Category Archives: cooking with toddlers

Coconut and lime macaroons

Posted on April 2, 2013 by TheGingerbreadMum

While Easter is over, although the tempting chocolate eggs linger, I wanted to share one last Easter-inspired recipe. The great thing is you don’t need to wait until next Easter to make them. Shape them into circles or other shapes, colour them or not, and they’re a great dairy-free sweet morsel.

This recipe (apart from the food colouring) is an unchanged Jill Dupleix recipe and, following her food philosophy, they are a wonderfully light treat. The non-traditional lime zest and juice add a fresh zing, and contrast perfectly with the chewy coconut interior, making it easier to eat another one, and another one, and another one!

I wanted little bite-sized macaroons so I used a very small round cookie cutter approximately 4cm in diameter. I then shaped the circles into egg shapes by gently pinching the top. Jill uses the rim of a small liqueur glass to make slightly bigger macaroons. Because mine were smaller than the original recipe, they cooked quicker. Do watch them closely as they can colour very quickly at the end (as you can see in my photo!).

Nicholas had great fun helping me squish and squeeze the ingredients together with our hands. He also enjoyed cutting out the circles, but because of the sticky consistency of the mixture he needed help to get them on the baking tray.

Make them plain like the original recipe or add some food colouring for fun. We also made multi-coloured macaroons by pressing stripes of different coloured mixture together. With so few ingredients they’re perfect for your munchkin’s next cooking activity.

COCONUT AND LIME MACAROONS

Prep time: 10-15 mins
Cook time: 8-12 mins
Makes 30 bite-sized macaroons

2 egg whites
100g caster sugar
160g desiccated coconut
1 tsp grated lime (about 1/2 a lime)
1 tbsp lime juice (about 1/2 a lime)
food colouring of your choice (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Put the egg whites, sugar, coconut, lime zest and juice in a bowl, and use your hands to mix and squeeze until they lightly come together.

If using food colouring, divide you mixture into smaller bowls and add a drop or two of your desired colouring. Mix until evenly coloured.

On a piece of baking paper, press the mixture into a flat shape (about 1cm high) using wet hands.

Use a small round cookie cutter (approx. 4cm in diameter) to cut out small rounds, and place on your prepared baking tray.

Using wet hands, gently pinch the top of each circle to create oval shapes.

Bake for 8-12 minutes in the centre of the oven until just starting to colour.

Cool the macaroons on a wire rack (move them carefully as they’ll still be quite soft while they’re still warm), and store in an airtight jar.

Happy belated Easter from my own little Easter bunny!

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Posted in cooking with toddlers, dessert, family, recipe, snack, toddler and tagged afternoon tea, coconut, coconut macaroons, cooking with kids, dairy-free, Easter, Easter eggs, finger food, gluten-free, Jill Dupleix, lime, macaroons, snack, toddler, vegetarian. Bookmark the permalink.

Dairy-free banana bread

Posted on February 6, 2013 by TheGingerbreadMum

I didn’t realise how much I used bananas in cooking until I started writing this blog! There’s banana muffins, banana teething biscuits, banana chips, banana icecream, banana pikelets, banana and butternut squash loaf, and they’re also my ‘secret’ sweetener in my sugar-free flapjacks. And these are just the recipes I’ve blogged!

Banana is commonly one of the first solid foods a baby experiences, and I think I probably just tried different things with them as Nicholas always loves them. I also pretty much constantly have some very ripe ones in the freezer waiting to be turned into something yummy.

I’ve tried many banana bread recipes over the years with varying degrees of success. Most of the time I prefer mine to be light and fluffy like a sponge, rather than heavy and moist. And while I adore cream cheese frosting, for me this banana bread is much better without it distracting your taste buds. It also means I feel less guilt when eating it for breakfast.

Banana bread recipes are quite similar overall with a different tweak here and there. My recipe isn’t anything new, but it’s evolved from combining recipes I’ve come across and experimenting until I was happy.

One thing you might want to experiment with is the texture of the mashed banana. Some cooks puree it with a blender while others leave it quite chunky. Supposedly pureeing it gives a richer banana flavour to the finished product. I mash my bananas with a fork, but mash about half of them until they’re very smooth and the remainder I only mash a little so you find the occasional chunk in the finished bread.

There’s quite a bit of banana in this recipe, but you can easily get away with less; even two smallish bananas would work fine (you want at least 175g of it unpeeled).

DAIRY-FREE BANANA BREAD

Prep time: 10-15 mins
Cook time: 40-45 mins
Freezable

175g self-raising flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
175g golden caster sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 1/2 medium bananas, mashed
50g walnuts (or pecans), chopped

Preheat the oven to 160C. Line a loaf tin with baking paper.

Whisk the sugar, eggs and oil together at a medium speed using a handheld beater or in an electric mixer. Whisk for a few minutes until it’s pale and fluffy.

Sift in the flour and baking powder, add the mashed banana, and mix until combined using a low speed. Gently stir through the walnuts.

Pour into your prepared tin and bake for 40-45 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

Variations:

Make individual muffins instead of a loaf (easier to freeze if you’re not going to eat all of it)
Dust with icing sugar
Top with cream cheese frosting for a more decadent loaf

I’m linking up this recipe to the One Ingredient Challenge hosted by Franglais Kitchen and How to Cook Good Food. Why not enter your own banana recipe and join the linky party? Read the rules here.

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Posted in cooking with toddlers, dessert, family, recipe, snack, toddler and tagged banana, banana bread, banana cake, breakfast, dairy-free, dessert, family, finger food, Franglais Kitchen, freezable, How to Cook Good Food, One Ingredient Challenge, recipe, snack, toddler. Bookmark the permalink.

Lemon slice

Posted on February 1, 2013 by TheGingerbreadMum

This is an indulgent recipe, perfect to make for the weekend ahead when everyone needs a bit of pampering and food love.

I’m not sure if this is Australian, but I’ve never seen it outside of Oz (please correct me if I’m wrong!). It’s one of the many foodie things I forget about not living there, and my reaction is always ‘I haven’t eaten that in so long! Why did I forget it when it’s so delicious?!?’

This time around it was the mum of my dearest and oldest friend who made it, and I without any embarrassment or shame (surprisingly for me), ate piece after piece after piece (it was better that I didn’t keep count!).

This has to be one of the simplest recipes possible. It involves no cooking, just crushing and mixing the few ingredients in a food processor then pressing into a tin. I let Nicholas push the button on the food processor for his very first time making this slice. He leaned towards the safety of mum during its loud bursts, a bit unsure, but he also loved pushing that button!

If you’re making this with kids, instead of using a food processor, you can get them to crush the biscuits in a secure and clean plastic bag with a rolling pin (lots of fun!), then mix in the rest of the ingredients by hand.

Try it, but I take absolutely no responsibility for how many pieces you’ll be eating 😉

LEMON SLICE

Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 0 mins 🙂
Makes about 20 slices

250g plain sweet biscuits
1/2 tin (about 200g) condensed milk
125g butter, melted and cooled
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 cup icing sugar

Line a square or rectangular cake or slice tin (mine is 20 x 20cm) with baking paper.

Crush the biscuits in a food processor until there aren’t any big chunks left. Add the condensed milk, melted butter, coconut and lemon zest. Pulse to combine.

Press the mixture into the tin using the back of a spoon to spread it evenly. Put into the fridge to set for at least a couple of hours.

To make the icing, stir 1 tsp of lemon juice into the icing sugar, adding more lemon juice a tiny bit at a time until the mixture coats the back of the spoon. Pour over the base and let it set in the fridge for another hour or so.

Cut into squares and devour.

Variations:

use orange zest and juice instead of lemon to make a sweeter citrus slice
if you’re not a big fan of coconut, you can leave it out in the base
if you are a big fan of coconut you can sprinkle some extra over the icing
ice with chocolate icing instead
use ginger biscuits for a tangy lemon slice

Tip: a lazy way to make the lemon icing is to put the icing sugar and 1 tsp of lemon juice in a saucepan with 1 tbsp butter. Stir over a low heat until it’s smooth. Add more lemon juice if it’s too thick.

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Posted in cooking with toddlers, dessert, family, recipe, snack, toddler and tagged Australia, indulgence, lemon, lemon slice, lemon zest, no cook recipe, recipe, slice. Bookmark the permalink.

Spiced carrot muffins

Posted on January 28, 2013 by TheGingerbreadMum

Nicholas loves making and eating ‘muffles’ (that’s muffins to you and I!). I’m not sure he understands that what he’s stuffing into his mouth are the fruits of his zealous stirring and pouring, but that doesn’t matter; we both like eating them.

While these muffins aren’t sugar-free, I have reduced the sugar a lot. With the healthy carrot, seeds and sweet raisins inside, as well as some wholemeal flour, I think the amount of sugar is ok. And adding a pinch of extra sugar on the top makes them seem much sweeter than they are 😉

You can easily leave out the seeds, but I like the different texture they add to the muffins. I also like sprinking a few more over the tops before baking.

SPICED CARROT MUFFINS

Prep time: 10-15 mins
Cook time: 18-20 mins
Makes 12 regular-sized muffins
Freezable

150g white self-raising flour
100g wholemeal self-raising flour
75g golden caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
30g raisins
20g pumpkin seeds
20g sunflower seeds
125ml vegetable oil
125ml milk
1 egg
1 large carrot, grated
Extra golden caster sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease your muffin tin with a little oil or cooking spray (or line your tin with paper cases to avoid washing the tin).

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the white and wholemeal flours, the caster sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Stir in the raisins, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds, until evenly distributed.

In a jug or another bowl, whisk the oil, milk and egg together. Squeeze the excess liquid from the grated carrot and stir it through the milk mixture.

Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined (mixing too much will make your muffins heavy and dense).

Pour into prepared tin and bake for 18-20 mins until golden on top and cooked through when tested with a skewer.

Variations:

add chopped walnuts or pecans instead of the pumpkin and sunflower seeds

Tip: soak the raisins in hot water for about 10 minutes beforehand to become plumper and avoid them drying out while cooking.

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Posted in breakfast, cooking with toddlers, family, recipe, snack, toddler and tagged breakfast, carrot, carrot muffins, cooking with kids, family, finger food, low-sugar, muffins, pumpkin seeds, recipe, snack, sunflower seeds, toddler, vegetarian, wholemeal flour. Bookmark the permalink.

Happy 2013 (and how to use up Christmas candy canes)

Posted on January 14, 2013 by TheGingerbreadMum

During our lovely long and sunny holiday on the other side of the world, I enjoyed being relatively technology free. Forgive me if it takes me a little while to get back into the swing of things. Going from hot days at the beach to waking up this morning to a fine layer of snow is difficult!

If, like me, you’re struggling to go back to your routine, why not hold on to some Christmas cheer for just a bit more by making my Christmas candy cane balls. You probably have some candy canes left over and these are a great way to use them up (and they taste yummy too, even if I do say so myself!). There’s no cooking involved, have only three main ingredients (plus some coconut for rolling them in) and kids will love bashing up the candy canes.

My recipe is over at Mindful Mum.

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Posted in cooking with toddlers, dessert, family, recipe, snack, toddler and tagged candy canes, Christmas food, condensed milk, cooking with kids, dessert, finger food, Mindful Mum, no cook recipe, recipe, snack. Bookmark the permalink.

Nutella pizza stars

Posted on December 15, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

Nutella pizza stars

We had so much fun making our mini pizzas, that we’ve been using the pizza dough to make other things, sweet things!

Cooking the pizza dough a bit longer and without any topping, creates a lovely crispy biscuit texture. And even though the dough isn’t sweet, adding something sweet on top is enough to turn the savoury dough into a sweet treat.

Little ones can help make the dough, roll it out and cut out the shapes, and there’s no easier decoration than spreading Nutella and dusting with icing sugar. They’re going to love their creations!

NUTELLA PIZZA STARS

Prep time: 1 hr 40 mins (for dough to rise twice)
Cook time: 5 mins
Makes about 30 biscuits
Uncooked dough can be frozen

7 g dried yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 cups strong white bread flour such as “OO” flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup cold water
A handful of semolina (optional)
1 jar of Nutella
icing sugar to serve

Put the warm water in a small bowl and add the yeast. Leave for 15 mins for it to froth up.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt, olive oil and cold water. Add the yeast mixture and mix until it comes together in a ball.

Knead the dough on a floured work surface for about 5 mins. It should feel elastic and soft, and be a bit sticky.

Put the dough back into the bowl, cover and leave to prove for 20 mins.

Divide the dough into two, place the second piece in another bowl, cover both and leave to prove again for an hour (the dough should double in size).

Heat oven to 220C and leave the tray you’ll use (preferably a heavy-based one) inside to heat up (this helps cook the bottom of the pizzas).

Lightly flour your work bench and roll out one piece of the dough as thin as you can. Use a star-shaped cookie cutter to cut out your shapes.

Lightly cover a cutting board with semolina, place your pizza stars on top and drizzle with a dash of olive oil. Open the oven and bring the hot tray out enough so you can sprinkle on some more semolina and slide the stars from the cutting board on to the tray (the semolina will help them move more easily).

The time it takes to cook your pizza stars depends on the thickness of your dough, but they should only take about 5 mins so keep a close eye on them. They’ll probably puff up a little. They’re done when the dough is golden brown on the edges.

Put the stars on a wire rack to cool. Once cool, spread with some Nutella and dust with icing sugar.

Nutella pizza stars

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Posted in cooking with toddlers, dessert, recipe, snack, toddler and tagged Christmas, Christmas biscuits, cooking with kids, Nutella, recipe, sweet pizza. Bookmark the permalink.

Mini pizzas (pizzettas)

Posted on December 3, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

Nicholas loves pizza. Does any child not love pizza? So I thought, let’s try making it together for our next cooking adventure. There’s lots of fun to be had rolling and shaping the dough, and then there’s the toppings.

I prepared the dough on my own, then involved Nicholas in making the mini pizza bases. He has a little plastic roller that was absolutely perfect for rolling out the dough, so perfect in fact we kind of fought over who used it! I’d already prepared some toppings in separate little plastic bowls ready for sprinkling over the bases, but the dough was much more interesting and Nicholas left the topping selection up to me. Perhaps he’ll be more interested next time.

mini pizzas

On the subject of pizza dough, hubby is always searching for the perfect recipe. The leftovers of his quest are lurking in the dark corners of our freezer. I’m not convinced he’ll find his pizza ‘grail’, but don’t tell him that otherwise I won’t get to eat his experiments.

Not being Italian, I’m not so fussy with my pizza dough. And I also have this theory that if you make your bases as thin as you can, you can be almost guaranteed your pizza will be yummy (I have to whisper this next bit: even without using the proper Italian flour).

If you’re making these with your munchkin, use toppings they like. And remember that children generally like their food very colourful, much more than us boring adults. We topped our pizzettas with a little tomato puree, grated courgette/zucchini, pieces of buffalo mozzarella and diced fresh tomatoes. Oh, and no matter what you put on top, a final drizzle of olive oil over the top makes them perfect.

MINI PIZZAS

Prep time: 1 hr 40 mins (for dough to rise twice)
Cook time: 5-10 mins
Makes about 30 mini pizzas or 2 medium pizzas
Uncooked dough can be frozen

7 g dried yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 cups strong white bread flour such as “OO” flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup cold water
A handful of semolina (optional)

Put the warm water in a small bowl and add the yeast. Leave for 15 mins for it to froth up.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt, olive oil and cold water. Add the yeast mixture and mix until it comes together in a ball.

Knead the dough on a floured work surface for about 5 mins. It should feel elastic and soft, and be a bit sticky.

Put the dough back into the bowl, cover and leave to prove for 20 mins.

Divide the dough into two, place the second piece in another bowl, cover both and leave to prove again for an hour (the dough should double in size).

Heat oven to 220C and leave the tray you’ll use (preferably a heavy-based one) inside to heat up (this helps cook the bottom of the pizzas).

Lightly flour your work bench and roll out one piece of the dough as thin as you can. Use a round cookie or scone cutter to cut out your shapes and try to tease each circle a little more with your fingers to make it even thinner.

Lightly cover a cutting board with semolina, place your pizza bases on top and then add your toppings. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil. Open the oven and bring the hot tray out enough so you can sprinkle on some more semolina and slide the pizzas from the cutting board on to the tray (the semolina helps the pizzas move more easily).

The time it takes to cook your pizza depends on the thickness of your dough and the amount of toppings you’ve put on. As a guide, check after 5 mins. They’re done when the dough is golden brown on the edges, and the cheese is bubbling and just starting to turn golden.

Finish with some torn pieces of fresh basil.

mini pizzas