These came out good but they need to be much much sweeter, so if you use bittersweet chocolate like I did, you need to double or may be even triple the amount of sugar. We ended up eating them sliced with butter and sugar.
Ingredients:
4 oz semisweet chocolate
2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp grond cinnamon
1/3 cup packed brown sugar (or a cup, see above)
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
Preheat oven to 400F. Greaze a 12-cup muffin pan. Kitten loved it.
Break chocolate into a heat proof bowl and melt over a pan of simmering water. Remove from heat and sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon into chocolate. Add sugar and nuts. Let your toddler mix it.
In another bowl, mix together milk, oil, vanilla and egg. Add to dry ingredients and stir just until blended. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake 15-20 minutes until well risen and firm to the touch. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn out muffins onto a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar, this was the most fun part for Kitten.
People ask me about mess and how I deal with it. A little spill can be very fun and educational, Kitten always insists that she wipes it.
The rest is easily swept from the floor and I wipe the table again after we are done. Because she is sitting on the table, the messy area is pretty limited. If you don't have such a convenient area on your counter, there is a nice thing called kitchen helper (such as
this
one), there are a few other companies that make them. I will probably soon let Kitten stand on a regular chair, so that she can help wash dishes, something we have not tried yet. I am sure she will love it!
Look yummy anyway! Kitten is so careful, and so good at it! Is she so good because you never get a control freak moment and just snatch it away and do it yourself? Do you give her all the time she wants? Also, I am kind of wondering - how well do you think it will work with two children? When you have to give age-appropriate tasks to each and monitor each?
ReplyDeleteI am remembering the Nigerian girl who sat next to me today. She said that in Nigeria, the youngest child does all the cleaning and the dishes. So, if you are the first child, you do it until your younger sibling is old enough to do it, and they do it until the next child grows up, and so on. She, as it happens, was the youngest in the family. I think she would been more upset if her Mom taught her doing dishes so early! :D
I give her all the time she needs unless I see a major disaster about to happen, like spilling the whole bowl. Then I intervene but I try to do it so that it looks like I am giving her another job "Now, why don't you do this instead" :)
ReplyDeleteAsk me abut two kids when I have them :) But I am sure I will figure a way, besides, by the time my younger will be able to do what Kitten is doing now she will be at least 5 years old, enough to require less direct supervision as in me holding her hand.