Great kids’ Easter recipes

 

One of the great things about our holiday cottages is that many of them have a fully equipped kitchen for you to use while you’re staying there. That means you can enjoy all the comforts of home and have a little baking fun with the kids if you feel like it.

It’s raining here today and that made us think about how to keep the kids amused if you were in a holiday cottage right now. There are usually TV, DVDs, board games and books, but we wanted to come up with something a little more interactive. That’s when we thought of cooking.

We all cook with our kids and there’s no reason why you can’t so that while you’re on holiday, so here we are. Here are a couple of good tried and tested Easter recipes you can enjoy while in one of our holiday lets!

Easter Chick Marshmallow Lollies

Ingredients

  • 6-8 Marshmallows
  • 65g Yellow Wilton Candy Melts
  • 65g White frosting
  • Yellow food colouring
  • 3-4 Fruit gum sweets
  • 85g Desiccated coconut
  • Large plastic food bag
  • Brown M&M's or Smarties
  • 6-8 lollipop sticks

Instructions

  1. Heat the candy melts until melted.
  2. Insert the lollipop stick in each marshmallow and dip and roll marshmallows in the melted chocolate. Cover the marshmallow completely and allow to cool.
  3. Mix the white frosting with 1-2 drops of yellow food colouring and mix well. Set aside.
  4. Add the coconut to the freezer bag and add 1-2 drops of yellow food colouring. Close the bag and shake until the coconut is yellow. Set aside.
  5. Cut the fruit gum sweets into small triangles for the beak.
  6. Use a small spatula and coat each marshmallow with frosting. Place two small brown M&M's or Smarties for the eyes and 1 gum triangle for the beak. Then, dip into the coconut and cover completely.
  7. Repeat the process with the other marshmallows!

Hot cross buns

Ingredients

  • 300ml full-fat milk, plus 2 tbsp more
  • 50g butter
  • 500g strong bread flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 75g caster sugar
  • 1 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 7g sachet fast-action or easy-blend yeast
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 75g sultanas
  • 50g mixed peel
  • zest 1 orange
  • 1 apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon

For the cross

  • 75g plain flour

For the glaze

  • 3 tbsp apricot jam

Instructions

  1. Bring the milk to the boil, remove from the heat and add the butter. Leave to cool until it reaches room temperature.
  2. Put the flour, salt, sugar and yeast into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour in the warm milk and butter mixture, then add the egg. Mix well until you have a sticky dough.
  3. Tip on to a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with oiled cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for and hour or until doubled in size.
  4. Tip fruit and cinnamon into the bowl with the dough and knead until everything is well distributed. Cover and leave to rise again for an hour or until doubled in size.
  5. Divide the dough into 15 pieces and mould each one into a smooth ball with your hands. Arrange the buns on one or two baking trays lined with baking parchment leaving enough space for the dough to expand. Cover with a clean tea towel and set aside to prove for a final hour.
  6. Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7.
  7. Mix the cross flour with about 5 tbsp water to make a paste. Pipe a line along each row of buns, then repeat in the other direction to create crosses.
  8. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
  9. Gently heat the apricot jam until melted and sieve to get rid of any chunks. While the jam is still warm, brush over the top of the warm buns and leave to cool.

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