Baking with kids is not only fun but it can also provide the perfect opportunity for some incidental learning to occur (not to mention spending quality time with the little squirts).

The kitchen is a great vehicle to learn reading skills (reading the recipe); math skills (such as addition, subtraction, and fractions); science skills (such as how carbon dioxide, yeast, and air help baked goods to rise); and don't get me started on the organizational and sanitary skills it teaches.

Kids of all ages can learn to bake as long as the recipe and the skills involved to prepare it can be broken down into steps that the child can manage.  No one, not even you parents, should be overwhelmed by the experience.  Look at the kitchen as the ultimate science laboratory where you can create and eat your own experiments.  A great way to start would be to take a recipe that you would like to prepare and re-write it into clearly defined steps. I do this when I develop recipes for my kid's baking camp. And it need not be too easy.  My motto is never dummy down to kids!  I have successfully prepared some of the best breads, Danish pastry, and croissants (and it doesn't get much more complex than that, folks) that I have ever tasted with 10-14 year old kids!  Know what your kids are capable of before deciding how involved the recipe should be.

For a first time baking experience, start with something relatively easy -- pizza dough or bread dough from scratch.  Perhaps some muffins or cookies.  Watching the fermentation process of yeast can be very cool and can possibly fuel your child's interest in science.  When you prepare a yeast dough, did you know that proteins in wheat flour mixed with water form a network of proteins known as gluten?  Gluten is sort of the foundation and framework of a house.  It gives strength and structure to baked goods and prevents them from collapsing after baking.  When carbon dioxide gas bubbles form inside a batter or dough they get stuck inside the gluten network.  These trapped gas bubbles expand during the baking process forcing the dough to puff up and rise.  Take a peek through the oven window and see the baked good rising, but remember not to open the oven door or heat will escape lowering the temperature.

What is so wonderful about baking with your children is that without even thinking about it -- they will have learned so much.  And don't think that this is the end of it!  Your kids will see the same concepts they learned about while baking with you in school during science and math class.  However, these topics of science could never have been presented to them in a more delicious manner than you did, and with so much love!

Once the recipe has been read aloud, divvy out jobs according to age.  Remember each child's capabilities will vary with age, development, and maturity level.  I know a 10 year old who can chop carrots into brunoise (very small dice).  Not all 10-year-olds are as capable at such a young age! So know what your child can and cannot do.  Fine motor skills need to be developed to handle knives, peelers, or graters. In general, I do not recommend children using knives before the age of 10.  Children of any age should be monitored carefully in the kitchen.

A good way to start baking with very young children (under six or seven years of age) would be to pre-chop any ingredients that need it and allow the kids to sift the flour, crack the eggs, and mix ingredients.  Shaping a pizza and rolling out cookie dough can be great fun too.  When my daughter was little, she loved shaping pizza dough so much that after one hour of shaping (and re-shaping) I nicely had to demand that we bake it off (after all it was dinner)!

In my experience, never, ever crack an egg directly into an electric mixing bowl full of ingredients (good advice whether you are baking with kids or not, even if you are a professional chef).  Crack eggs into a liquid measuring cup or into a small bowl.  This way, if a piece of shell gets in, you can fish it out with little effort.

Right now, you are probably wondering if I am "two pancakes short of a stack" for advocating you to join your children in the kitchen.  All you probably see is the mess that they will make.  Okay, they will probably create some sort of mess.  But I am way ahead of you.  There is more to baking than just getting the baked good into the oven.  Teaching kids how to see tasks through and clean up after themselves is an invaluable lesson not to mention preventing foodborne illness.

Baking with kids can be one of the best experiences you will ever share with your children.  Creating lifelong memories of the luscious baked goods you have prepared as a "team" truly evokes the love that you share. 

Suggestions:

• Set aside one day a week to bake something with your child for a breakfast, brunch, or dessert treat to be enjoyed throughout the week.
• Bake something special for a friend or grandparent to say "I love you".
• Read the recipe together to see if you have all the necessary ingredients, tools, and equipment prior to assembling the recipe.
• Shop together with your child for the "special" ingredients you will need.
• Explain to your child the role of different mixing tools you may need such as a whisk, spoon, rubber spatula, etc.
• Give the youngest bakers a chance to do something like rolling small pieces of cookie dough into balls to be placed on a sheet pan.
• Always be sure you and your child wash your hands before and after baking.
• Be careful when handling raw eggs, which can carry the Salmonella bacteria.
• Halve or double the recipe's ingredients with your child.  This can be a great opportunity to learn multiplication or division.
• Make a fun, simple fruit sauce based on osmosis to serve with cake or pancakes.  Place 1-2 cups of mixed fresh berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, or blackberries work well -- quarter or slice very large strawberries) and gently mix in one quarter cup of granulated sugar.  In about one hour the sugar will draw out moisture from the berries creating its own sauce!
• Be open-minded and above all else -- have fun.  If the recipes do not come out as expected, adjust each of your mistakes and try again!

Here is a great dessert pizza recipe to use when baking with your kids!

Pizza Dessert Tart with the Works

Recipe makes 1 12-in. pizza.

Step A.  Make one recipe of Pâte Brisée with Cream Cheese, see below

Step B.  Make one recipe of Mixed Berry Pizza Sauce, see below

Step C.  Gather the following Pizza Toppings

• 1 tablespoon milk
• 2 teaspoons coarse sugar
• 1 cup diced fresh, or drained, canned pineapple
• ¼ cup dried cranberries or cherries
• ½ cup high-quality white chocolate warmed in a microwave for 20-30 seconds on low power and shredded using a vegetable peeler
• 1/3 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips or coarsely chopped semisweet chocolate
• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted in a 400°F oven for five minutes
• 1/3 cup shredded coconut, toasted
• Approximately 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar put through a sieve for dusting over the top of the pizza
• Nonstick cooking spray

Step D. Assemble as follows:

1. Set the oven rack on the lowest position and preheat the oven to 4000F.  Spray a 12-inch pizza pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Roll out the pâte brisée dough onto a lightly floured surface into a 12-inch circle, using the pizza pan as a guide, about ¼ inch thick. Fit the dough into the pizza pan. Roll the edges over like a cuff on a pant leg, if desired. With a pastry brush, brush the edges with milk and sprinkle them with coarse sugar.

3. Spread the mixed berry pizza sauce over the crust.

4. Scatter the crust with the pineapple and the dried cranberries or cherries. Bake for about 40 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

5. Remove the pizza tart from the oven and immediately sprinkle the shredded white chocolate "cheese", mini-chocolate chips, walnuts and coconut evenly over the top. Allow the pizza to cool. Dust the top with confectioners' sugar and serve the pizza at room temperature cut into slices.

Pâte Brisée with Cream Cheese

• 1 ½ cups pastry flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 3 ½ ounces cream cheese, cut into cubes
• 4 ounces unsalted butter, cut into small cubes, wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen for 20-30 minutes
• 3 tablespoons ice cold orange juice
  

       
1. In the bowl of a food processor, add the flour, the salt and the orange peel. Pulse the mixture to blend.

2. Add the cream cheese to the dry ingredients and pulse the mixture a few times to distribute it until the cream cheese resembles small pea sized pieces. Open the top and feel the pieces to make sure they are the right size.

3. Add the frozen butter and pulse the mixture 8 to 10 times to reduce the butter to pea-sized pieces.

4. Add half of the orange juice pulsing the machine only until the mixture is just combined. Pour the mixture into a bowl and with your hands gather the dough together to form a ball.  If the dough feels too dry, add the remaining orange juice.  Shape the dough into a disk. Wrap it in plastic wrap and allow it to rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or overnight.

Mixed Berry Pizza Sauce

• 1 cup frozen raspberries, thawed and drained
• ½ cup fresh strawberries, sliced or frozen strawberries, thawed and drained (it is not necessary to slice them, if they were frozen)
• ¼ cup strawberry or raspberry jam or preserves
• 1 teaspoon fresh orange juice
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

In a food processor, purée all of the ingredients and pour the mixture into a bowl.  Refrigerate the sauce until needed.

About Chef Gail Sokol

Gail D. Sokol is an award-winning professional in the culinary arts industry with demonstrated success in baking and pastry arts, supervision and training, and classical cuisine. Chef Sokol brings her expertise and unique teaching style to the serious home baker and professional in her book, About Professional Baking for which she was a Finalist for the International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook Awards for 2007. In addition, she has been featured on many weekly radio and television programs. Chef Sokol is currently an instructor of baking at Schenectady County Community College (SCCC) in Schenectady, New York. She is also creator and director of the Children's Baking Camp at SCCC 's Continuing Education Division.