Cooking With Children: Casey Grant

                          Cooking with children

                 Children love to cook, bake and experiment with food. Cooking is also very beneficial for children. They are gaining a lot of different skills and lessons from cooking. They learn science along with fine motor skills, sequencing and direction following; as well as math and reading. The kitchen can be a fascinating place for young kids. They see grown-ups working briskly in there, watch the steam rise from pots on the stove, and smell what's on the menu that night.

Plan ahead a little when deciding what you'll prepare together. For younger kids, consider starting with simple dishes with fewer than five ingredients. Then your child won't have to wait it out while you tackle a complicated step. A tossed salad or easy muffin recipe can be good starter projects. You also might set up a pizza-making assembly line where kids can choose their own mini-crusts, sauces, cheeses, and toppings. Older kids can take cooking to the next level and work with you on more challenging recipes.

There are so many ways that you can teach children in the kitchen, there are many lessons online, books and articles that show parents ways to teach children. The one thing that I love about having my children in the kitchen is I can get them to try things that they would not normally try. I always tell them that they can’t cook with me if they are not going to try what they are cooking. This runs the younger ones out, but the older ones I can get to stick around.

                My oldest daughter loves to help me in the kitchen. I find that giving her a recipe that I would use works just fine for her. She is almost 9, so she can read and understand what the recipe is asking for, and anything that she doesn’t understand she asks. She has cooked many meals completely by herself. She is ready and eager to learn how to cook. She always asks “do I have to go to a class to learn how to be a cook?” I always tell her that a lot of people who are great cooks have never went to a culinary school, it’s all about learning the craft and taking pride in what you do. The following is pretty simple recipe that my daughter and I made together the other night.

English toffee

1 cups of butter (not salted)

1 cup of sugar

3 Tbsp. water

1/8 tsp. salt

1 ½ Tbsp. light corn syrup

1 tsp. vanilla extract

¾ of a cup chocolate chips (we use more than this)

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom pan sauce pan, over medium heat. Add the sugar, water and salt, stir well to incorporate. Bring to a boil and add the corn syrup. Continue boiling and stirring until the mixture reaches 280-285 degrees. Be sure to have a thermometer to check this, if you don’t get the right temp then it won’t set up.

Remove from heat and add the vanilla extract. Stir to combine and then pour into a cookie sheet that has been lined with wax paper and coated with butter or cooking spray. Spread until you have a layer that is the same thickness. At this point take the chocolate chips and pour into a bowl and melt in the microwave then spread on the top of the toffee and let set up. This is the hardest part for us, waiting!! It takes a while before it is set enough that you can break into bits and eat.