Thursday, October 29, 2009

Teaching Kids To Cook Homemade Candy. A Lost Art.

By Peter Bertonich

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.

You've got to start by teaching kids to cook something that they love to eat. That way they want to cook more. And kids love to eat candy, especially their own homemade candy.

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 once they learn to cook some they'll graduate from candy to bigger things, and they'll have a skill for life.

There's some basic things to remember. And it applies whether they're cooking candy or anything else. Allow plenty of time and expect a mess. That's normal, and part of the learning to cook process for kids. Start them on a simple recipe and start them on simple steps from that recipe, so the hard ones yourself.

And of course you've got to keep them away from heat, so avoid candy, for example, that requires a syrup. Syrup is heated to a high temperature so kids shouldn't be stirring it, for example. No syrup burns.

And another reason to stay away from syrups is that they are a little tricky to get right, you have to heat them to just the right temperature. There are some fantastic simple homemade candy recipes, so start with something like pralines or truffles.

But once you've got the kids cooking confidently there's no end to the wonderful candy recipes you can try. I love toffees, especially chewy toffee variety. Nougat is wonderful as are truffles, there's so many.

Now I'm hungry, got to cook some candy.

But seriously, homemade candy making is a fine way to get the kids to learn, and enjoy, the art of cooking. They're making something they will be guaranteed to love to eat, and they're learning one of life's essential skills.

So get out there and find some hot homemade candy recipes, there's thousands, including lots on my website. It's cheaper to make your own candy and it makes great candy. Get the kids involved, in the future they'll thank you for it.

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