Why do Christmas and baking go so well together? Something about the holiday season just seems to make everyone want to bake! It can be a fun tradition and something to get the kids involved with at home too!
When we think of Christmas baking, we think of a lot of sugar and extra calories. However, you can have fun in the kitchen over the holidays without doing havoc on your bodies! If you are going to be feeding these treats to kids at home, watching what goes in them, in my opinion, is extra important. Too much sugar, preservatives, and simple carbohydrates can play games with our kid’s delicate bodies, effecting sleep, focus, mood and much more.
This holiday season these were my top favorite kid-friendly recipes. The trick with holiday baking for kids is making the end product look fun, so its something they want to eat! Shapes and colours can do wonders! The other part is making them feel they are having a “treat” when really you have sneaked in some healthy ingredients.
Strawberry Santas
Ingredients:
- Strawberries
- A banana
- Cottage Cheese
- A black gel icing pen ( optional for eyes)
- Take the top off a strawberry (ie the leaves)
- Slice a second slice from the top of the strawberry
- Slice a disc from a banana
- Spread one side of the banana with cottage cheese (relatively thickly, as this will become the beard)
- Place the strawberry slice on the serving plate
- Add the slice of the banana on top, cottage cheese side down
- Take the gel icing pen and add 2 dots on the edge of the banana slice to look like eyes ( this part is optional, but they are a lot more cute with eyes!)
- Place the remaining part of the strawberry on top as the hat
- Repeat for as many Santas you wish to make
Mint Chocolate Bites
Base Ingredients:
- 70g oats
- 40g natural crackers
- 70g milled linseed
- 2 medjool dates – soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes
- 50g melted coconut oil
- 1 banana
Mint Layer
- 200g cashews (soaked in water overnight)
- Handful mint leaves (roughly 20g)
- 1/2 teaspoon spirulina or 10 spinach leaves (see note below if you pick spinach)
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 4 drops mint oil
- Chocolate
- 40g cacao butter
- 1 teaspoon cacao powder
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 heaped teaspoon almond/cashew butter
*Spinach Green Food Colouring ( Optional – if you don’t choose to use spirulina)*
Preheat your oven to 180ºC, place about 10 spinach leaves on a baking tray and bake for 6 minutes. They should go hard but still be quite green looking. Place the leaves in a pestle and mortar and grind them to a fine powder. They actually grind down in a few squishes and “hey presto” you have a healthy, unprocessed, chemical-free natural green food colouring! Just use a teaspoon of the spinach powder instead of the spirulina.
NOTE: Make sure you have soaked your cashews in water overnight before using them.
- Preheat oven to 180ºC
- Add the crackers, oats, and linseed to a blender and blend until it starts to resemble a fine powder, then pour into a bowl and leave aside.
- Drain the medjool dates then add them to a blender along with the melted coconut oil and banana and whizz it up until it is smooth and creamy. Pour into the oats and cracker mixture and use your hands to mix it thoroughly around.
- Pour into a small tin lined with parchment paper (My tin is 9″ x 9″). Press down with a spoon and smooth the base so that it is evenly spread then bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
- To make the mint layer, drain the cashew nuts then add to a food processor along with the other mint layer ingredients and blend until it turns smooth and creamy. You may need to stop a few times to scrape the sides down. It will take a good 6 or 7 minutes to get it really smooth but it’s so worth it.
- Pour the mint layer on top of the base layer and smooth over with a spatula.
- To make the chocolate, melt the cacao butter in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. When the butter has fully melted remove from the heat and whisk in the remaining chocolate ingredients then pour over the mint layer.
- Place in the freezer for about 4 hours until it is fully set.
- Remove about 15 minutes before serving and cut into slices.
Gingerbread Cookies
Cookie Base Ingredients:
- 300 grams of wholemeal flour
- 60 grams of coconut sugar
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 125 grams of honey
- 100 grams of coconut oil
- 1 egg
- Mix all the dry ingredients together.
- Bring the coconut oil and the honey together in a big cup and warm up in the microwave or use warm water to warm the mixture up Au Bain Marie (by putting the cup in the hot water).
- Now add the oil and the honey with the dry mixture. Add the egg as well and knead well until it comes together.
- Wrap the dough in clingy film and put it in the fridge for a few hours. It allows the coconut oil to become solid again, but also for the spices to release their flavors beautifully. You can easily keep it in the fridge for a night and finish the next day.
- When you take the dough out of the fridge, it is ready to be rolled out. Use some flour to dust the kitchen top, your dough, and the rolling pin.
- Roll the dough out until it is about 5 mm thick. While rolling, press your rolling pin gently only, so you don’t press the dough into the kitchen top or cover until it sticks to it. Roll often but gently.
- Stick out your shapes, and put on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
- Bake your gingerbread men for 10 minutes on 180 º Celsius. They need to be slightly soft still when they come out of the oven, they will become harder when they cool down. You don’t want them overcooked because then they are hard and tough to bite through.