Ten Reason You Should Not Bake Bread With a Toddler
This post is sponsored by Nuffnang.
You should never attempt to bake herby bread sticks with a toddler because…
1. As soon as you wipe the bench clean, put his apron on, and wash his hands… he will stick his finger up his nose.
2. Old band aids are not a secret ingredient.
3. Rosemary sprigs are not for sticking up your nose.
4. Your bread sticks may turn out looking rather deformed
5. “Is it ready?” “Is it done?” “Is it ready?” “Is it? Is it Mum????” Waiting for bread to rise is not a happy event.
6. Pastry brushes covered in melted butter are not for painting the bench with.
7. Poking grotty fingers into the nicely risen bread will cause it to deflate, rapidly.
8. You won’t know whether to be pleased or frustrated with his artistic finger painting in the flour on the bench.
9. Eating uncooked bread flour is probably not part of a nutritious diet.
10. It’s messy!
On the other hand… Baking bread with a toddler is a great sensory experience with loads of opportunities for learning. And if you don’t mind eating wonky looking bread sticks the look of triumph on your toddlers face as he announces “I made them my own self!” at the dinner table will be well worth it. Plus it wasn’t all that hard to clean up using Mr Muscle Touch Up.
If you’d like to make some herby bread sticks with your toddler (or even all on your own!) here’ the recipe
- 250ml of warm water
- 3 teaspoons of yeast
- 1 tbsp honey, gold syrup or equivalent
- 3 tables spoons of olive oil
- 500grams of bread flour
- a pinch of salt.
- 2 tbsp mixed herbs
- 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary chopped
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- Add the yeast and honey to the warm water and set it aside for a few minutes until the yeast starts to bubble a little.
- Combine the flour, mixed herbs and salt in the bread machine bowl (or a mixing bowl if you are mixing and kneading by hand).
- Add the olive oil to the yeast mixture and mix gently then pour into the flour.
- Set your bread machine to dough and let it mix everything together – check at this point to see if you need to add a little more water or flour, then let it knead and rise your dough.
- If mixing by hand, mix well, adding more water or flour if needed, then knead on a floured surface for five minutes, pop into a greased bowl, cover with glad wrap and leave in a warm place to rise for about 2 hours or until doubled in size.
- After the first rise knock the air out of your dough and give it a quick knead. Then divide your dough into about 8 pieces and form into long sausage shapes.
- Pop these into a well-greased baking dish, cover and set aside to rise for about an hour.
- When doubled in size brush gently with melted butter and sprinkle with rosemary and a little extra salt if you like.
- Pop them in a hot oven (about 220 C) for about 15-20 minutes or until they are golden brown on top. Allow them to cook in the dish for another 5-10 minutes and serve while still warm.
I’ve been trying out Mr Muscle Touch-Up, both the kitchen and bathroom versions and it’s s super easy way to keep on top of the constant mess that is generated in our house.
You can leave it sitting on your bench and with the fancy dispenser you just grab a cloth, push down on the top and it squirts it right into the cloth, ready to go. It copes with the mess and boogers from making bread, as well as the hardened toothpaste that somehow comes to adorn our bathroom counter top every morning, with the added bonus of being antibacterial.
You could win a year’s supply of Mr Muscle Touch-Up simply by leaving a comment on this post and telling me…
What’s the biggest mess your kids have ever made?
Two winners will receive six packs of Mr Muscle Touch-Up for the Bathroom and six for the kitchen. The most interesting or funny answers will win.
Entries close Monday July 8th at 5pm and you must be an Australian resident to enter. Find full terms in conditions here.
Hi Kate, Just a belated THANK YOU for your site. I am an Inclusive Learning Teacher in Australia. I have used many of your ideas and printables with some of our high needs kids. They fit in so well with my thinking and the play-learn beliefs we have. I don’t want the cleaning stuff, just to let you know how much I appreciate your ideas and prinables. we will ebe trying the bread!!Thank you!! Wendy
Biggest Mess ever….
Would it be when every cup, coffee mug and baking bowls went for a trip to the sandpit and when told (screamed) to bring them back – every single one was filled to the brim with wet sand?
OR
On Saturday when every toy in the house – and it is a lot – was transferred into my elder boys room to make a “Dump”…couldn’t see any of the floor or his bed for the life of me?
OR
This morning when after the postman dropped off a large parcel filled with Styrofoam that ended up ripped into 100 trillion pieces as if it had a years supply of snow on my front porch?
Question is – you tell me what was the biggest mess?
You have made my day Carly!!! Oh my goodness, how funny!!!!
I’d just made 2 banana smoothies for afternoon tea & had major problems getting the lids on the new Tupperware cups: I flicked one cup all over myself & Mr 2, and knocked the other one all over Mr 4. Then the race was on, both thought we were playing chases & we dripped & laughed banana smoothie ALL over the house! The dog thought it was Christmas, but oh the washing: all hard surfaces, rugs, cushions, 3 humans & even the dog!
Sorry Kate but: “…with the added bonus of being antibacterial” – *really*?! You know, I really do try and ignore the sponsored posts (though they drive me nuts), because I really like the rest of your blog, and I support the right of bloggers to generate some income if they choose… but this one didn’t seem like you at all, and a quick Google to refresh my memory showed me why:
“All these ridiculous ’99.8% bacteria free’ products and their associated advertising are just feeding on people’s paranoia and fear to make money. These crazily perfect-looking mothers with their hand wipes and their subconscious little messages that ‘bacteria free’ = clean = good mother….. it really makes my blood boil” – Kate Pickle, March 2010.
(Um, please don’t enter me in the competition… I tend to agree with the Kate Pickle of 2010, and pretty much keep antibacterial products out of my house – there’s mounting evidence to suggest that products like this are actually detrimental to our health).
That’s a fair point Melanie.
When I take on a sponsored post (ie I am paid to create content for a brand and post it on my blog) it is my responsibility to create the content and also to include ‘key messages’ from the brand.
You are right, that particular ‘key message’ is not a good fit for my blog.
Oooh non spray cleaner, ace for this asthmatic.
As for the biggest mess my kids made, that would be the time we attempted to make Moon Sand together and I popped blue dye in the mixture and we stirred and stirred and stirred and it didn’t work and both my children ended up with blue hands and arms. I put them in the bath tub to wash it off and their bodies turned blue.
I put the failed blue moon sand outside while I figured out how to dispose of it and clean up all the containers and spoons and things we’d used to mix. And then of course I forgot about it. Cue a couple of days later finding two happy children outside covered once again in blue dyed moon sand and so was all the bricks and the back door.
Oh my gosh how can I only pick one [says every mother with a toddler]!!!
Let’s see how about the time I THOUGHT I was being very clever by erecting the baby gate to block my darling son’s access to the kitchen while I made dinner.
There I was pottering around while he played quietly on the other side with his cars – ahem well that’s what I hoped/believed was happening – AS IF!!! Somehow he had managed to wriggle his little monkey arms through the baby gate bars and grab the full weet-bix box – Disaster!!!
I calmly turned around to declare it was time to head outside to be greeted by a living room completely covered with the contents of a supersized box of weet-bix. Add a generous dollop of water from his sippy cup (which he had managed to unscrew) and it was a mushy weet-bix fiasco. Couches, cushions, carpet, TV, X-Box, walls, curtains – you name it, it was covered. And I can now say from experience that stuff dries like concrete.
And right smack bang in the middle was one weet-bix covered little monkey with a cheeky grin – how could I be angry at that!
My little one managed to upend the washing powder over a basket of wet, clean cloth nappies one day. She also tends to upend the salty aAMD flour containers when we bake :) It’s good fun baking with her though!
Thanks for your reply Kate. I’m glad I didn’t offend you, I was really hoping that I phrased my concern politely enough :) I hope you and your lovely four are making lots of good messes these school holidays!
The biggest mess the kids make is when they DON’T make a mess. They tidy their rooms, make sure everything is away, they even DUST… and THEN they drop the bomb that makes the mess. “Mum, everything is tidy and clean… does that mean we can “craft” now?!”. That’s when you end up with feathers, glitter, glue, paper and peas from one end of the house to the other, from head to toe!
My three cheeky children all under five,
Sure do keep me feeling alive!
Their crazy antics hardly ever stop,
Each mess they create they’ll soon top!
There was the mushy Weet-Bix used as wallpaper,
Tomato sauce ice-cubes they made in the freezer!
The full carton of eggs cracked all over the floor,
Using blue marker to re-decorate a white door!
Glitter dispersed from one end of our home to the other,
Or when they used nappy-rash cream to paint their baby brother!
But the biggest mess to date (that I’m sure they’ll soon beat)
Was when they covered the carpet with a tin of purple beets!
Feeding my newborn, son #1 has gone to play in his room. After too much silence I walk down the gall to find him in my room painting the walls with Vicks vapour rub. The entire tub was smeared at mid thigh height around the bedroom walls and doors. Truth is I still find some of it now (4 months later)