Build Your Own Robot! A free printable set of robot parts for playing and creating!

When Morgan was around about three he fell in love with robots… or ‘lobots’ as he called them back then.

It’s comforting and also slightly surreal that as Noah approaches three he is also a tad obsessed with robots… or ‘wobots’ as he calls them.

Noah makes robots out of Lego and has begun to label all his drawings as ‘wobots’ and he adores the book ‘That’s Not My Robot’.

Following his interest in robots I thought I might make him some for the felt board, but then I remembered I had stashed away some printable magnet paper and I knew exactly what I would do with it - a build your own robot set!

Build Your Own Robot! A free printable set of robot parts for playing and creating!

A little time spent creating robot parts, some more time cutting them out and then lots of time having fun on the bottom of the fridge.

Build Your Own Robot! A free printable set of robot parts for playing and creating!

Ok, I confess, I love these little guys almost as much as Noah does and I can’t wait for the big kids to come home and discover them!

Build Your Own Robot! A free printable set of robot parts for playing and creating!

You can download the build your own robot pdf here. Then all you have to do is print, cut and play. If you don’t have printable magnet paper you could cut up old magnets and stick them to the back of each piece, or this would be fun made from regular paper and used kind of like a puzzle on a tray.

Build Your Own Robot! A free printable set of robot parts for playing and creating!

1 comment

Cinnamon Pizza!

May 20, 2013

cinnamon pizza title

I love cinnamon scrolls.

No really… I love them.

All that cinnamoney flavour and that sticky yeasty goodness. I could eat them for every meal and die happy (probably from a sugar overdose).

For a while I attempted to make the perfect cinnamon scroll at home, and I didn’t do too badly. But what with all that kneading and scrolling and waiting for a good second rise and trying to get them cooked in the middle but not too dry on the outside… well, it was a lot of work, so I didn’t make them very often.

That aversion to hard work is probably what saved me from that sugar overdose and has kept me alive so far, but now… now I am doomed.

I am doomed to fall into a cinnamon sugar induced coma at any moment because now I know the secret to all that cinnamon-ey goodness in about half the time and a quarter the effort. Cinnamon Pizza.

Cinnamon Pizza Recipe - a quicker way to get your homemade cinnamon scroll fix, without the scroll part!

Yes… Cinnamon Pizza.

Just let those amazing words sink in for a moment.

All the awesomeness of a cinnamon scroll without the second rise and baked in about ten minutes. To. Die. For.

Here’s how you do it…
 

Cinnamon Pizza!
Print
Cook time: 15 mins
Total time: 15 mins
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
    For the Pizza Dough:

  • 125ml warm water
  • 2tsp yeast
  • 175ml warmed milk
  • 150ml honey
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 egg lightly beaten
  • a pinch of salt
  • 550gms plain flour (or bread flour)
  •  
    For the Topping:

  • 1 tbsp very soft butter
  • 1-2 tbsp2 brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  •  
    For the Icing:

  • 1/2 tbsp melted butter
  • 1/2 cup icing sugar
  • a splash of milk
Instructions
  1. Add the yeast to the warm water and set it aside for a few minutes.
  2. Combine the milk, honey, egg and oil and mix well, then add the yeast mixture.
  3. Combine the wet ingredients with the flour and salt and mix well to make a sticky dough. Add a little more flour if the dough is too sticky to handle, or a little more water if it is too dry.
  4. Knead on a floured surface for 10-15 minutes or until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. It needs a little more kneading that plain bread or pizza dough.
  5. Pop the dough in a clean, oiled, bowl, cover and leave somewhere warm to rise. It should take about an hour and a half and the dough should almost double in size.
  6. Alternately you can do all of the mixing and kneading and rising in your bread machine set to ‘dough’ which is what I do, or use any other helpful appliance.
  7. Once the dough has risen give it a quick knead to knock the air out of it. Divide it into three equal pieces and pop two of those pieces in the freezer for later (unless you need to feed a lot of people).
  8. Roll our the remaining third of dough into a rough oval or whatever size best fits on your oven tray, keeping it fairly thick. Pop the rolled dough on to the tray (line it with baking paper or grease well), spread the softened butter over it, sprinkle with brown sugar and lots and lots of cinnamon. Set it aside to ‘rest’ for 5- 10 minutes.
  9. Pre-heat your oven to 220C (approx 425F) and cook your pizza for 15 minutes or until the edges are golden and crispy.
  10. While the pizza is cooking combine the melted butter with enough icing sugar and milk to make a runny butter icing.
  11. When the pizza is done allow it to cool just a little then drizzle the icing all over. Cut into strips and eat it while it is warm!

 

This recipe was inspired by this post from Every Day Occasions – if you don’t want to make your own dough, go check out that post. The sweet pizza dough recipe is loosely based on one from the book Pizza! by Pippa Cuthbert and Lindsay Cameron Wilson.

cinnamon pizza2

I am truly, madly and deeply in love with this sweet pizza version of cinnamon scrolls. Of course my kids love them too, but that is beside the point.

These really are an easy way to satisfy my cinnamon scroll craving, and even easier since I have two more batches of dough just sitting in the freezer waiting for me.

I am contemplating making another batch while the big kids are at school, propping Noah in front of the TV and eating the whole thing myself. But that would be bad right?

2 comments

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