Mmmm monster cookies

Posted on October 27, 2015 by elsje

The other day I felt a strong craving for some decadent American style chocolate chip cookies. After dome experimenting I found a recipe that works for us.

I made the dough a day in advance and I pulled the dough out when my pre-schooler seemed bored. We had great fun slicing the cookies and watching the oven do all the work.

After this we enjoyed these satisfyingly chewy cookies with a tall glass of milk, yum!

I turned this recipe into a lovely coloring project. You can download MonsterCookieColoring here.

Monster cookies (8 to 10 cookies)

250 gram selfraising flour
200 gram light brown sugar
100 gram butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tablespoon of milk
250 gram chocolate chips

Mix the sugar, butter and salt well.
Stir in the eggs and milk.
Combine with the flour and chocolate chips.
Form a roll of about 5 cm in diameter. Wrap the roll in cling film and rest for 30 minutes to 3 days.
Slice your cookies and place them well spaced apart on a baking tray.
Bake at 190 degrees C for 10 minutes or until golden.

Enjoy your baking and coloring project!

Fabulous five Pinterest projects

Posted on October 6, 2015 by elsje

In case you haven’t discovered Pinterest yet: Pinterest is a great website/app that lets you create you own “pin boards” of pictures that inspire you! Millions of creative people share and organize their pictures on this site. If you create an account you will be able to organize your own finds, but most importantly be inspired by others as well!

What I have discovered is that Pinterest gives you new ideas for cooking, crafts and activities with your kids. I often take elements of the idea of a creative mommy on the other side of the globe, tweak it for my own toddler and make it my own.

These are some of my latest (p)insired creations:

Easy and healthy 3 ingredient cookies, for more baking ideas check out my Bake’nCake Pinterest board
Mini veggie pizza’s, for more cooking ideas check out my Food4Thought Pinterest board
Felt funny bunny, for more felt inspiration check out my Fuzzy felty figures Pinterest board
Personalized coasters
Magazine upcycling, for more gift wrapping ideas check out my Wrap-a-holic Pinterest board

Top tip! Get inspired for Christmas and Halloween and get an early start this year!

Father’s favorites

Posted on June 12, 2015 by elsje

In the Netherlands, June 14th will be fathersday this year. Obviously I would like to state that me and my toddler are daddy’s favorites. However, these cookies also go down well. They are a dutch classic: speculaasjes. The dough should be made beforehand, so the spice mix can flavor the entire dough. I recommend making the dough 2 days before fathersday, then making the cookies with your toddlers 1 day before fathersday.

I have this recipe from a dutch classic cooking book aptly named; “Het nieuwe kookboek“. This is a great book for beginners, let’s call it the “silver spoon” of the Netherlands. My toddler and I tested this recipe for valentine’s day and it was a huge hit!

Getting your hands on some real speculaas might be difficult for you, I do promiss you that this festive spice mix will put a smile on your face, it is like cinnamon for grown-ups (although your kids will love it too). For the UK, check out this site, or make your own blend.

Father’s favorite cookies (40 to 50 cookies)

110 grams butter
90 grams of light brown sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 tsp of speculaas spice blend
1 tbsp of beaten egg
100 grams selfraising flower
Almonds, sugar pieces or sugar decoration

Mix all the ingredients and combine into a ball of dough. Wrap the dough in cling film. Let it rest in the fridge for 1 to 4 days. This will allow for the spices to flavor your dough.

Take the dough out of your fridge 1 hour before rolling it out.

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees C.

Roll out the dough to a thickness of 5 mm. Use flower to prevent your dough from sticking. Cut out any shape you like. Place your cookies on a baking sheet lined with grease proof paper. Sprinkle your decorations, sugar and/or almonds on the cookies and lightly press them in.

Bake your cookies for 20 minutes, take them out to cool on the sheet.

Once cooled, the cookies keep for about a week in an air tight container. My son even decorated his own container for daddy.

Fabulous five: Cooking with toddlers

Posted on June 1, 2015 by elsje

My toddler is always exploring the world and bursting with energy. From the moment he was born he has been observing me in the kitchen. From the moment he could, he has been my most eager little helper. I always indulge him and find a way for him to help me. I find it important he understands what he eats and he learns to appreciate how much work goes into making his dinner.

My toddler surprised me with his cooking. He loves to help create something, and he loves eating his creations. However grown-up I thought the recipes were, my son knows what he likes.

If you are wondering what your toddler can do in the kitchen here’s some things my toddler can do:

Knead, shape and roll out dough (as he has plenty of practice with play dough)
Cut soft food like mushrooms, cucumber, cheese with a table knife
Add ingredients and sprinkle seasoning
Pealing your boiled eggs
Stirring (although this does require lots of practice, my toddler toppled over the pancake batter once!)
Cleaning up afterwards, my toddler can really enjoy washing up, drying and placing utensils back in their right place.
Tasting and testing

A last and final warning for all young parents: lower your expectations. With their short attention span, toddlers help you for 5 minutes and leave a mess that might take you 10 minutes to clean up. Ironically, they will tell everyone they made this food (with no help what so ever, haha). With time, this will improve, and I promise you the pride on their faces when they get to eat their creations makes it all worth while!

These are our favorites recipes:

1. Pizza – my toddler gets to pick his own toppings. When his creation is done, he can’t wait till the pizza has finished baking. Find the recipe for pizza dough or our favorite topping.

2. Cookies – I make the dough beforehand (without my busy toddler slowing me down). The dough rests in the fridge until my son and I have a moment to make cookies together. We still want to make funfetti cookies together some day!

3. Pancakes – my toddler loves helping me mix the batter and we break eggs together, doesn’t any toddler love breaking stuff? He is in charge of ladling the batter in the pan, I am in charge of frying and flipping the pancakes in the air. Find my pancake recipe here.

4. Sushi – making simple sushi is perfect toddler fun. My toddler eats the (healthy) ingredients before they are even made into sushi! Molding the rice and placing the ingredients in the roll is his task and mommy rolls the sushi and we eat them together.

5. Bread – my toddler loves kneading dough with me. He gets to mold his own rolls, brush them and sprinkle them with his favorite seeds. You could also let your toddler make bread sticks.