One of the most common questions I get from parents is about treats for their baby. The truth is that treats are driven more by us as adults than a need by the child – but by starting them, there is an expectation to continue. For me a treat is a birthday party and special occasions, but not a daily occasion. This brings me to the question about biscuits. In the UK I find a lot of nurseries and schools still provide quite sugary biscuits (and even cakes) as snacks. It is really beyond me, why this can not be changed to just fruit/fresh vegetables. In any case, I therefore set myself a challenge to work on a biscuit recipe that parents could use from 8 months of age. The reason I put 8 months is just to ensure that the baby has got the oral motor skills to manage it, so if your child is one of the more advanced baby lead “weaners”, then this could be consumed earlier, on the other hand, if your child’s oral motor skills are not quite there, then you may need to wait. Also note, this biscuit is NOT supposed to be sweet like the biscuits we eat, it just has the tinge of sweetness from the fruit added.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of flour (you can easily use 1/2 cup of flour + 1/2 cup of nut flour if you are introducing nuts early as per new guidelines – speak to your healthcare professional)
- 50 g of butter (I use unsalted butter)
- 1/4 of a grated apple – this is where it becomes exiting, I just grated apple using a very fine grate (with the skin), but you could use pear, mashed banana and many other fruit. Depending on the moisture content of the fruit you may need to grate more or sometimes less
- 2 Tables spoons of skimmed milk powder
- Tip of a knife of vanilla powder – you can replace this with cinnamon or other spices that your toddler may like
Method:
- Heat oven to 180C
- Rub cold butter into flour mixture
- Grate in fruit – start with a small amount and feel with your fingers the density of the dough, it needs to end up like a pastry density
- Add the vanilla or other spices
- Leave in fridge for 30 min
- Roll in small finger sized biscuits (so that your to Toddler can hold them)
- Bake for 15 min – they keep for a good 2 weeks in a tin
