Bake it up

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Last Friday I decided to bake some pumpkin cookies. They were delicious, though next time I'd use raisins instead of chocolate chips. Which is mind-boggling because as a general rule I DETEST raisins and nuts in my baked goods. (With the exception of oatmeal cookies, which really need raisins.) But that's another story.


I decided to include Duke in the cookie making. He was so excited. I really wish I had been able to capture this on video, but really it was hard enough having him help, I can't imagine how I would have been able to video, unless I'd had the foresight to set it up on a tripod.

So he started by helping me dump the brown sugar into the mixing bowl. And he was in love. He watched me crack the eggs; he dumped the vanilla in and watched the mixer go "faster, faster, FASTER". We mixed the dry ingredients in another bowl. He was helping me dump and getting very excited, which led to some spastic dumping. By the time we got to the cinnamon, he flung the spoon and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon all over the counter and floor. Which looks like a lot more than a teaspoon. I tried not to freak too much, I didn't want him to be afraid to cook, and held his hand while we dumped the ingredients so he could see how to do it "slowly and controlled". He was standing on a kitchen chair and kept saying "This is fun! We are making cookies! We are standing on the chair... we are mixing... we are making cookie dough!"

I was trying to get a new container of ginger open and it exploded, all into the open silverware drawer. I really need to remember to close that thing. He thought this was hysterical. We held the spoon together and mixed the dry ingredients, then put them in the mixer.

Now it was time to taste the dough. De-li-cious! We took a quick break and then came back to the kitchen. I was going to clean up the cinnamon but he really wanted to. I have him a wet paper towel and he wiped all the cinnamon off the floor (he actually did a great job). Narrations for this went something like: "We are making cookies! We are having fun! We are wiping up the cinnamon! (At this point he starts sniffing the rag) Mmmm, cinnamon smells very good."

Kitchen somewhat cleaned, we start greasing the pan. Apparently this is fun for kids? I gave him a cookie sheet and myself one. He took over, and wanted more Crisco. I tried, in vain, to explain that we couldn't touch the pans once they were greased. After turning my back to grab the dough, I see there are little hand prints all over the pans. And little greasy smears all over his shirt.

We start "blooping" the dough onto the sheets. He helped on 2 until he realized that there was cookie dough right in front of him that I wasn't going to keep him from and the rest of the time he spent pinching dough off the top of the cookies and eating it. We put a pan in the oven and washed up while I explained the concept of waiting 15 minutes until the timer went off. He was so excited to eat them that he periodically pretended to be the timer!!

Here are some photos of him enjoying our finished product:

It will probably also be the last time he wears that shirt, since I'm not sure how to get Crisco handprints out!

All afternoon he talked about baking cookies, and was making little finger play of what we did.  My favorite was his mime of breaking the eggs.  He has talked a lot about the cinnamon and the ginger, and the mixer going fast, fast, FASTER.  In fact, we're going to bake again this afternoon.