Cooking With Kids: Mini Maple Pancake Muffins

I saw these on Bakerella’s blog and knew I had to try them!

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Sift together with a wire whisk.
• In another bowl, stir buttermilk, egg, maple syrup and melted butter until just combined.
• Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until combined.
• Stir in chocolate chips. Reserve a few chips to sprinkle on the tops.
• Bake for 8-9 minutes.

Makes 24 mini pancake muffins.

Let cool slightly and remove from the pan. You may need to use a toothpick around the edges to separate the pancake muffins from the pan.
Serve immediately with warmed butter if you like or even just with maple syrup.

These are such tasty little morsels of breakfast-y yumminess!  We served the maple syrup in a small bowl which was perfect for dipping the tiny muffins in.  The kids (and adults) in the house were all over these and they were completely gone within the day.

I give this recipe 8.5 chips out of a bag of 10.

Cooking with Kids: Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cupcake Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 vegtable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mashed banana (about 2 large)
• 1 tsp vanilla

Line muffin pan with paper liners and preheat oven to 350F.

In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt.  In a separate bowl, whisk together sugar, oil and eggs until smooth.  Add banana and vanilla, beating well.  Add flour mixture, beating until smooth.  Scoop batter into prepared pan.  Bake in preheated oven for 24-28 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched.  Let cool in pan on rack for 10 mins.  Remove from pan and cool completely on rack.  Top cooled cupcakes with frosting.

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

• 4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• pinch of salt
• 2 1/4 cups confectioner’s (icing) sugar, sifted

In a bowl, using an electic mixer on medium-high speed, beat together cream cheese, butter and salt until creamy.  With mixer on low speed, beat in confectioner’s sugar, 1/2 cup at a time so that sugar doesn’t fly all over the place.  Increase speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy.  Spread frosting over cooled cupcakes and refrigerate until ready to serve or for up to 1 day.

Note: I cut the frosting recipe in 1/2 and had just enough to cover the 12 cupcakes above.  The full recipe will give you about 2 cups of frosting.  This can be stored in the fridge up to 3 days.  Before using,  let stand at room temperature for about 15 minutes to soften enough to spread.

The sweet frosting combined with the taste of banana was a sure fire hit with my kids.   :0) And it was kind of weird but the more of these I had, the more I like them.  It definately has the makings of an addiction.  Next time, I need to try it with caramel frosting.  Oh, yeah, baby!

I give this recipe 8 chips out of a bag of 10.

Cooking with Kids: Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup jam,  any flavor

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F.

In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Add egg yolks.  Mix in the flour a bit at a time until a soft dough forms.  Roll the dough into 1 inch balls.  If the dough is too soft, refrigerate it for 15-20  mins.  Place balls 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Use your thumbprint to make a well in the center of each cookie.  Fill each with a 1/2 tsp. of your favorite jam.

Bake 8-10 mins. until golden brown on the bottom.  Let cool on wire racks.

Yield: 30 cookies

These cookies are perfect for making with kids.  What child doesn’t like getting their hands in their food?  The result is a sweet cookie with a delicate crumb.

I give this recipe 8 chips out of a bag of 10.

Cooking With Kids: Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

 

• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 1/4 cup milk
• 3 medium bananas, mashed

Combine first 5 ingredients into a large bowl.  Mix thoroughly and make a well in the center.

Beat egg until frothy.  Mix in oil, milk and bananas.  Pour into well.  Stir only to moisten.  Grease muffin tin and add batter until 3/4 full.  Bake at 400F/200C oven for 20-25 mins.  Makes 12-14 muffins.

My kids love making and eating these muffins.  Moist with a delightful hit of chocolate, you can’t go wrong.  They make a perfect snack along with a glass of milk, or will even make do at breakfast if you are in a pinch.  This is a household favorite that only takes a few minutes of effort for a super muffin.

I give this recipe 8 chips out of a bag of 10.

Cooking With Kids: It’s Birthday Time!

It’s that time of year again: birthday time for my son.  Like any parent,  it seems like a blink ago that he was a baby and now he’s 5!!

This year’s theme was Buzz Lightyear and that was a bit of a challenge.  Toy Story and Buzz are a bit passe in what is currently popular so it took a lot of internet searching to find decorations, etc.  BUT what my boy wants for his birthday,  I’ll do my darndest to get so off I went!

We had a very  lucky find of an almost new Buzz Lightyear costume.  Just about every kid at the party wanted a turn to try the  the suit on.  It was so funny!  Here is the birthday boy:

A rocket cake for my little Space Ranger (dontcha love the “flames” of ribbon coming out rocket boosters?):

And some cupcakes, topped with sugar cookie stars and the LGM (little green men) from the movie that I got from Hong Kong:

Now you know I wouldn’t leave you without a recipe, don’t you, Chippies?  Here is a great recipe for Sugar Cookies that actually doesn’t call for creme of tartar.  Enjoy! 

Ingredients:

2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

2 2/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Directions:

In electric mixer, beat butter and sugar at medium-high speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add vanilla, baking soda, and salt and beat at medium speed until incorporated. Beat in egg. Add flour and mix at low speed until just combined. Divide dough in half, form into 2 disks, and wrap in plastic wrap or waxed paper. Chill until firm, at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.

Arrange racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat to 375°F. Line 2 heavy large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Remove 1 dough disk from refrigerator. On lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Using a cookie cutter, cut out cookies; transfer with spatula to baking sheets. Gather and reroll scraps and cut out additional cookies. Chill cookies 10 minutes.

Bake until golden and somewhat firm to touch, about 15 minutes. Cool on pans 5 minutes, then transfer to racks and cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

I found these cookies had a nice vanilla flavor but I did have a small snafu with the dough.  It came together well and I put it in the fridge to chill overnight.  When I pulled it out the next day, the dough was so hard that it was impossible to roll!  I almost had a panic attack but microwaving it for about 10 seconds cured that problem and I was able to roll it out and get the cookies completed.  Whew!  Disaster averted!

I give this recipe 7.5 chips out of a bag of 10.

French Friday Cooking with Kids: French Breakfast Muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup plus 2 tbsp. milk
• 6 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Cinnamon-Sugar Coating

• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Grease a 12 cup muffin pan and set aside.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, sale and nutmeg into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg until frothy.  Blend in the milk, melted butter, and vanilla.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid mixture.  Mix with a wooden spoon until evenly blended.  Spoon into the muffin cups, filling about 2/3 full.

Bake for 20 mins.  Let cool for 5 mins before removing muffins from the pan.

Prepare cinnmon-sugar coating by mixing sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.  In a separate bowl, melt better.  Quickly dip each muffin first into the melt butter and then into the cinnamon-sugar mix to coat the entire top of each muffin.

Makes 12 muffins. 

A simple recipe that is great to do with kids.  I know my daughter loves to join me in the kitchen and my son often does too.  :0)  These muffins were a hit both as a breakfast item and as a snack later in the day.

I love anything kid friendly and give these little babies 7.5 chips out of a bag of 10.