Cooking with a two-year-old - good idea or foolhardy

[newkid]

Does anyone have any suggestions for a good recipe to attempt with a 25mo? Is this a good idea? Ideally something sweet:)

Yep go for it. I do find myself sitting on my hands and just letting DS get on as best he can but he absolutely loves it.

Maybe just try and really simple biscuit recipe - flour butter sugar and then they can get messy rubbing it all in. Get to roll out the dough and cut out the shapes bake and then decorate. Or decorate plain digestives - spread icing on the biscuits and give them sprinkles, sweets, etc to decorate.

Agree MI it is hard to watch :). I'm a chef and find it excuricating sometimes watching him, but keep reminding myself that he is growing up loving something I love too :).

I know what you mean MI - I tend to have cooking time and cooking with ds time iyswim. bit like the difference between coffee and instant coffee....

we do sausage rolls - usually bought sausage meat and bought pastry really good fun

cut out pastry with biscuit cutters and put a dollop of mincemeat in the middle and then bake?

or you could pre-make a biscuit mix and she/he could cut out the shapes

mix a selection of fruit, choc sauce and choc buttons etc into natural yoghurt?

personally I say embrace the mess and enjoy cooking :) but then I'm not a domestic goddess.

I got my dd a big step stool at this age and she loved watching me preparing the meals...and then she could help - say, putting the cut up carrots into an empty saucepan or something. But she is very sensible. She always ate the meal better if she had been involved

I have loved messy cooking with ds since before he was 2
some of our favourites are
Pizza (measure ingredients into bread maker) when done roll out and choose whatever toppings you like - max no was 6 kids at any one time - big mess
Scones - sav and sweet
rock cakes - taste much better than they sound
chocolate cakes (only ever made with dh - and usually on the living room floor for some reason)
biscuits - cut out shapes - still haven't found a tasty receipe for these - ours taste like cardboard
jelly (with fruit)
jam tart - bakewell tarts
Can't think of any more - but will watch this thread for other ideas
Advice - don't worry about the mess - get everything ready before you start - attention spans of gnats