Little Chefs: H is for Honey Bee Cookies

One quick note before we tackle this recipe: I decided to skip the letter G because it was gingerbread cookies. I just can't bring myself to make gingerbread men when we are so close to Halloween. So, we'll re-visit that one in a couple months.

Now, on to the Honey Bee Cookies. I should start by saying I really don't like honey. It's one of those foods that I come pretty close to despising, so take this review with a grain a salt if you happen to like honey (I've heard there are some freaks who do).

We started this recipe fairly late on a Tuesday night. Why would I do this to myself? I don't know. I'm a glutton for punishment I guess. The boys were cranky and I was tired, so it wasn't long before I was pushed to my limit of irritation.


Michael decided that he would rather make the biggest mess he possibly could and started dumping ingredients out on the table and painting the side of the mixing bowl with the doughy spatula.



I almost ended the whole thing right there. But I decided to power through it and try to relax. Relax, relax, relax. We all got back on track fairly quickly.


Note to self - save these little projects for the weekend so it will remain something fun instead of turning into a chore.

About halfway through the mixing, all I could smell was honey. I had a pretty good idea by that point that I wouldn't be eating many of these cookies, but I had to give it a valiant effort because how can a cookie really turn out all that bad? There were three variations listed and I decided to give the coconut addition a try with the desperate hope that the coconut would disguise some of the honey. What can I say? I really wanted a cookie! It didn't work. These things smelled so good while they were baking and they looked so good cooling on the rack, but after just one bite I knew it wasn't for me. Fortunately, the boys and Kamaki all like honey, so they are in the process of demolishing the batch so I don't have to dump them in the garbage.


Honey Bee Cookies*

1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
1 1/2 cups Gold Medal all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Beat margarine, brown sugar, honey and egg in a medium bowl on medium speed, scraping bowl constantly until smooth. Stir in remaining ingredients.
3. Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake until set and light brown around edges (surfaces of cookies will appear shiny), 7 to 9 minutes. Let stand 3 to 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheet, then remove with metal spatula onto a wire rack.
Makes 36 cookies

Honey-Bran cookies: Stir 1 cup of shreds of bran cereal into batter.
Honey-Cinnamon Cookies: Mix 2 Tbsp of sugar and 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon; sprinkle on cookies immediately after removing from oven.
Honey-Coconut Cookies: Stir 1 cup of shredded coconut into batter.


*Recipe taken from Gold Medal Alpha Bakery Children's Cookbook. Ordering info can be found on original Little Chefs post (A is for Apple Crisp).

Little Chefs: F is for Fudge Brownie

I have a confession to make - I've made brownies from scratch maybe two or three times ever. We're a brownie mix kind of family. So this week I was pretty excited to try a new, but simple recipe. I think this took us all of 10 minutes to make, start to finish - very quick and easy!

I was a little nervous though because this was also our first recipe that used the stove. I made sure the boys were very careful and they really enjoyed watching the chocolate melt.





They weren't my favorite brownies, but the ingredients were so basic (if you don't always have chocolate chips on hand, I have to strongly recommend it!) and the recipe was so simple, they will definitely scratch your chocolate itch!


Fudge Brownies*

1/4 cup of margarine or butter
1 package (6 ounces) of semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup of sugar
2/3 cup of Gold Medal all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup chopped nuts, if you like (we did not like)
1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chips, if you like (we did indeed like!)

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease the bottom only of a square pan, 8x8x2 inches, with shortening. (I would grease the sides as well. Found that out the hard way)
3. Heat margarine and 1 package chocolate chips in a 2 quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until melted; remove from heat. Stir in remaining ingredients except nuts and 1/2 cup chocolate chips real hard with a wooden spoon until smooth. (make sure you do it real hard)
4. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips. Spread in pan with a rubber scraper. (Um, rubber scraper? We used the spoon.)
5. Bake until the center is set, about 30 minutes. Let cool completely, then cut into 1 3/4 x 1 1/2 inch brownies. Store tightly covered. (First, does anyone actually let brownies cool completely before digging in? And second, who is going to get out their ruler to measure such tiny squares? Seriously?)
Makes 20 brownies. (Or 9 brownies, if you actually want more than a taste)

*Recipe taken from Gold Medal Alpha Bakery Children's Cookbook. Ordering info can be found on original Little Chefs post (A is for Apple Crisp).

Little Chefs: E is for Elephant Ears

I've been seriously slacking on our Alpha Bakery sessions. Going back to work has thrown me a little bit more than I thought it would - doesn't it always? It's also been fairly hot here this summer and baking is not something I care to do on a 95 degree day in a house with no air conditioning. This past week we got a nice break from both weather and household chaos though, so it was a perfect time for our next cooking adventure.

To date, this is by far everyone's favorite. Though not your typical elephant ears that you would find at a fair or your zoo, these were still very tasty and a ton of fun to make! The boys were able to do pretty much everything this time, so I'm going to try out a new format with this week's recipe.

Elephant Ears*

1/4 cup of margarine or butter
1 cup of Gold Medal all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup milk
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Sugar

1. Heat the oven to 425 degrees.

2. Grease a cookie sheet with shortening.

3. Heat margarine until melted; set aside. Stir flour, 2 Tbsp sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in milk and 3 Tbsp of the melted margarine until dough forms.




4. Sprinkle surface lightly with flour (or not so lightly if your kids are anything like mine)



Turn dough onto surface. Knead 10 times. Roll dough with a rolling pin or pat with hands into a rectangle, 9x5 inches. (toddlers with a rolling pin = constant supervision)




Brush with remaining melted margarine, using a pastry brush;




Sprinkle with mixture of 3 Tbsp sugar and the cinnamon. (this recipe is not at all messy)




5. Roll dough up tightly, beginning at narrow end. Pinch edge of dough into roll to seal. Cut into 4 equal pieces with sharp knife. Place cut sides up on cookie sheet; pat each into a 6-inch circle. Sprinkle with more sugar.




6. Bake until golden brown, 8-10 minutes. Immediately remove from cookie sheet with a spatula. Let cool on wire rack.
Makes 4 elephant ears.

We all had so much fun with this - I think this is one that we will be making for years to come!

*Recipe taken from Gold Medal Alpha Bakery Children's Cookbook. Ordering info can be found on original Little Chefs post (A is for Apple Crisp).

Little Chefs: D is for Delicious Drumsticks

At first glance, I thought this week's Alpha Bakery Recipe was going to be really fun. Then I realized that we would be handling raw chicken - not exactly ideal for a couple of two year-olds!




I decided to have the boys help me whip up the breading mix and then I would handle the actual chicken coating. I think they would have enjoyed this a lot more if they could have gotten their hands dirty rolling those drumsticks around, but I'm just not ready for that kind of disaster quite yet!



This was a very simple recipe (although we did probably triple it) and I was surprised at how crispy it turned out for being baked in the oven. The boys have never had drumsticks before so they weren't quite sure how to tackle eating them. They figured it out pretty quickly though and were very happy with their work. Hopefully, next week's recipe will be a little more toddler friendly!


Delicious Drumsticks*

1/2 cup Gold Medal all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon pepper
6 chicken drumsticks (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1/4 cup margarine or butter, melted and cooled

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Mix flour, salt, paprika and pepper in a bowl.
3. Dip chicken drumsticks into margarine; roll in flour mixture to coat.
4. Arrange in an ungreased square pan, 8x8x2 inches.
5. Bake uncovered until juice of chicken is no longer pink when centers of thickest pieces are cut, about 50 minutes.
Makes 6 drumsticks.

*Recipe taken from Gold Medal Alpha Bakery Children's Cookbook. Ordering info can be found on original Little Chefs post (A is for Apple Crisp).

Little Chefs: C is for Chocolate Chip Cookies

Last week's recipe from the Alpha Bakery was a no-brainer. Chocolate Chip Cookies! Everyone loves these cookies and I'm always game to try a new recipe. Once we got all decked out in our awesome new aprons that Tutu Mom (Kamaki's Mom) made for us, we were ready to get started.





Pretty much your basic cookie recipe, nothing too fancy. Tommy got great enjoyment out of dumping the baking soda out and drawing pictures in it.



Both boys loved dropping the cookie dough onto the baking sheets, almost as much as they loved eating the dough. They must have gotten really good at sneaking bites while my back was turned because the recipe says it makes about 4 dozen cookies - I think we ended up with about 2 dozen. I wonder where all that dough went.....



Michael loved his apron so much that he refused to take it off for the rest of the night. Maybe we really do have a little chef in the making!



Chocolate Chip Cookies*
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup margarine or butter, softened
1 egg
2 1/4 cups Gold Medal all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (we omited these)
1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix both sugars, margarine, and egg in a large bowl with a wooden spooon. (Once again, we used the Kitchenaid stand mixer). Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. Dough will be stiff. Stir in nuts and chocolte chips.
3. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 3 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake until light brown, 8 to 10 minutes (centers will be soft). Let cookies cool slightly, then remove from cookie sheet with a spatula.
Makes about 48 cookies

*Recipe taken from Gold Medal Alpha Bakery Children's Cookbook. Ordering info can be found on original Little Chefs post (A is for Apple Crisp).

Little Chefs: B is for Banana Bread

Our second venture into the Alpha Bakery brought us to banana bread. I've been making a lot of banana bread this year and the boys absolutely love it, so I knew this was going to be a success.

Some day, I will have my dream kitchen with a giant island to work on and loads of room for my little helpers. Until then, I've decided to haul everything over to the table for easy access. It serves our purpose just fine.



This time around, I prepped all the ingredients ahead of time - just like they do on cooking shows - so everything was all ready to dump into the mixer. The boys enjoyed the dumping very much, and only a little bit landed on the table... and the floor.





The whole house smelled scrumptious as the bread was baking, and after dinner the boys got to taste the fruit of their labor (cause what goes better with spaghetti than banana bread right?). The boys loved it - no surprise.




I thought it was pretty good as well, but it wasn't my favorite banana bread recipe. I don't know what it was, the bread was actually very light and airy... it maybe just lacked a little bit of flavor. Not sure. Still, it was very simple to pull together and definitely worth making.

Banana Bread*

3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups of mashed bananas (2 large)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 cups Gold Medal all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts (we substituted chocolate chips, cause that's how we roll)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Grease a loaf pan with shortening.
3. Mix sugar, bananas, oil and eggs in a large bowl with a wooden spoon. (we used the Kitchenaid mixer because this is 2010 and, these are two year-olds we're working with here) Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into pan.
4. Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center of bread comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes, then loosen sides of loaf from pan and remove. Let cool completely before slicing.
Makes 1 loaf.

*Recipe taken from Gold Medal Alpha Bakery Children's Cookbook. Ordering info can be found on original Little Chefs post (A is for Apple Crisp).

Little Chefs: A is for Apple Crisp

When I was a kid, we had a cookbook called The Alpha Bakery. It was a child's cookbook, focusing each recipe on a letter of the alphabet. I loved it. I would sit and look through this book as though it were a picture book or a story book. We only ever made a few of the recipes in it, but I remember each page vividly.

A few years ago, my mother-in-law happened to give me several cookbooks for Christmas. I was thrilled to discover The Alpha Bakery among them. It was an instant flashback to my childhood and I couldn't wait for my children to be old enough to enjoy it.

Last week, I decided the boys were ready to give it a shot. Thinking ahead to when I have to return to work in a few weeks, I thought it would be a great idea to work through the entire cookbook, doing one recipe a week, and give us something special to do together on the weekends when I am home.

We started at the beginning with A is for Apple Crisp. I peeled and sliced the apples, but the boys did almost everything else themselves. They used my chopper tool to help me chop up the nuts, they dumped ingredients in the bowl and mixed them up, and they certainly loved tasting the final product - with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream of course! I'm not a big fan of apples, but this dish was very tasty. The crisp on top was total comfort food and the apples were warm and tangy - very tasty indeed.






There was definitely a mess to clean up, but we had so much fun that it didn't matter at all. I think this is going to be a great project for us and I can't wait for next week!

Apple Crisp*
4 medium peeled cooking apples, sliced
3/4 cup of Gold Medal all-purpose flour
3/4 cup of packed brown sugar
1/2 cup of quick-cooking or regular oats
1/3 cup of chopped walnuts
1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1/2 cup of margarine or butter, softened

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Spread apple slices in an ungreased 8-inch square pan.
3. Mix remaining ingredients with fork; sprinkle over apples.
4. Bake uncovered until the topping is golden brown and apples are tender, about 30 minutes.
Makes about 6 servings.


*All recipes are taken from the Gold Medal Flour children's cookbook Alpha-Bakery. You can obtain a copy by writing to:
Gold Medal Alpha-Bakery Children's Cookbook
PO Box 5119
Minneapolis, MN 55460-5119
(Enclose $2.00 for each copy)