Chocolate chip cookies

It's cute how my wee man can get pretty excited about baking or as he likes to call it "mixing". I have discovered a tried and tested recipe for "Vintage Chocolate Chip Cookies" on the BBC Good Food Website which has gone down extremely well with everyone. Chocolate is a big favourite in this household and I'm not sure how many chocolate chips actually made it into the bowl! So a handy tip when baking with toddlers...have an extra bag of chocolate chips! It also helps to have a grandparent around to help so that you can take the pictures! It's a really simple recipe which really just involves slowly adding everything together:

Ingredients
150g salted butter, softened
80g light brown muscovado sugar
80g granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
225g plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp salt
200g plain chocolate chips or chunks

Method

Preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.

Put the butter and sugars into a bowl and beat until creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract and egg. Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt over the mixture and mix in with a wooden spoon. Add the chocolate chips and stir well.

Using a teaspoon, place small mounds of the mixture well apart on the baking trays. Bake in the oven for 8–10 mins until light brown on the edges and still slightly soft in the centre.

Leave on the tray for a couple of minutes to firm up and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Then eat! Yummy really!

Baking together

It was always an idea in my head to do certain activities with my child like baking. It was about doing things together while they are growing and learning. I've quickly learnt it's also about being prepared, being okay with the mess and not worrying about things turning out perfectly! It's all about the process and not the outcome! Also I usually end up dragging hubby into the mix to help us out! We had our first baking experience just before Christmas when as part of getting into the Christmas spirit we decided to bake some ginger bread cookies. Never mind that I belatedly found out we did not have any ginger!

I was so pleased with his enthusiasm of getting involved and his obvious enjoyment of adding and mixing all the ingredients together. Of course the best bits is usually at the end when you get to lick the bowl and spoon and it's even better when you are making something chocolatey!

So with three overripe banana's and a wet and rainy Sunday we were ready to make a banana bread. I'm a lot better at making sure all the ingredients are ready to just pour into the bowl. I'm a dab hand at salvaging for broken egg shells. The wee man was excited from the bowls were put out on the table. He's a dab hand now at stirring and licking the bowl. He kept saying no mummy because he wants to do it all himself.

With pecan nuts in the cupboard who knows what we will be baking next?!