some sampling along the way.  We measured ingredients out, counted how many eggs we cracked, and stared into the oven watching cookie magic happen! 

Baking with toddlers can be fun! Here's a few tricks of the trade to make this a little bit more enjoyable for everyone involved.

Recipe for Success

Choose a recipe that leaves a little wiggle room.  We made chocolate chip cookies.  At the end of the day, its hard to go wrong with sugar, eggs, flour, and chocolate.  There's a LOT of room for error, or as I like to call it, "experimentation."

Prep

Have everything you need in arms reach.  When I watch cooking shows, I am always in awe at the level of preparation that goes into getting everything set up.  I try to emulate this when kids aren't around.  It's an absolute MUST when the kids are in the kitchen.

Get Everyone Ready

Once their hands are washed, most recipes can be divided into "wet" and "dry" ingredients.  If you have multiple bakers in the kitchen, you can assign some one to be "in charge" of each of these things.  Lucas went to town creaming the sugar and butter!  He is a mashing machine!  

Don't Forget the Fun 

Have some containers filled with ingredients for the kids to to play with. There's a lot of waiting in baking; having bowls filled with a little bit of flour to play with while you are waiting for a batch of cookies to come out of the oven, reduces the risk of real ingredients getting sampled.  

The cookies are baked and all packaged up to bring to the Senior Center on Wednesday! They may not win any competition, but I sure hope the folks we deliver them to can taste all the love that went into these (and don't notice that a few chocolate chips may or may not be missing) 

I wouldn't be telling the whole story without the disclaimer that this will be messy and the end result will vary.  There may even be some crying involved.  Chuck reminded me that baking is a very sensory rich environment: there's a lot of clanking and whirling and buzzing. Baking with a group is chaotic; and although a full-blown toddler sensory overload meltdown was not in this recipe, I'm pretty sure that's what happened. 

Sometimes I need an activity like this to remind me that even though I had visions of mommy/daughter bake-a-thons this winter, I may need to re-envision my vision.  Chuck is super sensitive to sounds right now (hey, she's 23 months old, what do you expect?), so the noise of the mixer really bothered her.  She's also been super clingy lately, and its really hard to measure out flour while balancing a toddler on your hip. Even though I wanted her to get her hands in on the action, Chuck was perfectly content watching from the sidelines (or in my arms) and chewing on a whisk.  I need to remind myself that "that's OK".  And it is.  There will be more chances to bake cookies in this girl's future.