Simple shortbread biscuits

It was another rainy weekend in London and so I decided to do some baking with my five year old while his younger sister napped. In the past, he has helped me add and mix ingredients, roll out dough or cut out shapes but this time I decided he was old enough to do it all by himself, with my supervision of course! I picked a very easy recipe from my Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book - shortbread biscuits. There are only three ingredients! Here's what we (mostly he!) did.

Ingredients:

• 175g plain flour (I used a mix of whole wheat and white)
• 75g light muscovado sugar
• 100g butter

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C (325F). Grease two baking sheets.

Combine the flour and sugar in a bowl. Roughly chop the butter and rub in to the flour/sugar mixture until a soft dough starts to form.

Once mixture is coming together, knead it into a soft dough, pliable enough to roll out. (I needed to add a tiny bit more butter due to the heavier whole wheat flour I had used).

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4in. / 5mm thick, Cut out shapes, place onto greased baking sheets and prick with a fork. Sprinkle over a little sugar on top and bake for 10-15 mins (depending on size of your biscuits) until golden.

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 My son loved the 'rubbing in' and kneading. He has always liked getting his hands messy in play dough, paint, water, slime or any kind of 'messy play' so getting messy while baking was a lot of fun for him!

 

A perfect treat for a rainy afternoon! Lovely with a cup of tea for mummy and daddy too!

My son felt rather proud of himself for having made the biscuits almost entirely by himself and I am encouraged to find more things he can easily make - and not just sweet treats!

Do you have any favourite recipes that are ideal for little people to make?