A girl has kneads (and ginger snaps)

When you’re a single mum who’s working full time and blogging daily, something’s gotta give.

In my case it’s been cooking.

As long-time blog followers might remember, I was quite prolific in the kitchen. And I loved it.

At one point I was even writing food blogs for Kidspot – some of my recipes still pop up on the site’s Facebook page, especially around Halloween (remember my Band-Aid bikkies?).

Each week was filled with recipe experimentation, spurred at one point by weird and wonderful deliveries from Farmers’ Direct.

These days, not so much.

I usually stick to the classics: homemade fish and chips, chicken noodle soup, chorizo and avocado pasta …

But it looks like the youngest might be following in my foodie footsteps. She pottered around the veggie patch last week then whipped up a mixed herb pesto to have on her ravioli for dinner.

She was given a Dymocks voucher for Christmas and spent it on a cookbook: a giant tome called “Baking Wholesome Sweets & Treats.”

Yesterday, we finally cracked it open and tried a few recipes. Her first choice was challah: a braided Jewish bread eaten on special holidays. Quite fitting considering it’s Pesach this weekend.

She patiently kneaded the dough and was delighted to watch it rise.

While we waited we whipped up a batch of delicious ginger biscuits and turned some old bananas in the fruit bowl into milo and banana muffins.

Then we invited her dad over to try everything for afternoon tea.

And a fun time was had by all, though the clean up was a bitch.

Here’s our version of the ginger bikkie recipe:

RECIPE: Gingersnaps

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1 tablespoon of ground ginger

1 tsp mixed spice

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup golden syrup

METHOD: Preheat oven to 180C. Line a tray with baking paper. Beat the butter, sugar and golden syrup until creamy. Add the flour and spices. Mix until just combined. Roll into 12 balls and place on the tray. Flatten slightly with a fork. Bake for 15 minutes, rotating the tray at the halfway mark to ensure even baking. Cool the cookies on the tray for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.