As October sweeps in, painting the landscape in golds and reds and kissing the air with a chill, two things will always be true about me: I will watch Hocus Pocus like it’s a holiday ritual, and I will be baking a lot of autumnal treats. Ever since my kids were tall enough to join me on the toddler kitchen tower, they have been participating in my baking bonanza. Over the years, I have workshopped different ways to let them participate and also experimented with different recipes to adapt them to the dietary needs of friends and family.
Here are 3 fun and easy fall baking recipes to do with your kids, including some variations so that everyone can enjoy them:
Apple Crisp
Apple crisp was a fall staple in my house growing up. Giving due credit to my mom, she dutifully made at least one a week throughout my teen years. It was a rare occurrence to have to go without it. I’ve taken her recipe and adapted it using this incredible formula from Chef Sohla El-Waylly and come up with an apple crisp that’s a hit every time.
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
For the Filling:
- Put everything together in a big bowl and mix it. I always let my kids dump out the measuring spoons after I’ve measured the ingredients. They also love to help with the apple prep. Kids as young as 2 1/2 can use these kid-friendly knives with adult assistance to help you make thin slices. It doesn’t matter what shape the apples come out because they’ll lose shape in the oven anyway.
- Bigger kids can help with the peeling as well. My 3 ½ year old loves to peel (with supervision) and she’s surprisingly good at it!
- They can have fun mixing the whole thing with their hands or use your help to stir it all with a rubber spatula.
For the Topping:
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl using a whisk until well combined. Drop in butter cubes and use your hands to scrunch and break everything up until it’s the consistency of wet sand. This is another great place to have the kids help—provided they’re ok with messy hands!
- To Bake:
- Lightly grease a 9X13 baking pan. Dump in all of the apple mixture and every last drop of juice that came out of it. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the top. Bake at 350°F for 45 min or until the top is golden and the fruit is bubbling up the sides.
Notes
Gluten-Free: You can use your favorite gluten-free flour substitute here with no problem. Just make sure your oats are also gluten-free, as some manufacturers use wheat flour as an anti-sticking agent.
Dairy Free: You could use coconut oil, dairy-free butter, or vegetable shortening in place of the butter.
Try other combinations: El Waylly’s magic ratio lives up to its name and is truly versatile. Read her article to come up with your own spins on this recipe.
Pumpkin Bread
Like a good millennial, I am a lover of all things pumpkin all autumn long. I’ve tried many recipes, but always come back to Deb Perlman’s recipe from Smitten Kitchen as my very favorite. I like mine a little less sweet, so I adjust her sugar amounts. But otherwise, I follow her recipe pretty faithfully. This works great as a side dish to breakfast or a little extra surprise on the side of a school lunch or snack. My favorite part of this recipe is that it uses only one bowl! That’s a win for me because it makes clean-up post-baking with kids pretty painless.
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Combine pumpkin, oil, eggs, and sugar together in a large bowl. Use a whisk to combine fully.
- Kids can help with cracking the eggs and dumping the ingredients. They can also take turns using the whisk to help break up the eggs and then take turns stirring. I use this as an opportunity to practice counting or saying the alphabet, using a metric like “do twenty stirs” or “stir for the whole length of the ABCs” before having them switch turns.
- Sprinkle baking soda, salt, and spices over the top of the mixture and stir thoroughly with the whisk. You can’t over-stir on this step. In fact, under-stirring would be worse. So, let your kids go to town stirring as much as they’d like.
- Sprinkle the flour over the top and fold it in with a spatula. My six-year-old is quick to tell you “fold means you put the spatula at the bottom and flip the mixture over itself over and over til the flour goes away.” Young kids can help with this, but definitely supervise to make sure no dry pockets remain, but that you also don’t over-mix.
- Mix together the topping ingredients using a fork. Kids love to watch the cinnamon disappear into the sugar.
To Bake:
- Line a loaf pan with parchment paper hanging over the sides to create a sling. Dump batter into the pan and give it a few taps to make sure there are no bubbles. Have the kids help you sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture all over the top. Bake at 350°F for 65-75 min or until a toothpick or cake tester poked into several spots around the top of the bread comes out clean.
- Let it cool for at least 10 minutes before lifting it out and slicing it to serve. It will keep for several days at room temperature, but make sure to cover the cut end with foil or plastic and leave the top uncovered to preserve the crust, per Perlman's expert directions.
Notes
Add-ins: You can add a cup of chocolate chips, craisins, sunflower seeds, or nuts (or any combination of the above) if you’d like to break up the flavor or add in some texture.
Vegan: It’s already dairy-free. If you’d like to make it vegan, you can replace the eggs a few different ways:
- Flaxseed Meal: Mix together 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal with 2.5 tbsp water for every egg and let it sit for 5 minutes before adding it in. For this recipe, you’d need 3 tablespoons of flaxseed meal and 7.5 tablespoons of water.
- Applesauce: Mix together ¼ cup of unsweetened applesauce and ½ tsp baking powder per egg, and then add it to the wet ingredients. For this recipe, you’d need ¾ cup of applesauce and 1.5 tsp baking powder.
Ginger & Clove Snickerdoodles
If you aren’t of the apple or pumpkin camps, think about making these easy and cozy cookies from chef Chetna Makan. They’re full of warm spices, and biting into one feels like sipping a nice cup of tea. I add cinnamon to her recipe because I find it rounds out the flavors. Otherwise, I follow her recipe pretty closely.
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
To Make the Finishing Sugar:
- To make the finishing sugar, have your child help you dump the ingredients into a small bowl and help you mix them with a fork. Alternatively, you can put this in a small lidded container and have them shake it up to mix.
To Make the Dough:
- In the large bowl, beat together sugar and butter using an electric mixer on high or a whisk for 2 minutes or until light and creamy. Have your child use a spatula to help you scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add in the egg and beat til combined.
- In a medium bowl, add in the flour, cream of tartar, kosher salt, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and baking soda. Have your child help you whisk it til combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and either beat on medium or mix with a rubber spatula until everything is mixed and no dry spots remain.
To Bake:
- Divide the dough into 12 balls. You can do this by using a #40 cookie scoop (which is great fine motor practice for little hands!). If you don’t have a cookie scoop, you can eyeball making balls that are roughly 2 tablespoons large. Or if you’re precise like me, you can put some paper on your food scale and measure out 1.5oz balls. When I do this, my kids love helping me hit the buttons on the scale to zero it out between balls.
- Have your kids help roll the dough into balls (just like Play-Doh!) and then drop and roll it around in the sugar. My kids really enjoy this part!
- Place on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Fun tip: you can make parchment paper lay flat by crumpling it into a ball and then smoothing it out on the tray. My kids LOVE to do this.
- When placing the cookies, make sure to leave room for them to grow! Bake at 355°F for 10-15 min. They’re done when they’re slightly spread and golden at the edges. Leave them to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then move to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Notes
Vegan: These are already egg-free. You can make them vegan by using a non-dairy butter substitute. I’ve used Earth Balance buttery sticks with success. You could also use solid coconut oil here.
Gluten-Free: I haven’t tried myself to make them gluten-free, but I would recommend using a stronger all-purpose GF flour here because these cookies are delicate to begin with.
Tip: You won’t use all of the finishing sugar. I keep it in an airtight container and use it for future rounds of baking. These are so delicious and easy, I bet you’ll revisit them again!
Wishing you and your tiny sous chefs a cozy fall full of all the warm spices, excellent Halloween cinematic classics, and all the seasonal fruits and veggies that fall has to offer. Happy fall baking!
Thanks for the recipe variations!