Making animal crackers with Kyla

Kyla and I had fun making animal crackers for our yummy snack the other day. She watched as I put ingredients into my mixer. She even helped me out a bit, too. 

She opened up the honey jar, looked inside and said she wanted a taste of it. She also tasted the dry oatmeal before I ground it up finer in my food processor.

Mmmm...honey is so good!

After all the ingredients were blended well together, we rolled out the dough and began cutting out the animal crackers. Every now and then, Kyla wanted to eat some of the dough. She really liked it, even though it wasn't too sweet. It has no eggs in it and is just sweetened with honey.

The recipe comes from this book that my mom gave to me years ago. Kinder-Krunchies is written by Karen S. Jenkins and illustrated by Donna Austin. Besides being full of healthy snack recipes, I like how each one is illustrated and explained simply for children to understand. Also included are ideas to make the experience of cooking with kids a real educational experience!

Here's the recipe for you to try out:

Animal Crackers

1/2 cup oatmeal

2 teaspoons honey

1/4 plus 1/8 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup butter

4 tablespoons buttermilk

Grind the oatmeal in a blender or food processor until fine. Add the honey, salt, flour and baking soda. Cut in the butter with a fork or pastry blender. Add the buttermilk. Roll the dough very thin. Cut with animal cookie cutters. Bake at 400 degrees until brown (about 10-12 minutes).

We made some fish, cats, hippos, butterflies, teddy bears and even the letter "K" for Kyla.:) They turned out so well and were perfect dipped in the hot chocolate!