Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Adventures in Banana Bread


Graham is suddenly very interested in anything happening in the kitchen. He loooooves using the egg slicer to help me make egg salad (will share a funny video later on). He often asks to be lifted up to see what is bubbling in the pots on the stove (and always yells "hot!" as soon as he peeks in). I recently read that French kids are entrusted with baking simple yogurt cakes completely on their own from a very young age, the parents expect them to do fine and allow them to make a mess without worry, so thought we would try out an easy baking recipe together - with a few bananas on hand much too bruised and brown to be eaten, we decided on banana muffins!


G was very into it right from the very beginning. He now often runs over to our dining room table and begins dragging one of the large chairs toward the kitchen, a clear signal he is ready to help concoct something. When he sees me bringing the chair in for him, he gets so wiggly with excitement. I tried to let him help with all stages, mashing bananas as well as dumping in the flour and sugar and eggs that we'd pre-measured. Almost everything made it into the bowl and almost everything stayed put despite some very vigorous stirring.


He especially enjoyed arranging and meticulously re-arranging the paper muffin cups. I couldn't believe the project kept him so engrossed for so long! He was into it right up until the very end, when we took the trays out of the oven ("hot!") and moved the muffins to a cooling rack.


Full disclosure: in a last minute effort to be healthy, I tossed in some flax/chia seed mix into the batter as well as some fiber (which I didn't realize was fruity flavored until it turned our batter a brilliant orange hue! oops!), and was a bit nervous it would give the muffins a weird taste or texture.

The moment of truth...


DELICIOUS!!

So now you can add baking to the list of skills G has mastered...

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