Kneading, folding and rolling, anything to keep their little hands busy and energies in one spot, so you can work from home undisturbed (as best you can). Now these recipes will give you pockets of peace as they fold a dumpling, wrap a rice roll, and stuff a tofu skin. The best thing? They're easy to teach- with just a few simple steps, and lovely to enjoy together.
It's quite a show-and-tell with this puffed pastry recipe. But the good thing is, kids pay attention to show-and-tells incredibly well. All you need is store-bought sweet custard balls, and puff pastry. Now, guide them once- place pastries on the baking tray, drop a custard ball into a sheet, cover with another sheet and brush all over with egg wash. Depending on how much you make, they could go on with great fun for hours. Then you'll come back to pop it the oven, and ta-daah! A bursting sweet custard pastry the little elves did all by themselves.
Kids will love creating this rainbow pie. The making part is simply the batter of it, flour, eggs, sugar which you can whip up in minutes. The fun part that they will love is assembling it with all kinds of toppings. Like them choose! Rainbow sprinkles, chocolate drops, condensed milk drizzles, fruit cubes, really, this Indonesian treat is almost like an arts and craft project that's also edible. Get ready for plenty of giggles.
Related recipes: All Indonesian Recipes
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Rolls away with rice paper rounds. But the fun doesn't just come from there, kids will enjoy assembling the rice rolls with vegetable sticks, pieces of meat (or prawns), and tangly glass noodles into a cute roll-up. If you want a crispy crunch, fry the whole thing once it's all assembled, if not, eat as it cold as the Vietnamese do too.
Since jelly cubes and fruits are soft enough, hand your kids a plastic or butter knife and let them dice up the sweet gems. Ask what fruits they would like to use, and include some things that require little to no preparation at all, like raisins and easily-peeled oranges. Have them pick and pop it all into little cups, and leave them be while you finally get some things done. The chilled Fruit Agar Agar, or Fruit Jelly, one of those things that are easy to eat and make.
Stuffing a tofu puff is a fun, mess-free activity for anyone. First you pinch out all the tofu flesh out of its skin, then combine it with some potatoes and have the kids roll it all into a ball and stuff it right back in. Then you'll just need to come back when they're all done and pop it into some hot oil for deep-frying. It's a creamy and tasty snack that they will love getting their hands on.
Folding a wonton really isn't as hard to teach as you might expect- you can first buy store-bought wonton skin (or make from scratch if you like), and go slow with showing how to pleat a wonton skin. Place a juicy prawn in the middle and carefully crinkle the skin, if you're careful with it, they will follow too. You can even award gold stars for being great little helpers while you carry on with work.
Let the kids help in cubing up jellies and putting this classic Filipino dessert all together. The end result is cool sweetness in a cup- oh-so-soft pandan fragrant jelly cubes, drowned in condensed milk and slurpy sago. But let their creativity go wild and add favourite toppings, like chewy nata de coco cubes and velvety vanilla ice-cream. Eat cold, and freeze the bowls ahead for a nice icy touch to the lips on a hot afternoon.
Stuffing sticky rice with bits of banana and wrapping it over with banana leaf, that's what they'll enjoy. Since it's steamed, there's no messy splashing and spilling of oil or water. An easy clean-up for you, a fun activity for them. A popular Thai snack, the Khao Tom Mud is a sweet coconut milk sticky rice with a centre of soft banana, something everyone will enjoy.
The only instructions you'll need to tell the kids- stop eating the filling! The filling is of course, is a pinch of irresistible sweet gula melaka that they'll place into a batter. Let them roll it all into a palm-sized ball, and all you need to do is drop them into a boiling pot in the last step of the recipe. They'll have fun eating it too, the cute little ball bursts with dark brown sweetness in a bite- almost like a jelly-filled donut.
Once you're done with the dough and cooking those potato cubes, bring in your little ones to form the puff pastry. It's taught in four steps- simply roll into a ball, flatten, drop pastry in and fold into a triangle shape. You can even show them how to crinkle the sides, or leave them to experiment with fun ways of sealing the curry puffs. Put out a few ready ingredients like raisins they can mix and match to make their own unique fillings.
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