It’s been a while since I posted any recipes for cooking with children on the blog, we have still been baking but we do tend to repeat the same recipes over and over. Lots of my normal recipes can be cooked by little ones with assistance from an adult and/or slight adaptations to the recipes.

This recipe would be easily made by children from about 4/5 years plus with a little help. My 4 year old who was just getting over a few days of a really bad chest and feeling very sorry for herself completed most steps of this recipe – I explained what to do and she found her way quite quickly. We had such a fun morning baking and messing about in the kitchen together. After we made this I taught her how to make a peanut butter and banana sandwich and she thought she was so grown up. Her spreading and chopping skills have definitely improved since we last did this.

Our youngest daughter, Chloe is dairy, gluten and soya free so we made these so she would be able to enjoy them also. We still bake cakes and biscuits that contain regular flour and dairy products but not when Chloe is around and we have to ensure everything is thoroughly cleaned afterwards due to cross contamination issues. I shared these with extended family ( my sister also has a gluten intolerance ) and two of my siblings pointed out that they wouldn’t have known they were free from these ingredients if I hadn’t said. Its important to use a good quality coconut oil for this as it really makes a difference to the flavour. This recipe makes about 40 cookies – I like to make them in bulk and I find they freeze ok although between sharing them out with family and friends they don’t tend to last that long!

Dairy, Soya and Gluten Free Jam & Coconut Thumbprint Cookies

You will need:

300g Gluten Free Self Raising Flour
300g Golden Caster Sugar
200g Shredded/Dessicated coconut
200g Melted Coconut Oil ( I used Vita Coco )
2 Beaten Eggs
Approx 100g jam of your choice – (most jams are free from dairy, soya and gluten free but always check if making for someone with an allergy )
Greaseproof/baking parchment – don’t try to make this without it as its a sticky mix

Preheat your oven to 180c.

Grease and line several baking trays – depending on the size of your oven you may need to make these in batches. Melt your coconut oil and add to all of your other ingredients aside from the jam and mix well. Now using approximately a teaspoon of the mixture roll into balls between your palms and place the balls on the baking parchment spaced about two inches or so part – now using the base of your palm squish the balls so they are flat circles.

Using your thumb ( a childs thumb is the perfect size ) press lightly so there is a dent but not a hole and fill each space with a small amount of your jam – try not to overfill. Bake for approximately 8-10 minutes until the edges are golden brown but the centre is still pale. Place the parchment on a cooling rack. Leave on the parchment for a few minutes as they are much easier to remove. They are amazing when eaten slightly warm but make sure the jam isn’t too hot. We didn’t fill every cookie with jam as we decided to leave some plain to make them more dunkable!

These would be great for a children’s birthday party where they have allergies or someone who has allergies is attending. The quality of the photos isn’t brilliant here as I was too involved with her having fun but she really wanted pics at the end of the biscuits she had made and told EVERYBODY about the new skills she had learnt of rolling the dough and using her thumb to make a dent. These certainly aren’t just for the kids, the chewy coconut cookie along with the little burst of sweet jam is deliciously tasty or as Izzy would say yumscriddlyumptious for everyone.

Try these Oaty Thumbprint Cookies from My Fussy Eater which are also dairy, gluten and soya free or perhaps these Mini Lemon and Almond Coconut Cakes? and these Chocolate Puffs look pretty good too!