Baking Cookies With Mommy

Last Monday, Nick and I decided to make peanut butter cookies. Perhaps I should amend that. On Monday, I decided that Nick needed something constructive to do, so I asked him if he wanted to help me make peanut butter cookies. (Also, I had a raging craving for some chewy cookies.) Nick's answer, of course, was a resounding "Yes!"

I got the recipe from here, but I omitted the peanuts, used white whole wheat flour instead of all purpose,  and added a little extra vanilla. My mother-in-law brought me some gourmet vanilla from her cruise, and I decided an extra couple of drops would add flavor to these yummy cookies.

When I say that Nick helped me, you're probably wondering how much help a two-year-old can actually provide. First, let me say that having Nick help made the cookie-baking process take twice as long. It also created twice as much mess. But it was easily five times as fun!

Nick actually helped for real. I measured, but I let him add in each scoop of flour and many of the other ingredients. Then, he got to turn the dial on my mixer, and use the spatula to help scrape the sides. He also managed to get quite a bit of flour all over himself. Nick's favorite part? Licking the dough off of everything.*  Honestly, that's my favorite part, too.  :)

I even let Nick try to help me roll the cookies into balls. He loved it, since he's done this with Play Doh before. He wasn't terribly successful, though. But Nick is at this stage where he wants to help with literally everything. So I've been trying to let him, even though it is far messier and more time consuming to let him help.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Nick was very good at helping press the fork into the cookies. I do a crisscross pattern with a fork, in the traditional way.

The cookies turned out exactly right, chewy and delicious, but not too sweet. I've been pretty good lately about only having one or two cookies. Nick always prefers at least two cookies.
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
*Please don't worry. I know it is bad to eat uncooked dough if it has egg in it, but we just can't give up this yummy habit. So my solution is to add everything but the egg, then taste the dough on the spinny things. (What are those called anyway? The metal spinny things on a mixer. Nick is licking one in the picture above. I can't think of the name. Pregnancy brain rears its ugly head.) Finally, I add the egg and mix with a spoon that I, unfortunately, just put in the sink. It's a waste of yummy cookie dough, but we're not taking any chances.