Cooking with Kids: Peanut & Apple Butter French Toast Bake

Make Cooking Fun And Educational! Peanut & Apple Butter French Toast Bake

Brunch is Served! This recipe is easy and will help teach our children to cook a meal they can share for a special occasion like a springtime brunch. Serve with a side of fruit (or fruit salad) and you have the makings of a great brunch.

Ingredients:

Peanut & Apple Butter French Toast Bake

7 Eggs
1/2 cup apple butter
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt (optional)
½ loaf (5 1/2 cups )
1-inch organic cinnamon raisin bread
2 cups alternative milk (almond, coconut, cashew)
½ cups of 5 tablespoon peanut butter (optional)

Prep and Directions: Peanut & Apple Butter French Toast Bake

Adult: Help child count and measure out all of the ingredients in advance, this will help adding to the blender that much easier.

Child: Rip bread into 1-inch pieces (we used Ezekiel 7 Sprouted Cinnamon Raisin Bread, but any GFCF, or whole grain variety, sandwich bread will work, too). Use ½ a loaf or about seven slices; enough slices to fill a lightly greased 9×13-inch baking dish quite full.

1. In a blender, mix together: eggs, alternative milk, vanilla, apple butter and cinnamon spice and pinch of salt, mix until well combined. Pour over bread and push down with a spoon or spatula until bread is all soaked and mostly covered.

2. Spoon peanut butter (one tablespoon at a time) and place randomly all over and into bread and egg mixture. NOTE: Peanut butter is optional, you could add raisins or nuts in place of peanut butter…or, a topping of your choice.

Watch our video Natural Peanut Butter HACK: Stirring Made Easy

3. Top with brown sugar, additional cinnamon spice. Let sit for about a half hour before baking. You could also cover and refrigerate overnight then cook in the morning.

4. Adult/Child: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (176 C), bake for 35-45 minutes or golden brown and no longer wet.

5. Serve immediately with real maple syrup, honey or apple butter. Store leftovers in the refrigerator covered up (lasts a couple days).

Eat! Talk! Enjoy!

Language Time Tips:

1. Build vocabulary: Use nouns and actions. Nouns: Bread, eggs, cup, peanut butter, apple butter. Actions: measure, mix, add, stir, pour, spread, heat, serve, and rip.

2. Colors and Size: There are a few colors in this mix: Yellow from the eggs, brown for the peanut butter and brown sugar (although different shades of brown), white for the salt, dark brown for the cinnamon. As you are preparing the ingredients, ask your child, “put the yellow ingredients in the blender”, “put the light brown ingredient in the bowl”, etc. This will assess your child’s receptive language of colors. With all of the ingredients being different sizes/amounts ask your child, “Should we add a small amount, or a large amount, first?”? What is smaller, the eggs or the bread?”

3. Comment and Describe: Encourage words “sweet”, “warm”, “thick” and “smooth”. Let your child taste each ingredient of the recipe and discuss the flavors. The cinnamon can be sweet; the salt may be difficult to describe, but try. This use of commenting can help your child communicate better with regards to requesting specific foods at meals such as saying, “I want a crunchy food” (tortilla), “I want a soft food” (yogurt), for example.

4. Sequencing and recalling information: There are definite steps to this recipe but certain ingredients can be mixed into the blender in no specific order. For example, the milk can go into the blender before the eggs, and the sugar can go in before the cinnamon, for example. They can be mixed in any order. After you are done with the steps to making this yummy recipe, ask your child what you did first, next, etc. Discuss what would happen if you were to do these steps out of order?

5. Answering and asking “wh” questions: Sample “wh” questions include: Sample “wh” questions include, ““What is this French toast bake for?” “What food groups are in this recipe (fruit, dairy, spice/ seasoning, etc…)?” “What makes this taste so good?”, “Why do we let the mix sit in the refrigerator overnight”, or, “Why do we place the peanut butter in different places?”

Literacy! Try a fun syllable activity by counting how many syllables are in each ingredient. What ingredient has the most syllables? How about the least amount of syllables?

Encourage Speech & Create Yum With These Recipes for Cooking With Kids

https://www.parentingspecialneeds.org/article/cooking-chocolate-caramel-apple-cookies/

https://www.parentingspecialneeds.org/article/foodie-fun-for-kids-scary-apple-faces/

https://www.parentingspecialneeds.org/article/palforzia-exciting-new-hope/

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This post originally appeared on our March/April 2017 Magazine

Cooking with Kids: Peanut & Apple Butter French Toast Bake

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