Baking With Kids, Brownie Recipe Included
Cooking With Kids
One of my absolute favorite things to do with my children is get in the kitchen and bake. We love to bake cookies, brownies, cakes, and so many other things. From the time they could sit up on the counter and stir or help pour in ingredients, we have baked together. All of my children learned to crack eggs very early, read recipes, measure, and so many other things. They love to look in cookbooks and find new recipes to try.
During the most recent Spring Break, my girls wanted to bake. For Christmas I had received a mini cupcake maker and had never tried it out, so this was what my 12 year old wanted to do. My 6 year old looked in a dessert cookbook and found a recipe for homemade brownies that she wanted to make.
Baking Day 1
The first day that we baked, we got out the mini cupcake maker. This is a small appliance with 7 holes for cupcake dough. A yellow cake mix was chosen and the dough was made. It took quite a while to make just 7 small cupcakes at a time, but we were enjoying each other and we had the time to invest. I had also purchased white and chocolate icing, chocolate chips, strawberries, Andes mints, and various other items, and the girls enjoyed playing "Cupcake Wars" by concocting various flavors and varieties of icing. My particular favorite was chocolate mint, while my 12 year old particularly enjoyed strawberry vanilla. My 6 year old threw everything on top.
Baking Day 2
On this day, my 6 year old and I made the homemade brownies. These brownies were so amazingly rich, with three types of chocolate and sour cream in the batter. The recipe is as follows:
Triple Chocolate Brownies
3 squares (1 ounce each) unsweetened chocolate, coursely chopped
2 squares (1 ounce each) semisweet chocolate, coursely chopped
1/2 cup butter
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
Powdered sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 13x9 inch baking pan.
Place both chocolates and butter in microwavable bowl. Microwave at HIGH 2 minutes or until butter is melted; stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature.
Combine flour, salt and baking powder in small bowl.
Beat sugar, eggs, and vanilla in large bowl until slightly thickened. Beat in chocolate mixture until well combined. Add flour mixture; beat until blended. Add sour cream; beat until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread mixture evenly into prepared pan.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out almost clean. DO NOT OVERBAKE. Cool brownies completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into 2-inch squares. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired. Makes about 2 dozen brownies
Conclusion
Baking is such a great activity to participate in with kids. It's a great chance for teaching cooking skills, math skills, reading skills and so many more relevant educational concepts. It's a fantastic chance to spend quality time with your children as well, and a fun way to find new family recipes.
