One of my fondest childhood memories was time in the kitchen with my Mum. She used to make these awesome homemade steamed Chinese pork buns and let us have a go, working with the dough and filling. I almost forgot how powerful those moments were; until in a recent birthday interview, one of my sons said his favourite thing to do with Mummy was to make pancakes. Aww – made my heart melt… (and I have a recording of it, yay!)

 

This fail-proof brownie recipe is just as easy as making pancakes. All the ingredients are usually in our kitchen, and my kids may possibly love making these brownies even more than pancakes, (brownies are a treat, so we don’t make it as often as we make pancakes). Whenever I’m after a kids activity that’s guaranteed to have everyone smiling, baking brownies are it!

 
I’m delighted to be sharing this recipe as part of the 100 Days of Play Blog Hop co-hosted by Sun Scholars and Life at the Zoo. It combines 100 blogs from around the world and 100 days to showcase simple ways to play.

Brownies Recipe:

Ingredients:

150 g dark chocolate chunks
100 g butter
2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup walnuts (I usually don’t include these, but they are yummy!)
20cm x 20 cm baking tin

Method:

Preheat oven to 185C.
In a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, melt chocolate & butter until smooth. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, beat eggs and sugar.
Add vanilla essence.
Sift flour & baking powder into egg mixture.
Add walnuts & mix lightly to combine.
Fold in chocolate mixture.
Pour mixture into lightly greased tin or tin lined with baking paper. (Clean your mixing bowl, as you would/should).

 
Bake in the oven for 25-35 minutes.
Let the brownies cool in the tin, before cutting into squares.
Sprinkle brownies with icing sugar.

 
Serve / devour.

100 Days of Play is brought to you by these wonderful bloggers:
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The post Brownies: 100 Days of Play by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

We knock up a batch of our pancakes more as a tea-time treat, especially on rainy days.

This pancakes recipe makes delicious dense pancakes; almost crepe like. If you’re after fluffy pancakes, this pancakes recipe is not the one to try.

I love this pancakes recipe because it produces a texture that fairs well as finger food for younger children. (Less fluffy crumbs to clean up? Huzzah!)

Our favourite family pancakes recipe

Serves: 8 (we may as well make as many as we can as we can freeze the leftovers for another time).

Ingredients: 500g plain flour; 6 eggs; 2 tbsp oil; 1L milk; 2 pinches of salt

Method:

• Place all the ingredients except the milk in a large bowl and mix till blended.
• Slowly add milk and continue stirring. The texture of the pancake batter should be smooth and runny.
• Melt some oil or butter in a small pan. Get the pan really hot before pouring the batter in.
• Pour some batter into the pan and tilt the pan around until it is covered with the pancake batter.
• Once the batter is in the pan, turn the heat down to medium.
• Cook the pancake over a moderate heat until you can see the top of the pancake is just setting, then flip it over and cook the second side for about 30 seconds.
• Serve with your favourite topping. We love maple syrup. You could also try lemon and sugar, melted chocolate or some fruit.

 N&M: 4 years, 1 month
E: 2 years
July 2012

The post Pancakes Recipe by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.