Children In Need Special

It’s the BBC Children In Need appeal this week. It will feature a special one-off Dr Who, a One Show Challenge Squad, a children’s version of Graham Norton’s Red Chair and a Masterchef special. To donate to the BBC Children In Need appeal, you can just click HERE. And to help celebrate, this week we are looking at cooking with kids. 

I found making fresh pasta, although not the easiest of things, is one of the perfect dishes to make with younger members of the family as it is basically playing with Play-Doh and the worst that can happen is you get flour everywhere.

Jamie Oliver’s recipe is a good place to start and can be found here.

Here are some golden tips for cooking with kids:

As Mary-Anne Boermans from The Great British Bake Off says: “Make sure you have the ingredients before you suggest a recipe.

David Atherton author of My First Cook Book – says: “It’s not fun if you’re always controlling it all. Having fun and starting the learning process around food is way more important than the perfect fluffy cake.” He has a great recipe for near-instant banana ice-cream.

Rukmini Iyer, the author of the Roasting Tin series of books suggests getting kids involved in one-pan dish cooking, which keeps things easy, and everyone focussed. Plus there is less washing up to do once you are exhausted with the cooking itself.

It’s always very important to stress safety and not leave children around knives, gas or hot surfaces. If you are worried about controlling your junior chefs, make a fridge cake.

Whatever you are doing – have fun!