Let’s Do Some Gardening Children
Spring is here and it is time to get the gardening forks out and start planting and mowing the lawn again. Children especially love the idea of living it up in the garden during spring and summer and I remember my little one, digging in the soil while I was doing the planting. I found this lovely little recipe for cakes, baked in flowerpots; this should be fun to do after finishing the real gardening and cleaning their little hands would be much easier. It is a fun recipe for children who loves gardening.
You will need the following ingredients:
500g granary, wholemeal or white bread flour
7g dried yeast (one packet)
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil and some extra to oil the flowerpots with
1 tbsp of clear honey (Winnie the Pooh’s favourite food)
a little milk or oil for brushing the bread
These toppings can be added:
1 tbsp pumpkin, sunflower, sesame or poppy seeds
4 tbsp grated cheddar or crumbled feta cheese
1 tbsp chopped rosemary, thyme, oregano, chives or basil
1 tbsp chopped olive or sundried tomatoes
½ tsp chilli flakes
You will also need:
5 small clay flowerpots, baking parchment and cling film
Method
- First put the flour, yeast and salt into a large bowl together. Now add 300ml warm water, the olive oil and the honey to the flour mix. Mix all of the ingredients with a wooden spoon until it becomes a ball of dough. Put your ball of dough on a work surface and knead with your hands, stretching the dough while you are kneading it for about 10 minutes.
You can add a little flour to the dough if it gets to sticky.
- Brush the flowerpots with oil and line the sides with the baking parchment – these you should cut into strips the same width as the flowerpots.
- Divide the dough into 5 pieces and shape into little round balls. Place one ball of dough into each flowerpot and cover with cling film. Leave in a warm place for 1 hour to rise, while you go water the garden.
- Heat oven to 200°C/180°C and for fan/gas ovens 6. When the dough has doubled in size, remove the cling film from the pots and gently brush with a little milk or oil.
- Sprinkle with your choice of topping.
- Place the pots on a baking tray in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until the breads have risen and turn golden. The pots will be very hot, so be careful when removing from the oven. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before turning out and eating.
(Courtesy of the BBC GoodFood)
These little breads should be fun to make and would make for a lovely day with the children. Something to do on the weekends!
