Baking Experiment

Inspired by friends who have handed a bowl full of flour and a whisk to their toddlers and let them "help" bake, I decided it was time to let Oliver try his hand at baking. By the time the cookies went in the oven, my kitchen floor was covered in oats and Oliver was down to just his diaper, yet this baking foray went kind of as expected.

I tried to keep it as simple as possible. While Oliver played in the living room with a friend, I measured out the wet and dry ingredients into separate bowls, so that when I ushered them into the kitchen, all they had to do was stir. When handed a mixing spoon, Oliver's buddy dunked it in the wet ingredients and immediately brought it back up to his mouth to take a big lick and Oliver discovered that he could use his whisk to fling oats out of the bowl. I showed them out to whisk the oats and flour, and they actually got the idea, until errant oats went flying and they put themselves to the task of trying to put each little fleck back in the bowl again. Once we (I) had the dough mixed, I realized our set-up on the kitchen floor was going to result in a sticky, gooey mess. I let them lick spoons while I formed balls of dough myself, (next time I'll strap them into their booster seats and let them play with cookie dough there) and with them well enough distracted, safely popped the tray into the hot oven. I had halved the sugar content of the cookies, but the results were still addicting.

Oliver is still a little young to do anything more than the simplest of tasks, but he clearly enjoyed the process. Observing me cooking or baking is such a common sight for him that I wonder if he was excited that he was finally allowed to join in.