When launching into homeschooling, I initially found myself feeling overwhelmed and bogged down with the hows and what-ifs. That’s not to say I feel totally calm now. We are very much still at the beginning, taking each day as it comes.
Jump to RecipeWhile we don’t have a set plan, our son does like a little structure. He likes to have an idea of what he is doing and when he will be doing it.
With a keen interest in both cooking and baking, these are activities that will feature regularly for him. Not only will he be learning valuable life skills, but these hands-on tasks will also bring in other subjects, such as maths and science.
Recipes themselves are an opportunity to practise maths skills, such as weighing and measuring, scaling quantities up or down, and working with different units of measurement. Ingredients also provide a visual guide to what different weights and quantities actually look like.
Science comes into play when we look at how different ingredients behave: baking powder and bread soda as raising agents, egg whites increasing in volume, and the impact of heat on solids and liquids.
Then, of course, we have literacy. It is important to be able to read and understand a recipe before creating the dish.
In my opinion, the importance of these life skills cannot be underestimated. They use all of our senses, engage our fine motor skills and help to build confidence. These are valuable skills for all young people, not only those who are homeschooled.
The first baking venture we undertook was one of our son’s absolute favourite treats, brownies. A lovely treat that worked really well for him.
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat the oven to 170°C (fan). Line a 20cm baking tin with parchment paper.
- Place the dark chocolate and butter into a small heat-proof bowl and melt together over a pan of water. Leave aside to cool.
- Put the eggs and brown sugar into the bowl of your free-standing mixer. Whisk until light in colour and doubled in volume. We used the paddle/K beater for this.
- Add the melted butter and chocolate to the egg mixture and whisk again, just enough to combine.
- Sift the flour and cocoa powder together into a large mixing bowl. Then add this to the wet mixture, followed by the chocolate chips.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet either with a spatula or using your mixer on a low setting (this is how we do it).
- Pour the batter into the tin, spread it out and bake in the preheated oven for 25-35 minutes. Ovens vary, so check after 25 minutes. When the sides of the brownies are set and there is a slight wobble in the centre, they are baked.
- Allow the brownie slab to cool completely in the tin. We often add them to the fridge for an hour when they are cooled just to make cutting them even easier.
- Once ready to cut, remove from the tin in one piece, score and cut into 12 servings.
- Store your brownies in an airtight container for up to five days. If your kitchen is very hot, keep them in the fridge. These brownies also freeze very well.
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