Teach Your Kids To Cook. Make Homemade Candy.

November 1, 2009 by Peter Clark  
Filed under Gardening

A skill that we seem to be losing in our society is cooking. Proper homemade cooking, the type grandma used to do. Homemade cooking should be taught to all kids, and it’s up to you as a parent to do so. And start your kids with homemade candy.

If you want to teach kids to cook successfully you’ve got to get them cooking something they love to eat. All kids love to eat candy. So teach them how to make great homemade candy and they’ll be back to cook, and eat, more.

Last night I did some great cooking with my kids who are 8 and 11, and I can’t still see their faces as they licked out the bowl. Kids love cooking something that is easy to cook and yummy to eat. Homemade candy is both easy to cook and yummy to eat.

And if they learn to love cooking they’ll have a skill they’ll appreciate for the rest of their lives. And they graduate from cooking candy pretty fast.

Remember some basic rules. There is always mess and it always takes longer than you’d expect, at least at the start. Start the kids on a simple candy recipe. There are some wonderful simple homemade candy recipes that are simple for kids to cook. Start them on the easiest bit of the recipe.

And follow some basic rules for safety too. At the start keep the kids away from heat. So if you’re cooking a homemade candy recipe for example, you should always keep them away from hot stuff like syrup. Syrup is heated to a high temperature, so start with something else. No syrup burns for kids.

There’s some wonderful simple homemade candy recipes to begin with. I already mentioned syrup. I’ve suggest keeping away from making any candy that starts with a syrup to begin with. Many candies need a syrup, and getting the temperature right can be tricky, and a little boring for kids. So start with some simple candy recipes first. Pralines and truffles would be a good start.

But once you’re all up to skill there’s no end to the homemade candy recipes you can try. Truffles, nougats, chocolate anythings, toffees, the list goes on and on. Oh and if you try toffee make sure you do chewy toffee, it’s absolutely the best toffee ever.

There you go I’m hungry now.

But seriously making homemade candy is a wonderful way to teach the kids to cook and teach them to love cooking too. They’re learning an essential life skill and enjoying it at the same time.

So find yourself some simple homemade candy recipes, there’s some on my website, and get the kids into the kitchen. As well as getting lots of homemade candy to eat, they’ll thank you for it in later years, just like I thank my mom for the same thing.

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