Baking is a great way to spend quality time with your child. No matter the age, there are always steps that he can help with: adding ingredients to the blender, counting up eggs, measuring or weighing ingredients – you get the idea. It’s so much fun for a child to feel involved in a kitchen project, and what better place to start teaching them about good, healthy food in a playful way. Be prepared to let your kitchen get a bit messy – use a small apron or a bib with arms on your child to protect his/her clothing.
I baked these animal cookies with my son the other day – it was actually the first time we baked together. I loved seeing the concentration on his little face while he was helping me measure and stir! The only non-Christmas cookie cutters I had in the house happened to be a horse, so we made a bunch of horse cookies. He loved the end result and has conveniently adapted his horse sound imitation as a sign that he wants more of them!
Recipe tips
Taste the dough before you roll it out – if you want sweeter cookies, you can add more maple syrup (add a bit more flour as well in that case, so that the dough doesn’t get too sticky). You can experiment with the taste of the cookies by using other kinds of flours, for example dinkel flour, which gives a slightly nutty flavour.
If you don’t have animal cookie cutters, you can draw animal shapes on baking paper, cut them out, lay them on top of the rolled out dough and cut along the shapes with a sharp knife.
Ingredients
50 g (1/2 c) oats
30 g (1/3 c) shredded coconut
70 g (1/2 c) whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
50 g (1/4 c) butter
3 tsp maple syrup
50 ml (1/4 c) natural yoghurt
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F.
2. Grind oats and coconut in a blender until fine.
3. In a bowl, stir together oats, flour and baking powder. Cut butter into small pieces and add to the bowl. Stir in maple sirup and yoghurt, forming a stiff dough.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out approximately 3 millimeters thick. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies onto cookie sheets.
5. Bake for 8 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned. Remove and let cool on a wire rack.
Preparation: 20 min | Cooking time: 8 min | Servings: 15-20
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