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There is something about a rainy Saturday afternoon, a warm oven and a bowl of dough that settles a household. Baking with children is not really about producing perfect biscuits. It is about weighing, tipping, stirring and the small, satisfying moment when a tray comes out of the oven and everyone crowds round to look. The recipes below are chosen because they cope well with enthusiastic hands: the doughs are forgiving, the timings are short, and most of the decorating can be done at the table rather than at the oven.
Keep a few practical things in mind before you start. Read the recipe through together first, then set out everything you need on one surface. Give each child their own small bowl where you can, and accept that the floor will need sweeping. A damp cloth under the mixing bowl stops it sliding about, and a light dusting of flour on the worktop stops shortbread sticking. Small aprons, a step stool and a chair at the table make more difference than any special equipment.
Shortbread is the ideal first bake because it needs only three ingredients and no raising agent, so it behaves predictably even if the mixing is rough.
Heat the oven to 160°C fan (180°C conventional) and line a baking tray. Let the children rub the butter into the flour with their fingertips until it looks like fine breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar and bring the mixture together into a soft ball with your hands. Roll out to about 1cm thick on a lightly floured surface and cut into fingers, rounds or stars. Prick each biscuit twice with a fork, which is a job children adore.
Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until pale gold at the edges. Sprinkle with caster sugar while still warm and leave on the tray for ten minutes before moving, as shortbread is fragile straight from the oven. It keeps for a week in an airtight tin, which makes it a good gift for grandparents.
Flapjacks suit children who would rather stir than roll, and they are sturdy enough to survive being cut into uneven squares.
Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Let it cool for a few minutes so small hands are not near hot syrup, then pour over the oats and dried fruit. Mix until every oat is coated. Press firmly into a lined 20cm square tin, using the back of a spoon, and bake at 180°C fan (200°C conventional) for 18 to 20 minutes until the edges turn golden. Cut into squares while still warm, then leave to cool completely in the tin. Over-baking makes flapjacks hard, so take them out when the centre still looks slightly soft.
The biscuit base is a plain, crisp little round; the fun is entirely in the icing. This is the recipe to make when you have more than two children at the table, because there is no rolling and every child can ice their own.
Make a simple dough from 100g softened butter, 100g caster sugar, one egg, 200g plain flour and a pinch of salt. Cream the butter and sugar, beat in the egg, then fold in the flour to a firm dough. Roll small walnut-sized pieces into balls, place them well apart on a lined tray, and flatten gently with the base of a glass. Bake at 180°C fan (200°C conventional) for 10 to 12 minutes until just golden at the edges, then cool completely.
For the icing, mix 150g icing sugar with a little warm water and a few drops of vanilla until thick but pipeable. Divide between small bowls and colour each one differently. Children can spoon or pipe a blob onto each biscuit and top it with a jelly sweet pressed gently into the icing. Leave to set for an hour or so on a wire rack.
Two more to keep in rotation. Gingerbread uses the same creaming method as iced gems, with one teaspoon of ground ginger, half a teaspoon of mixed spice and two tablespoons of golden syrup added with the egg. The dough is soft, so chill it for an hour before rolling, and bake the shapes for 8 to 10 minutes at 170°C fan (190°C conventional). It holds a cutter's shape well, which makes it the best choice for dinosaurs, rabbits and letters.
Oat and raisin cookies are the fastest of the lot: beat 125g soft butter with 100g light brown sugar and one egg, stir in 150g oats, 100g plain flour, half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda and 75g raisins, then drop spoonfuls onto trays and bake for 12 minutes at 180°C fan (200°C conventional). They spread as they bake, so leave plenty of room.
A batch of biscuits baked on Sunday afternoon covers lunchboxes, after-school hunger and unexpected visitors. Store shortbread and gingerbread in tins, flapjacks in a shallow box with baking paper between layers, and iced gems in a single layer so the icing stays neat. Freeze unbaked shortbread or gingerbread dough in flattened discs, wrapped well, and you have something to bake on a whim.
The wellbeing here is quiet and ordinary: the smell of butter and sugar, a child proud of a wonky star, a mug of tea while the tray cools. Let the biscuits be imperfect. The point is the making, and the eating together afterwards.
Nicola Morrison shares practical, down-to-earth guidance on british seasonal home cooking, simple interiors and everyday wellbeing for readers across the UK.
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