The summer after I graduated from 8th grade, my mother taught at the Breadloaf School of English, which is a summer program for high school English teachers pursuing their Master’s Degrees. The two of us spent seven weeks in the Green Mountains of Vermont and I remember it as a great summer. There were lots of other kids my age and because we were on a small campus, I could walk everywhere. I had a job working at the day care center for the young children of the students and professors. The director of the center was an elementary school principal in his regular life and he had a lot of creative ideas. One of his pet projects was baking with the kids. Every morning, he would bake muffins or a quick bread with a group of willing helpers and then all the kids would eat the goodies for their morning snack. Children as young as three and four were able to help with the baking and would beam with pride when the group gobbled up their handiwork.
My own three year old stopped taking an afternoon nap shortly after we transitioned him from his crib to his “big boy bed.” (Which is still a toddler bed, by the way. No one tell J.R.) This happened a few months ago — before spring had really arrived in Chicago. Needless to say, the afternoons got really long. You can only play trains and Play-Doh so many times. One day, I needed to bake something to bring to an event at the temple, so with memories of baking at Bread Loaf in mind, I decided to try baking with J.R. I picked banana bread for our first attempt because that is an easy recipe and I always have overripe bananas stashed in my freezer. (Yes, you can freeze overripe bananas to use for baking and smoothies. Just pop the whole thing, peel and all, in the freezer and thaw before using. They turn black but are still fine.) Well. J.R. loved it. He loved mashing the bananas, measuring the ingredients, dumping the ingredients in the bowl and stirring with the big wooden spoon. He watched that banana bread rise in the oven with amazement. Of course, banana bread takes like an hour to bake, so by the time it came out of the oven, J.R. had moved on – probably to trains — but I considered our first joint kitchen venture to be an unqualified success.
Since that first afternoon, J.R. and I have done a lot more baking. He regularly asks, “What can we make today, Mommy?” We stick with pretty forgiving projects: quick breads, muffins — which J.R. has a hard time distinguishing from cupcakes, so he calls the whole genre of things baked in muffin tins “muffin pupcakes” — and recently, we have branched out into cookies. His role remains pretty much the same: measuring, dumping ingredients, stirring or turning on the Kitchen-Aid mixer. Our recent foray into jam thumbprint cookies allowed J.R. to get more hands-on. He is a real Play-Doh aficionado, so he was expert at rolling the cookie dough into little balls and making a small indentation with this thumb. The results were quite delicious, if not perhaps as pretty as I might have liked. But, a messy kitchen and wonky-shaped cookies are part of the deal when baking with a three year old. 
Not only does baking make the long afternoons pass a bit quicker, but being able to participate in this “big kid” activity makes J.R. feel competent and he is already learning the joy of sharing homemade baked goods with others. He was so proud of our jam thumbprint cookies that he suggested we bring some to Zuzu’s school to share with her friends, and he insisted that his dad try one the minute he walked in the door. (Although he has been on a diet for several months, Dad knew better than to argue and graciously ate the cookie.) Zuzu is still my sous-chef on more ambitious kitchen projects, but I am very happy to have J.R. as my new Assistant Pastry Chef.
Here are two of my favorite baking-with-kids recipes: banana bread and jam thumbprint cookies. I hope that you try baking with a kid in your life.
Banana Bread
This banana bread is easy to make and it freezes well. J.R. and I like to experiment with what we add to our bread. We do not use nuts because of my daughter’s allergies, but we have had success with mini chocolate chips and chopped dried apricots.
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup vegetable oil, like Crisco
2 large eggs, preferably at room temperature
3 overripe bananas mashed
3 TB. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2/3 cup chopped nuts or dried fruit, or mini chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan. Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside. Beat sugar and vegetable oil together in an electric mixer set on medium speed for several minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Add the milk, vanilla extract, and the mashed banana and combine. Gradually add the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Add the nuts, dried fruit or chocolate chips, if using. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for one hour or until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then for a few more minutes on a rack. If freezing, wrap the bread first in plastic wrap and then in foil.
Jam Thumbprint Cookies
This a straightforward recipe with only a few ingredients, making it ideal for baking with kids Use any thick jam you like for the filling. Bonus points for using homemade jam!
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
2 large egg yolks, preferably at room temperature
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Jam, approximately ½ cup
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar in an electric mixer set on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks one at a time and the vanilla extract. Gradually add the flour and salt. Mix until a uniform dough forms. Shape small pieces of dough into balls approximately 1” around and place on greased cookie sheet, or better yet, a Silpat, approximately 1” apart. Make a small indentation in each cookie with your thumb and fill the indentation with jam. Bake 20 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown. Cool on a rack and store in an airtight container.
My daughter Haley is a little younger than your son. She is allergic to nuts and eggs and over the past few months we have really enjoyed baking together. She also loves smashing the bananas and since we use bananas as an egg replacement we do a lot of smashing. It does make her feel very independent. Her favorite part is licking the spoon!
Katie, I have a fun Irish soda bread recipe with no egg that I can send your way!
H1 and I bake quite a bit, about once a week. Granted, I don’t have the time to do things from scratch, but I have found that baking from a box is great entertainment. He “reads” me the directions, such as telling me what numbers to set the oven tempterature to – 3-5-0. And he’s learning early math skills (2 eggs, mom.) But most importantly, my son is learning to “cook.”
Sort of.
Jill, try the banana bread!