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The Littlest Bakers

No matter how lopsided my efforts were when they landed on the baking sheet, Gram wouldn't bother me again until I'd covered it with circles, stars, angels, gingerbread boys and my personal specialty, dog bones.

I was fairly creative. My angels grew spectacular wings. My gingerbread boys didn't just stand around -- they danced, kicked up their heels, waved their arms. Given my circle of canine friends, the dog bones were the most essential of the shapes, and the only ones I didn't deliberately contort.

Those baking sessions with my grandmother were lessons in munchkin mathematics: How many cookie stars can you fit on a sheet? If each dog bone expands by a quarter inch as it bakes, how far apart do they need to be? And so on.

When my own children were of an age and stage when their noses barely cleared the table's edge, we baked Christmas cookies together. We iced the dog bones, the snowmen, the trees. The gingerbread people danced, the angels flapped their wings.

One year, we made a gingerbread house by a traditional German recipe, but ran into construction problems when the combined weight of snow-icing and the roof-tile candies was too great and it collapsed. After that, we went for smaller houses.

One day, I blinked and my children were taller than me; their voices were beginning to crack.

At Christmas, I continued to bake, hoping to entice them back into the kitchen for after-school cookies and conversation before they fled behind closed doors with their posse in tow. For a while, it worked.

Today, another child bakes with me. He's my grandson, all dark eyes and shiny hair, and a smile that turns my heart to mush.

Like his father before him, he has a weakness for raw cookie dough. Together, we decorate magnificent Christmas cookie houses and we ice dog bones, to the delight of our collection of resident canines.

I cherish the time we have together, innocent, hopeful, joyful.

Fleeting.

Tips for Baking With Kids

- Supervise, but don't hover. Set out saucers of coloured icing, sprinkles, coloured sugar, what have you, and turn 'em loose.

- Use parchment to line cookie sheets -- the cookies release easily. This is especially important for fragile body parts -- angel wings, Santa beards, appendages of gingerbread people, camels, donkeys.

- Use mistakes as a teaching moment, and when something goes right, praise success lavishly.

- Buy the three primary colours and let them experiment to produce orange (red and yellow), purple (blue and red) and green (blue and yellow).

- Gingerbread houses are great fun to construct and decorate. If you're pressed for time, the construction kits are a super idea.

Page By BroadwayBaby

Meringue Cookies (Plain and with Ground Almonds)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (130 degrees C) and place racks in upper and lower third of your own. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. You can form the cookies with a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) tip (plain or star), or with two spoons.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on low-medium speed until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat the whites until they hold soft peaks. Add the sugar, a little at a time, and continue to beat until the meringue holds very stiff peaks. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Note: The meringue is done when it holds stiff peaks and when you rub a little between your thumb and index finger it does not feel gritty. If it feels gritty the sugar has not fully dissolved so keep beating until it feels smooth between your fingers.

Before placing the cookies on the cookie sheet, place a little of the meringue on the underside of each corner of the parchment paper. This will prevent the paper from sliding. Transfer the meringue to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) tip. Pipe 2 inch (5 cm) rounds of meringue in rows on the prepared sheets. Alternatively, spoon mounds of meringue, using two spoons, onto the prepared sheets.

Bake the meringues for approximately one hour, rotating the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back (about half way through) to ensure even baking. The meringues are done when they are pale ivory in color and firm enough that they can be lifted from the baking sheet without sticking. Test one by removing it from the oven and letting it cool for a few minutes. If dried out enough, the meringue, when broken in half, should be crisp and dry. While you are doing this, leave the other meringues in the oven. The extra drying time won't hurt them. When done, turn off the oven, open the door, and leave the meringues in the oven to dry for a few hours.

Makes about 3 to 4 dozen.

Meringue Cookies:

3 large egg whites (3 ounces or 90 grams)

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

3/4 cup (150 grams) superfine or castor sugar (if you don't have superfine sugar simply take granulated white sugar and process it for about 30 seconds in a food processor)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Meringue Cookies with Ground Almonds:

Follow the Meringue Cookie recipe but fold in 1 1/2 cups (150 grams) finely ground almonds along with the vanilla extract.

Note: You can sometimes buy ground almonds or make your own. Process 1 1/2 cups (150 grams) sliced (blanched (skins off) or natural (skins on)) almonds along with 1 tablespoon (14 grams) granulated white sugar in a blender or food processor. Sugar is added to the almonds when ground to prevent clumping as it absorbs the oil exuded from the almonds. If desired, toast the almonds first by baking them in a 350 degree F (177 degree C) oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool before processing. Toasting the almonds first dries them which also helps to prevent clumping.

From: http://www.joyofbaking.com/MeringueCookies.html

Snowmen

These snowmen require adult help for the beating, but rolling and placing is a cinch. It's a good cookie for small hands that can't manage a cookie cutter, but can roll a small ball of dough. No matter how many times it's re-rolled, the cookies stay relatively tender.

1 pkg (1 cup / 250 g) cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup (175 mL) butter, softened

1 cup (250 mL) icing sugar

1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla

21/4 cups (550 mL) flour, approx.

1/2 tsp (2 mL) baking soda

Beat cream cheese, butter, sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl at medium speed until creamy. Add 1 cup (250 mL) flour and the baking soda, beating to form a soft dough. On a lightly floured board, knead in the remaining flour (if dough seems stiff, use less flour.) Wrap in plastic and chill for an hour.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Pinch off a head-sized ball and a slightly larger body-sized ball. Place on parchment-lined cookie sheet, with head slightly overlapping body. Flatten lightly with a glass dipped in icing sugar. Bake 15 minutes, until pale golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack and sprinkle each snowman with icing sugar. Decorate with candy stars, Smarties, M&Ms, dried fruit or chocolate chips.

Makes about 3 dozen.

The Calgary Herald 2005, December 21, 2005

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