easy recipes to bake/make with curious toddler who wants to help

[theotherfossilsister]

DS is eighteen months corrected and keen to 'help' in the kitchen. I feel a bit mean putting help in quotation marks, but he makes a lot of mess, but also want to encourage him.

We have beetroot in and thinking of maybe doing something with that with him tomorrow, although all the chocolate beetroot recipes I've looked up are a bit complicated and he would probably lose interest and go and empty the recycling onto the floor and try to climb into the bin

Anyone have experience baking or cooking with this age please? Dinner tomorrow is either curry or risotto and it's his day at home with me.

Jam tarts with a jar of the cheapest jam you can find, and a packet of ready-rolled pastry - means they can do almost everything themselves, and (not much) mess

I’d do Rice Krispie cakes at that age. Dd loved them, and although not the healthiest I used to stick chia seeds into the melted chocolate to pretend they were healthy 😂

Cheese straws with readymade pastry. You grate the cheese, he goes wild with everything else.

At that age mine did best with biscuits. They don't have the skill to weigh things out, so most "cooking" was actually them stood in the way while I did it, but with biscuits I could make up the dough, then they could knead and use the cutters as they would with playdough.

these all sound really good, thank you. Which ready made pastry is best? Also please can I have the rice crispy chia seed recipe @Queijo ?

With a messy toddler, beetroot sounds like a recipe for you, him, the kitchen and all your belongings getting stained pink!

Start simple and quick at that age with ingredients pre-prepared and weighed so he can enjoy the tipping, spooning, mixing etc. Sweet treats like fairy cakes or fridge cakes can be some of the easiest but not the healthiest for everyday. Maybe little pizzas or quesadillas where he gets to add all his favourite bits and you cook. He could help to cut some thin strips of pepper or mushroom and add them to what he's made.

Chopping soft things like banana or mushrooms with a butter knife. Stirring (it will go every where). Pizza... playing with a bitty of the dough, spreading sauce and adding the toppings and cheese. I've used a good custard cream recipe before which is good for dough, cutting and spreading of icing.

Look at the Taming Twins website for yogurt pot cake. No kitchen scales required, use full pot of yogurt into bowl,then use same pot, empty, to measure oil,sugar etc. Small 150g pot of yogurt

Look up the Tickle Fingers website and book by Annabel Woolmer. Loads of ideas there

Refrigerator cake.

Basically just break up a load of biscuits, add melted chocolate, melted butter and golden syrup, give it all a good stir.

Squash into a tin, let it set in the fridge then cut into squares.

McVities put out this recipe which works very well, the caramel digestives are fab when you get a bite.

150g Original Digestives
125g White Chocolate Digestives
125g Caramel Digestives
600g milk chocolate
200g Unsalted Butter
300g Golden Syrup

Melted Mars bar rice crispy cakes are good too, we're heading towards Easter so you could use broken up shredded wheat instead of rice crispies to make little nests and then put some mini eggs in for decoration.

Do NOT mix beetroot and a toddler in the kitchen, unless you want a pink kitchen and a pink child!

Sweet stuff is usually easier than savoury - although mine got quite good at chopping mushrooms. But you need to pre weigh everything so ingredients can be tipped in.
Cake, biscuits. Yes to rice krispie cakes - make nests at this time of year.

This book is brilliant

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tickle-Fingers-Toddler-Cookbook-Hands/dp/1785040561/ref=ascdff_1785040561/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310561939160&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3806319131378123738&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046312&hvtargid=pla-418222813878&psc=1&mcid=e2d30959943c379f832202a3ac4d8de6&th=1&psc=1

Packet mix cake mixes.

All of the above.

Sausage rolls
Banana “ice cream”
https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/banana-ice-cream-healthy/

If you can get some Thai blue pea teabags, it’s fun to make blue ice cubes then add them to lemonade and watch it turn pink (it’s a pH indicator). Ocado sell them.

I do lots of baking with my toddler, he absolutely loves it. We often make banana oat cookies, there are loads of recipes online that are really simple. They generally just involve mashing the banana, mixing in the oats and popping spoonfuls onto a tray to bake. You can add in grated carrot, cinnamon, raisins, etc. Healthy, cheap and they freeze well too!

Fruit smoothies are good in this house - chop up banana and strawberries with blunt knife, put blueberries in, pour in milk from a little jug. Mummy whizzes it up with a hand blender.

Banana oat biscuits. Mash a couple of bananas, mix in oats until it's got a reasonably thick consistency (holding together at least), spoon onto a baking tray, bake for about 15 minutes.

I made a shortbread dough the other day (used a BBC good food recipe) and my 3 year old and 18 month old had great fun cutting the biscuits out with cookie cutters, but the younger one wasn't really able to help make the dough.

Savoury food - you could do mini quiches. Then he can cut the pastry out and help mix and then spoon the mixture in. But I agree with others that sweet things generally give you more options at this age.

Mix beetroot and a helpful toddler, and your whole home will be pink for the foreseeable future.

Scones, plain or fruit or perhaps cheese to have with lunchtime soup.

Send off for the BERO cookery book, it has lots of simple recipes that will inspire you through the childhood cooking years.

Making pizza would be fun for a toddler, buy ready made bases and get chopping, spreading, scattering and sprinkling! 🍕 🍕 🍕 🍕

Granola is really easy to make, you would just have to chop the nuts up for a child that young:

3 cups oats
1.5-2 cups nuts
Half a cup.of pumpkin seeds
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Half a cup honey or maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix it all up and bake in a tray lined with greaseproof paper for 30 mins at 150 degrees C, stirring a couple times part way through.

Serve for breakfast with yoghurt and berries. Can even add dried fruit or a few choc chips if you fancy.

My little ones always used to help chop bananas for banana and peanut butter porridge. I would mash them once chopped. Admittedly the chopping is a fairly pointless step but it gets them involved and keen to try the end product.

I bake with my DGD every week and have done since she was under 18 months. The key is to find quick simple recipes or include them in the process of preparing their meals with you eg cracking and mixing eggs for scrambled egg. Things that worked for us when she was very young:

1. making jelly (adding water to the powder and mixing)
2. fork biscuits (recipe online)
3. Rice crispie birds nests
4. tiffin
5. chocolate bark (made Halloween and Christmas versions as gifts)
6. fish cakes (I prepared the fish and mash, she mixed together and formed into cakes)
7. chopping vegetables
8. Mini fairy cakes (in petit four cases)

i also use measuring cups (American style) for ‘weighing’ ingredients. Which means she can scoop flour, sugar etc out of containers and it’s easy for her to work out one or two scoops - rather than using scales

I know it's not Christmas but my DGS helped me make them when he was 2 , I now help him. Perhaps replace the mincemeat with apple

I'd suggest getting him to help you cook. Get him a hat and an apron and let him chop with a plastic knife, peel, knead dough etc.

There's this thing that looks like a wooden box that children can stand in at worktop height. I'll try and find it

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