Kids in the Kitchen - How to Get Your Kids Interested in Cooking

Cooking with kids can be great fun, if only your kids actually believed this to be true!

With so many distractions available to kids these days, it is sometimes hard to convince them that getting in the kitchen for some cooking fun can be just as enjoyable as playing a computer game.

My eight year old son would rather play on the PC creating pizza after pizza in a virtual cafe rather than make a real one. So I had a think about how I could temp him into the kitchen to show him that cooking can be enjoyable, and that spending time with me was just as fun as playing a computer game.

Knowing how much he enjoys playing on two certain websites created for children, the names of which I am not allowed to mention here as it would be seen as advertising, I suggested we create our own pastry versions of the games complete with all his favourite characters. The added attraction being that we could recreate these creatures in 3D, then eventually eat them!

Here is my simple short crust pastry recipe so you can have a go too.

200g plain flour,
pinch of salt
100g unsalted butter, cubed

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and work in the butter with your fingertips until it resembles fine crumbs.

Mix in two tablespoons of cold water and stir with a wooden spoon until it clumps together - add more water if it's dry a drop at a time.

Lightly flour a work surface and tip out the pastry. Knead gently until you have a smooth dough.

Now you can break off small pieces and let your child form them into their favourite characters.

My son particularly likes making penguins, so we divide up the pastry into about 8 pieces and add a drop or two of food colouring to each piece so we can make different coloured penguins.

Here is a tasty trick if you have quite a thick or large character made from pastry, and you are worried the centre will not cook through properly in the oven.

Hollow out the belly of your pastry character and fill with a bit of chocolate spread, jam, or stuff in a couple of mini marshmallows, then seal over the hole but squeezing the pastry back together.

Once cooked, you have cute characters with a gooey surprise in the middle.

Yum!