Learning while baking chocolate brownies

The other day we helped James to do some baking and he absolutely loved it! It combined two of his favourite things, food and doing things together.

Baking sessions like this provide a great opportunity to have fun, get some screen downtime, get messy (!) and spend quality time together, all great objectives to achieve!

We learned some great lessons along the way too, but more about that later!

Once we had gathered all of the ingredients, James was fascinated as we mixed them together, initially in different bowls.

The first thing we did was to mix the melted butter and eggs together, James did this carefully and needed to be closely supported as the melted butter was still hot.

Then next stage was to add the butter and eggs to the rest of the ingredients, including flour, sugar, and chocolate (along with chocolate chips and chunks of chocolate.

Once everything was mixed thoroughly, it was time to spread the brownie mixture out in the baking tray (note: Dad chose a baking tray that was too big so the brownies were a bit ‘thin’, lesson learned for next time!)

Now it was time to put the brownie tray in the oven. James watched, but it was Dad’s job to turn the oven on and put the brownie tray in when it was ready as the oven is ‘hot, hot, hot!’

Once all the work was done it was time to relax and enjoy one of the best bits of baking, licking the bowl and spoon clean!

Once the brownies had cooked, they needed to cool down before they could be eaten… this seemed to take ages! But eventually they were ready, and could be enjoyed on their own or with some delicious ice cream!

As well as having fun making the chocolate brownies, what else did we learn from this activity:

• It’s great to do things together; we both enjoyed spending time with each other making the brownies, and making memories too!
• The ingredients were no good on their own, they needed to be mixed together and all of them were essential. It’s a great metaphor for inclusion!
• It is important to follow instructions; Dad chose a baking tray that was too big so the brownies were too thin (still delicious though!)
• We both had tasks to do, James did some of them (stirring the ingredients, spreading out the mix etc.) and Dad did others (working the oven, cutting up the brownies). Together we could do the jobs quicker than on our own.
• There were unexpected delights along the way (James enjoyed licking the bowl and spoon), another great metaphor for inclusion!
• You get messy making chocolate brownies; giving James a white t-shirt to wear was an error! An apron will be ordered for next time!
• Sometimes, even though you don’t want to, you have to wait. And it’s worth it!
• Nothing is as good as chocolate brownies!

We’ll be trying another baking recipe soon, learning some lessons from our baking fun today, probably learning new lessons too, but most of all having loads of fun together! Look out for how we get on.

Mark Arnold, Director of Additional Needs Ministry at Urban Saints. Arnold blogs at The Additional Needs Blogfather. This article was re-published with permission.