Baking with Miss Three: Oatmeal Cookies

Inspired partly by Kyrstie’s recent Kids Cooking post on Childhood101, partly by Kate’s post on Picklebums about how simple these oatmeal cookies are to make, and partly by the fact that I had nothing in the house for school morning teas for the rest of the week, three-year-old Eliane and I made biscuits the other morning.
Oatmeal biscuits cooling on a tray
A three year old in the kitchen Baking Oatmeal Cookies
My eleven year old had actually been asking to make oatmeal cookies last weekend, so I’d been planning to give him the recipe and tell him to go to it, but he wasn’t going to have time after school any day this week, so I figured Elli and I could give it a go first.
Which was probably just as well, because the adding in of the flour and then mixing through the sultanas and oats took a fair bit of effort. For Liam to do it on his own, I think I might halve the recipe, which will also fit more easily in our standard mixing bowl.
Mixing bowl with a small hand adding in some flour
My cookies didn’t spread out the way Kate’s did, maybe because I couldn’t help myself, I used 1/2 cup wholemeal flour, and didn’t think to add extra butter which I usually would. Wholemeal flour can make things a bit too dry if you don’t add extra fat. So after the first batch, I flattened the rest a bit with a fork.
Oatmeal biscuits on a baking tray
We got about 60 biscuits out of the mix, using balls of about a tablespoon (4 tsps), and Kate said it makes about 36 large ones, so maybe they would have spread more if I made larger balls too. We also probably ate at least four cookies worth of cookie dough between us, as you do!
I often find I am less patient in the kitchen than I would like to be, largely because I usually have a time limit. This time was fun because although the cookies were for a good cause, making them was also my main morning activity with Eliane, so it was easier than usual to be patient and work at her pace. What about you, do you cook with your kids (if you have them)? Or let them cook on their own (if they’re a little older)? Do you enjoy it, or is it more a matter of resignation (you either let them help or you listen to them whine!)?
If you want to try these oatmeal cookies, the  recipe is here, on picklebums.com. I added 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to the second half of the batch. Yum.
A three year old in the kitchen, licking the mixer
This post was shared at I Blog on Tuesdays and Inspire Me Monday.