(Goblin is 28 months)
Goblin and I did some baking today. As usual we started with Goblin washing his hands - which gives me a fab excuse to show you a photo of the beautiful flowers Hublet bought me for our 7th wedding anniversary this week.
I decided to try and make rainbow fridge biscuits. I got the idea from
B Inspired Mama. But rather than using ready made cookie dough I thought it would be more fun for Goblin if we made the dough from scratch.
If you want to make the dough from scratch you will need:
150g sugar
150g butter
225g plain flour
1 egg
vanilla essence (optional)
Biscuits are cooked for 15 minutes on 190C (375F or Gas Mark 5)
I measured all the ingredients into little bowls and then laid them out on the floor and Goblin put them into the big mixing bowl and mixed them up (minus some of the butter which went straight into his mouth).
Then Goblin got bored of mixing and decided to climb onto my back and ride me like a pony while I carried on mixing the ingredients. When it was all mixed in I split the mixture into three bowls.
He dismounted when it was time to add the food colouring. We used
Dr Oetker Gel Food Colouring. You need quite a bit to get a vibrant colour. It took some persuading to stop Goblin from adding all the colours to every bowl.
I put the finished dough in the fridge for half an hour so it hardened enough to roll without sticking to the rolling pin. At this point Goblin decided to go and watch Mr Tumble on TV - this was probably just as well because the next bit was a bit fiddley.
I rolled each of the colours out on greaseproof paper (baking parchment) and laid them on top of each other. Then I trimmed the edges off so it made a rectangle. I rolled the rectangle up and popped it back in the fridge for another half hour so it was solid enough to cut.
Then I chopped the roll into half centimetre segments - I turned the roll after each cut to try and keep the biscuits as round as possible.
The recipe says cook the biscuits for 15 minutes. The trouble is when the biscuits came out of the oven they looked exactly the same as when they went in. Normally you can tell if you need to cook biscuits for longer by their colour but with these you just have to believe the recipe.
I really love how they look.
When I gave Goblin one he said "whats that?". I said "its a biscuit". He looked at me dubiously.
But the seem to have got the Goblin seal of approval.
I'm linking this to
LOL, I love your posts - they always make me chuckle! Your rainbow biscuits are so pretty!! And I am glad to hear Master D isn't the only butter eater out there (if he sees ours he will take big bites out of the butter block!).
ReplyDeleteAnd congratulations on your wedding anniversary!!! Well done to Hublet for the flowers, they are lovely :-)
I've been reading your sensory play posts with interest. I don't do anything specifically for sensory play (I suppose I figure everything is a sensory experience to some extent...), do you think the kids gain more from activities prepared with the objective in mind?
Today Goblin ate a golfball size blob of butter I had put on his plate with the intention of him spreading it on his toast (groan).
DeleteGood question about the sensory play. I have no idea - I have always avoided "sensory bins" because to me it just looks like a pile of junk in a box (although I am sure some kids really love it). I didn't start out with the intention of doing sensory play. I started Goblin pouring water when he was really young, and it kept spilling everywhere. So I made the rainbow rice so he could pour something less wet (for my own sanity). And he really enjoyed it, and he has evolved it into sensory play by using the rainbow rice in so many different ways (and rolling around in it, and dancing in it with his socks off). And because I see he enjoys that type of play I have experimented with different mediums. Today we used ground coffee and he played silently on his own for an hour and a half (bliss!). But you are right that pretty much everything has a sensory aspect to it if the child is allowed to get messy and touch and feel. I think at this age its important for kids to have opportunities to explore and have open ended play, but I'm not sure that you need to specifically carve out 'sensory' activities - Goblin gets just as much 'sensory play' when he goes to the woods or splashes in puddles.
Your egg shell painting for example is something I would class as sensory play. It must feel lovely squishing the egg shells onto the paper.
I'm probably not the best person to ask. I am not a trained educator and have no grounding in child development - I could be getting it all completely wrong. All I know is its fun.
Well if it is fun, it is worth it! (and I agree on the sensory bins!) I love the image that popped in my head at your description of Goblin dancing in his rainbow rice - gorgeous. I think we might plunge in and see if Master D likes it ;-)
DeleteI'm so glad you were inspired to create some Rainbow Swirl Cookies! Looks like you had fun and they look great. BTW, your little "goblin" is adorable! Thanks for linking back. :)
ReplyDeletethese look yum!
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing on Serenity Saturday!
Can't wait to see what you link up later today!
Natasha xxx