Baking with Kids

By: Jill Finger

Jun 14 2015

Aperture:	f/2.4
Focal Length:	4.12mm
ISO:	320
Shutter:	1/0 sec
Camera:	iPhone 5

Natasha and I stopped at the Farmers’ Market on Saturday to buy another loaf of the delicious sour dough that I bought last week. I told her she could pick out a package of cookies too. She read all the ingredients on the package of chocolate chip cookies and decided she didn’t want chocolate chip cookies with oatmeal in them, so she asked if we could bake cookies when we got home. I realized after we got home that I didn’t have any brown sugar, so we perused some cookie cookbooks looking for a recipe that only used white sugar. I vetoed sugar cookies that had to be rolled out as I didn’t want to make this an all afternoon project. Then, in one of the cookbooks, we found a substitution list and on it was how to make brown sugar by putting two tablespoons of molasses in a cup of white sugar. In the same book, Natasha saw a recipe for peanut butter kisses and she knew I had a large bag of kisses. She mixed the molasses into the white sugar while I gathered the rest of the ingredients, then she and Andrew peeled all the kisses while I mixed up the dough. We then got an assembly line going. I formed one inch balls, the kids rolled them in sugar (each with their own bowl, of course) and Wes arranged them on the cookie sheets. After eight minutes in the oven, we took them out, pressed a kiss into each one and put them back in the oven for two more minutes. It was a little nerve wracking having them put the kisses on. The cookies were on very hot pans and I was so afraid one of them would get burned, but they were very careful so we got through it without incident. In the second picture, they both are taking cookies off the pan which has been sitting to let the cookies firm up after baking, so the pan is cool and there is no danger.
After we were done baking, I was leaning against the kitchen counter playing Words with Friends on my phone. I didn’t even realize I had my foot propped up on a stool. Natasha and Andrew started giggling when they saw me and had to try it too. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.