Birthday gift for the junior chef, Zoey.

Cooking with little ones can be a lot of fun. Done well, you can set them on the road to a lifetime enjoyment of cooking.  My family has always encouraged new cooks so I’m just following an old tradition. I have very fond memories of the jam making kit I was given by my Aunt Charlotte when I was 5 or 6. Remembering this, I knew exactly what I wanted to get Zoey for her birthday when I spotted this. Need to be getting it wrapped as we’re going to celbrate her birthday later this week, but had to post a picture.

What new cook wouldn’t be inspired by this lovely gingerbread boy apron? Actually, it came with 2 aprons, so Zoey & I will be cooking in style the next time she comes. Getting her started on her very own cookie cutter collection by adding 2 cutters to the mix. I figured a flower cutter and duck cutters were good ones to start the cutter collection. Two silicon spatulas added to the junior chef’s starter set. I think she’ll love them. I’m anxious to see her in her apron cooking!

I’m better prepared this time so hopefully it will go better. A particular favorite cookie here is Aunt Martha’s Nutmeg Bells, a recipe I got from Good Housekeeping several years back. The plan is to mix up a batch of them. While it’s in the refrigerator chilling, we’ll mix up & bake White Chocolate Cookies with Chocolate Chunks. This is a new recipe I’m trying. It can be found in Mrs. Field’s Best Cookie Book Ever, page 15. If you’re into cookie baking, this is a book well worth having.

Zoey hard at work cracking eggs.

We get off to a good start on mixing the cookies. Zoey must be cracking a lot of eggs at home; she does a great job of cracking them. She’s anxious to actually operate the mixer. I’m standing right there so that’s what we do. I tell her what number to move the slide to & she operates it. I suspect we have a baker in the making in Zoey.

The cookie dough is mixed in no time & ready to go in the refrigerator. Here’s where we run into  the first road bump. Zoey is hard to keep focused today. While I clean the mixing bowl, she clamors to play a game on the computer. She doesn’t argue when I tell her no. I point out that she came over to bake cookies not to play computer games.

Zoey carefully carrys the egg to the mixer.

While working on the second batch of cookies, Zoey runs back & forth from the tv to the kitchen. Again, cracking the eggs is a job she handles with finessse. We have the dough ready & I pull out the cookie scoop to use. Zoey says she remembers how to do it & proceeds to use the scoop. She keeps pulling the dough out from the middle of the bowl. It’s not a deal breaker, but it’s certainly messier that way so I show her again how to pull the dough from the edges of the batch in the bowl. No biggie as she’s not even 6 & has lots of time to learn all the ins & outs of cookie baking.

She has to kneel in a chair to reach the mixer.

I put the pan of cookies in the oven & set the timer. While the cookies bake, Zoey runs & settles on the couch to watch television. I scoop out a  trayful of cookies to be ready when the first batch finishes cooking. As soon as that batch cools enough to eat, Jim, Zoey & I taste them. Have to be sure they’re good to eat. Zoey pronounces them yummy.

It’s time to scoop another trayful of cookies. She doesn’t seem that interested. Clifford the Red Dog has caught her attention. She’s young & it’s more important that this be a fun process then that she do everything, so I scoop & bake the cookies until all of that variety are done.

Oops! We need to practice spacing our cookies out!

I make the decision to take her home as she’s just not heavily into baking today. Everything distracts her. But it’s been a good day & she’s excited about the cookies she helped bake. She doesn’t ask about cooking the others so I know I’ve made a good decision to take her home.

After taking Zoey home, Sarah & I roll out & bake the nutmeg cookies. I picked 5 of the designs from a new pack of Halloween cookie cutters to use. We cut skulls, pumpkins, devil heads, ghosts & tombstones. Doesn’t take very long to cut & bake them especially beings we’re working together. Tomorrow, I’ll ice & decorate them.

At 6, scooping cookies can be a 2 handed job.

White Chocolate Cookies with Chocolate Chunks cooking on wire racks.

I thought I had it all planned out well. We were going to make cake truffles & bake a half batch of oatmeal cookies. I had checked & had most of the ingredients I needed for both. On our way to the house, we stopped at the grocery & picked up what few things I needed. We were all set. Beings I had planned this out, everything would go smoothly. Unfortunately, Murphy’s Law had other plans in mind.

Cake truffles you ask? Cake truffles are one of the wonderful ways to utilize bits & pieces of cake. If you carve a cake shape, you have leftover pieces. Save them! If a layer of cake doesn’t come out of the pan in good enough shape to use (it does happen sometimes), save the pieces! When you’re finished with those pieces no one needs to know these were a way to salvage cake scraps.

First crumble up the chunks of cake into crumbs. This is an awesome job for a food processor if you have one. In my case, a five-year old thinks it’s marvelous fun. Clean hands are a must for this job–even if you’re 5. Then the fun begins. You add your choice of “glue” to hold the crumbs together. Non-dairy creamers are good; the flavored ones add to the taste experience. Other choices include icing, jam, liquor, chocolate or caramel syrup or peanut butter. Just use your imagination. Keep your cake flavors in mind & who is going to be eating the truffles. Naturally, beings my fellow cook was a five-year old, liquor was out of the question.

The night before I had pulled a couple of zip-lock bags of cake diasters out of the freezer. Remember the problems I had with the wedding cake? Well the orange cake pieces are now coming in handy. I also had a smaller bag of chocolate cake pieces. I set up 3 bowls & Zoey & I went to work. One small bowl was for nothing but chocolate cake crumbs. A medium bowl was for a mix of chocolate cake crumbs & orange cake crumbs. Yum. The third bowl was for all orange cake crumbs. We had fun making crumbs out of our cake pieces. Didn’t take us very long and it was time for the next step.

Zoey hard at work.

I had debated for awhile what to use for our “glue”. Wasn’t sure that the non-dairy creamer would hold the crumbs together that well. Seemed to me that icing would be too sweet beings they would be dipped in chocolate. When in the store, I had bought some French vanilla non-dairy creamer. I poured some in the bowl of chocolate crumbs. It was too messy a job for hands so Zoey was given a spoon & stirred the mixture together. Once all the crumbs were damp, I handed her a cookie scoop and picked one up for myself. Showed Zoey how to pick the crumbs up in the scoop, press the mixture against the side of the bowl & then release the ball on the aluminum foil paper that was set up for them.

We worked together until we had used all the chocolate crumbs. Then we moved onto the mix of chocolate & orange cake crumbs. Again, I poured the non-dairy creamer in & Zoey mixed them together. Zoey’s beginning to get pretty good at scooping out the balls of  damp cake crumbs. Wanting to do a little experimenting, I check in the refrigerator to see if I have any orange marmalade to use with the orange cake crumbs. No such luck. Somehow strawberry jam just doesn’t seem the right combination with orange cake. I do have some vanilla icing left over from the wedding cake. I thin it down with the French vanilla creamer & add it to the bowl with the orange cake bits.

Zoey shows off her expertise in mixing the ingredients together. We have another batch needing to be scooped. Doesn’t take long & they are done. THIS is when plans start to unravel.

I check the oven so we can work on baking cookies while the cake truffles sit. Oops the shelf is still out of the oven. I had cleaned the oven a couple of days ago & hadn’t put the shelf back in yet. Ok no problem. Right?! Put it in this way. Won’t go all the way in. Must have it backwards. So turn it around & slide it in. Oops won’t go all the way in the oven. Maybe I have it upside down. Turn it over & try to slide it in. Nope that’s not right either. Try several times different ways & I’m getting nowhere fast. So I call for Sarah. She can’t get it either. I’m getting frustrated.

Decide to ignore that problem. After all, after I calm down & reapproach the problem, the rack will most likely just slide it as I handle the shelf the proper way. Let’s melt the chocolate. Not a big deal, right? Wrong. Remember, I said Murphy’s Law came calling. I remember buying a kit for melting chocolate in the microwave several months back. Get on the step ladder & find it in the back of the pantry where I vaguely remembered putting it. We’re good to go.

Open it up & find 2 cone shaped heavy plastic cups in there with a bag of chocolate melts. Oh boy! Things are looking good. Going to finish the truffles & move on to cookies. My innocence at this point is amusing looking back. Read & reread the directions for melting the chocolate pieces. This is going to be SO much easier than the double-boiler method. I’m so glad I remember I bought this!

Proud cook posing for the camera.

Well let me tell you, it was NOT easy. Following the directions the pieces did NOT melt into this wonderful chocolate lake. It got lumpy & then it BURNED!! Burnt chocolate does not smell good. It is not appetizing. Ok another bump in the road. Try the oven rack again. No go. DID this rack come out of this oven? I start having questions like this. Back to chocolate. Have lots of chocolate chips — both milk chocolate & semi-sweet.

Pull the semi-sweet ones out & throw them in the microwave. Oh oh too many small road bumps; Zoey’s beginning to get bored! Get them melted nicely & dip a few of the cake truffles. This is definitely cool. I leave them sitting on a piece of aluminum foil to cool down. Time to get the chocolate back on the heat as it’s beginning to reset. Oh no! It’s getting lumpy! Chocolate chips take a lot more coaxing when melting, but I don’t want to use the chocolate I have because it’s unsweetened. Not very likely to appeal to a 5 year old.

Try the oven rack again. Please!! We want to make cookies! No luck. Ok, must calm down & approach the problem more rationally. Find computer games for Zoey!! That will help keep her from having a melt down from boredom. By now, I’m about to throw the rack out in the backyard except that won’t accomplish anything. In fact, then I’d have to go out, get it & wash the blasted thing.

Sarah yells in triumph: “I got it!”. Zoey & I marched into the kitchen to make cookies. We’re going to make oatmeal cookies. Yep, the ones on the the Quaker Oats box; I like that recipe. Some things I measure & hand to her to dump into the mixer. Some things I show her how to measure & let her add to the mixer. Give her an egg and a small bowl to break the egg into. No problem.

Take the mixer bowl off the stand to hand stir the oats in the mixture. Hand it to Zoey & tell her what to do. She works very diligently at it. Of course, Rhoda (my rhomba) will get a workout later as the oats don’t seem to want to stay in the bowl. This is a fact when cooking with young ones; they are messy. That’s ok as part of the learning process is learning to keep the food where you want it. Add the chocolate covered raisins & Zoey stirs them in the cookie dough.

We scoop balls of dough on the cookie sheets. Zoey is getting the hang of this pretty good. Has a tendency to have the scoop too high in the air when pressing release, but doing a good job for the first time. Grandma slides the cookies in the oven & sets the timer. As soon as the first batch is out & cooled, I hand Zoey one of HER cookies. Yummy is what she says.

It’s now time to go home. I bag up almost all of the cookies for Zoey to take home so she can share what she did & show off a bit. On the way home, she wants to know if she can have another cookie. She’s had 3 but, being Grandma, I say yes. <G> She’s had fun; I had fun. We’re both wanting to do it again. I have relearned a few things I had forgotten since I first worked with my youngest child on her first cooking lessons. More planning & double checking will be done before the next time we do it. Hopefully, Murphy’s Law won’t have a chance. Another cook is in the making!