Especially For Kids -- Peanut Butter Balls

Teaching children to cook is not my forte.  There's just something about hot ovens and kitchen knives that makes me cringe just the teeniest bit inside at the thought of letting small children into the kitchen to do... well, anything.  My mother was an amazing teacher, though she's humble enough that I doubt that she would say so.  She had us in the kitchen from the time that we were very young, perched on top of chairs, draped in over-sized aprons, doing age-appropriate bits of cooking like grating cheese or opening cans of kidney beans.  By the time I was nine, I had a small repertoire of meals that I could make all by myself such as homemade mac & cheese, Mexican casserole, and French Toast.  (Along with the requisite and much larger repertoire of baked goods.  I made a mean peanut butter cookie back in the day.)   I look back on that in wonder because I've been such a foot-dragger about teaching my own children to cook.  Part of that is as I said above--fear of accidents, and part of that is just a time issue.  Most days it seems hard enough to get food on the table at all without adding another 20 minutes or so to the prep time because you have a child in the kitchen learning to chop onions without cutting his or her fingers off.

Over the years, though, I've collected quite a few recipes that are good for introductions to cooking--age appropriate skills combined occasionally with something more challenging.  Peanut Butter Balls (sometimes called Peanut Butter Playdough) is one of those recipes.  There are many things going for it.  First, and most importantly,  there are no safety issues here--no stoves, no knives, no mini-appliances with blades or beaters.  This means that older elementary school aged children can make this recipe almost entirely without help, which increases confidence in their cooking skills.  Second, it teaches a few valuable skills like measuring out sticky ingredients, using a rubber spatula, and kneading.  Kneading is a very valuable skill if you ever going to make yeast bread, and unlike with some bread doughs, it is pretty obvious if you haven't kneaded your peanut butter dough well enough.  So this recipe is very helpful in teaching persistence, patience, and kneading your dough until it is actually done.  Finally, the balls just taste great.  At a scout function a while back, my youngest son brought some peanut butter balls that he had made himself to contribute to the refreshment table.  It was the adult men who ate most of them while fondly reminiscing about having these in preschool or kindergarten.  They really are that good.

My youngest daughter is the one holding the plate in the picture.  She wanted to show them off on my blog, but she didn't want to actually be in the picture.  What a cutie.  She made these on a whim last weekend, and the whole plateful had disappeared by the end of the day.  Good thing that we snapped a picture when we did. 

Peanut Butter Balls -- Yield:  A salad plate sized pile. 
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 1/4 cups powdered milk
1 cup peanut butter (creamy works best)
1 cup corn syrup (Honey can also work in a pinch, but it changes the flavor a bit.)

Mix together dry ingredients in a large bowl until thoroughly combined.  Add the peanut butter and corn syrup, and mix the dough the best that you can with a heavy spoon.  (I have a really large wooden spoon that works great for this.)  Turn the dough out onto the counter that's been lightly sprinkled with a bit of either powdered sugar or powdered milk, and knead the dough until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated and the dough is slightly shiny (some of the oil from the peanut butter will separate).  Break off heaping tablespoon sized chunks and roll them up into balls.  If desired, finished balls can be rolled in powdered sugar, powdered cocoa, sprinkles, etc.  The dough can also be used as an edible playdough for small children to play with.