Yesterday was a rainy day here in DC, so I decided we needed an activity to keep Cameron occupied in the afternoon. I thought banana bread would be an easy, tasty, thing to make. Just as I believe growing food makes kids excited about eating fresh fruits and veggies, I believe cooking makes them excited about eating fresh, home made, food. I’m pretty sure it’s a fact that kids are more willing to try things they were involved in creating! Here’s the banana bread recipe I used (based on this one) and a few tips to help make baking with your toddler fun for both you and them.
Super Yummy Banana Bread
1 stick butter, softened (1/2 cup)
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 cup mashed bananas (about 3)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the butter mixture until smooth.
Finally, fold in the sour cream, walnuts and bananas. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool loaf in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
A few tips for baking with your toddler – before Cameron and I got to baking, I set out all the ingredients on the counter and all the measuring cups and spoons we would need. This way everything moved along smoothly once we got started.
I also did all the measuring while Cameron watched, and Cam got to do all the dumping into the mixing bowl, as well as turn on and off the mixer. Operating machinery is fun, after all!
I let Cameron crack the eggs in a small bowl. His method of egg cracking is basically smashing the egg repeatedly in the bottom of the bowl until the egg guts spill out. Having it in the bowl gave me the ability to pick out the egg shell bits that ended up in there. Then he dumped the eggs into the mixer.
Cameron had a great time mashing up the bananas – I put them in a big tupperware and gave Cam a potato masher and let him go to town. Squishing things is almost as fun as operating machinery.
Every now and then during the baking we turned on the oven light so Cameron could watch the bread get bigger and change. This added to the excitement and the anticipation. He was so excited to eat it when it was done. And, it was SO tasty! This is a really yummy recipe! Enjoy!
