Titillating Tuesday

Celebrating Easter with the Five Senses

I mentioned in my St Patrick's Day post that I am developing traditions around seasonal celebrations. The traditions that I want to put in place have to be meaningful and something that we all look forward to.

Our Easter celebration traditions would have to include Hot Cross Buns. This year I have picked Good Friday as the day we make our own Hot Cross Buns.

 

We started in the morning and by afternoon tea time we had fresh Hot Cross Buns straight from the oven. Oh and the added bonus...that delicious smell of the buns baking wafting through the house!

How does the Triple T Mum cook with the kids? Well, the teenager disappeared to a friends and the twins were quite happy to do their thing in the living room. There were a couple of times that I had to separate Ooffa from Strawberry. My strategy is to take Ooffa all the way to the end of the hallway and leave him there. By the time he makes his way back down to the living room he's forgotten all about Strawberry and something else has taken his interest.

Chook was keen to get cooking with mum and was very proud of his efforts too! He was beaming in the afternoon telling Gamer that he had been cooking.

Cooking with a toddler, a nearly toddler and a crawler takes preparation. First of all I got everything ready. Recipe, all the ingredients and utensils were all laid out on the kitchen bench.

Then Chook and I washed our hands.

Put on our aprons.

We then put all our ingredients into the bread tin. Chook explored his senses during this stage. He talked about the ingredients smelling nice. He tasted some of them and he had a quick touch before Mummy could stop him! In the photos he is looking as he carefully pours in the water and scoops out the flour.

 

We put the bread bin into the bread maker. I lined the bin up with the catches and Chook pushed it down until it clicked in. (Hearing)

Chook pushed the button until the little red light got to the 'Dough' setting, which I had shown him. (Sight)

It took one hour and a half to knead and rise. After this time I took it out split the dough into 16 small balls and placed them into two baking trays. Chook had gone to the park with his Daddy at this stage. I placed the trays in a warm spot and left them to rise, which was basically all nap time.

I was going to take photos of Chook drawing the crosses on the top of the buns with the flour and sugar water paste, but I made the paste too sloppy and it was running everywhere! Note to self: Don't add too much sugar water!

We popped the buns into the oven and waited expectantly for 15 minutes. During this time Chook wanted to see the buns. So we popped the oven light on for him so he could watch them cook. We talked about the oven being hot and we discussed the lovely smell coming from the oven. (Touch, Sight and Smell)

We checked to see if they were cooked by tapping the top of the buns to hear the hollow sound that indicates they are cooked. (Hearing)

Eyeing off the rest of the Hot Cross Buns!

Yum!