Tomorrow is the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Now, don’t ask me what it’s all about because I’m not exactly sure, but since Harry goes to a Jewish preschool it’s an event of note. One of the traditions associated with Shavuot is eating dairy foods. Considering my distaste for cheese and most other dairy products (except ice cream, naturally), this is not one of my favorite holidays–though my mom does make a mean dairy noodle kugel, topped with corn flakes, cinnamon, and brown sugar. (But uch, the smell of the homemade blintzes! When I was a kid my mom made them every year, and oy did that make me gag. As I recall it was a two-day process, too; the first day would be all about making the crepe part, and the next day would be filling with icky cheese, folding, and frying. Gag gag gag.)
Since I’m a bit of a food person, the director of the school invited me to come to class this morning and bake something dairy-based with the kids. I chose Dreamy Cream Scones from the Smitten Kitchen (which is a fantastic site, if you aren’t already a fan). Not the kind of healthy baking you’ll generally see on Words to Eat By: plain white flour, butter, and an entire cup of cream–but in honor of the holiday (and the fact that at most each toddler would eat 1/8th of the recipe) I made an exception.
Each child helped me add ingredients, and each one took a turn cutting in the butter with two forks.
They all got a chance to knead (which they’re quite good at, since every Friday they bake challah together), and then I formed the scones.
While the scones baked and cooled, we made butter! Shockingly simple: Put a clean piece of Lego inside a small container with an air-tight lid (we used the smallest Gladware), pour in a little cream, and shake shake shake.
The homemade butter was as big a hit as the scones. Here’s one of Harry’s classmates licking it right off his Lego.
Sorry this is short and sweet, but it’s time to go pick up junior!