Little Pizza Chefs

Last week was the first official week of Poppies Daycare doing Stay and Play classes.. and it was just SO much fun!
 On Thursday we opened the barn doors to budding little chefs.. and this week we made scone pizzas. 
I was so impressed with this recipe, it's great for getting the little one's involved and they are just SO YUM, so I thought I would share it with everyone so they can do it at home. 

​YOU WILL NEED: 
For the dough:
500g self-raising flour
250g ricotta cheese
1 egg
3 tablespoons mixed herbs
250ml Milk
Black Pepper

For the topping:
Tomato puree 
Mozzarella cheese
Your little one's favourite toppings! 

1. Preheat the oven to 200C
2. In a bowl mix the ricotta, egg, herbs and milk together
3. Add the flour and season with black pepper 
4. Mix together to form a dough 
5. Turn out and roll onto a lightly floured surface (Ideally 1cm thick)
6. Cut the dough shapes if you wish
7. Spread the tomato puree on your pizza shapes, lots of mozzarella and go crazy with the toppings! 
8. Bake for 25 minutes until the cheese is golden and bubbling​

TOP TIPS: ​

• Let your little one get as involved as possible during these stages: through cooking they are learning and developing skills from all different areas of the Early Years Stages Framework (EYFS): 

- Mathematics: Weighing out ingredients, adding ingredients to the bowls, counting spoonfuls 
- Literacy: Mark making in the flour thats on the table
- Physical Development: Mixing ingredients in the bowl, kneading the dough, rolling & cutting the dough
- Communication & Language: Talk to your child as much as possible when cooking, they will be learning words for new ingredients, smells, textures. 
- Understanding the world: It is so important for children to be educated about food and cooking so that they are able to make healthy choices later in life. When cooking explain where the ingredients come from, whether they grow in the ground or come from an animal. 
- Expressive Arts & Design: The most fun recipes allow the children to use most of their senses:
SIGHT: Seeing the cooking stages and how they change.
SMELL: Discovering new smells of different ingredients
TOUCH: Using their hands to experience the feel of new and different textures
TASTE:Getting to taste their yummy creations! 
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Cooking in a group is great fun, and teaches your child to take turns, respecting the other children. Also by giving them small responsibilities and supporting them through these will build their confidence. 

• I created instruction cards that had numbers on the back, turn them over and it has picture instructions for the children to be more involved, they were able to look at the pictures and tell me the next steps. This also works with shopping list, giving them responsibility and an aim helps with concentration and confidence! 

(If you would like a copy of the images for the recipe I would be more than happy to email them to you: poppiesdaycare@outlook.com) 

• Fussy eaters? I have found that by offering children an option for toppings, they often go for the toppings the parents least expect (mostly vegetables!). When children cook and choose their own meals they are more likely to eat it! 

​HAPPY COOKING! 
(RECIPE FROM ELLAS KITCHEN)