CURRANT BUNS - makes 12 big ones

Time - 2 hours including time off for play while the buns rise



I love cooking buns! Soft, warm, sticky, sweet smelling! Eat them as soon as they come out of the oven ...

Here's grandma's bit -

Collect:

• mixing bowl
• measuring jug
• kitchen scales
• table knife (not sharp!)
• baking tray
• kitchen bin liner
• aprons (one for you and one each for the little ones)

Look in your store cupboard (more on this later) and find:

• Plain flour - white makes the lightest, but you can use wholemeal or half and half.
• Sugar - white, brown, whatever - just not lumps!
• Yeast - the fast-acting type in a sachet
• Vegetable oil - sunflower or other vegetable oil
• Currants - or sultanas or raisins, whatever you've got handy
• Milk

Now call in the little ones to sit around the kitchen table, or stand on chairs beside the worktop and let's get started.

First things first - run a bowl of hot soapy water in the kitchen sink, the right temperature for the little ones' hands. This is part of the clean-as-you-go process - remember, we're starting good habits here.

Weigh out 450g flour into mixing bowl. Depending on the age of the little ones, they can help with this - either pouring or reading off the scales. Don't fuss now - this is likely to be very messy and that's part of the fun! You'll be showing them how to clean up at the end, so let it be!

Next add 100g sugar and the contents of one yeast sachet. Little ones stir it all together.

Now for the wet bit. Grandma needs to boil some water. Pour 100ml boiling water into measuring jug. Add 150ml cold water - that should make the temperature just about right for rising the dough and safe for the little ones to use.

Pour into dry mix. Add 100ml of vegetable oil. Stir it with the knife till it comes together into a ball. Tip out of the mixing bowl onto the table and put the mixing bowl into the soapy water to soak.

This is where you get stuck in with your hands! Divide the ball of dough out between you - one for you, one for each little one. Now you knead it. Squidge it, squeeze it, splodge it on the table, roll it back into a ball, then press it around some more.

When it's looking nice and shiny, pick it up and slam it down on the table. Bang!

Then press it out flat like a thick pizza base. Next bring the sides to the middle and fold the top down and the bottom up, like a parcel. Turn it over and slam it back down on the table! Bang!

You get to do this as many times as you like but at least 5 times! Should be lots of laughter here - and if the dough goes on the floor, just dust it off, pick off any yucky bits, and keep going (remember you have to eat a pound of dirt before you die).

When you've had enough of the noise, it's time to add the currants. So spread out the dough balls into pizza shapes again. Sprinkle a layer of currants over the dough - depending on how much you have or how much you like you could use 75g or 150g. I generally use 75g.

Next fold the "pizza" in half, and then in half again so you have a quarter circle (opportunity for teaching geometry here - but keep it light). Roll it around to a sausage shape and cut the sausages up so you have 12 pieces in total (if there's just 2 of you, you cut each person's dough into 6 - another teaching opportunity).

Now roll the pieces into balls. Time now to prepare the baking tray. If you have a non-stick tray you'll not need to do this bit. Pour about a teaspoon of cooking oil on the tray and get the little ones to paint it around with the pastry brush, making sure they spread it evenly.

Put the buns on the tray. 4 rows of 3 buns each. There'll be lots of room between them, to give them room to rise. Make sure the little ones see how small they are.

The buns need to be covered while they rise, otherwise they go all hard and nasty. So this is where you need the kitchen bin liner. Slide the baking tray of buns into the plastic liner and either blow into it like a balloon to inflate it or flap it about to catch some air, then twist the end really tight into a rope and tie it into a knot. You'll see the bag doesn't touch the buns.

Put the tray somewhere warm - on a warm window sill, or near the cooker, or in the airing cupboard.

Now there's some soapy water waiting ... get the little ones to wash up and wipe down the worktop (it's not very messy but will be a bit oily from the dough). If the floor is a bit floury, they can discover what to do with a dustpan and brush!

Then set the timer for 1 hour 30 minutes and send them off to play.

When the timer rings, turn the oven on to Mk 6, 425F, 220C. While it's warming up, call in the little ones to see how the buns have risen - they should be quite a lot bigger! Maybe nearly touching each other on the tray. Grandma gets to put them in the oven and set the timer for 15 minutes.

Little ones get to mix 50ml cold milk with 20g sugar and stir - this will be the glaze. When the pinger goes, check to see the buns are nicely brown. If not, give them 5 minutes more. Take them out of the oven (remembering to use oven gloves of course). This is a hot bit so Grandma should use the pastry brush to paint glaze over the buns twice. Drain off the excess glaze into the sink (otherwise the bottoms of the buns go soggy), and put them back in the oven for 5 minutes.

When they are ready - let them cool on the tray and get the little ones to lay the table for tea.

Plates, knives, butter, honey perhaps. Glasses, milk, juice. Tea or coffee for Grandma.

And run another bowl of hot soapy water - ready for soaking the baking tray while it's still warm and easier to clean. Trust me on this. Leave it to soak while you eat!

Now - sit at the table and enjoy the fruits of your labour! Watch those buns disappear fast!

My mum taught me to cook - I grew up loving the smell of home baking and there was nothing better than being allowed to lick the bowl clean afterwards. So I spent a lot of time with my own children in the kitchen when they were small - mainly playing, making a mess, cooking up odd bits of grey pastry splattered with sticky jam. It was fun. We laughed a lot. We spent time together. We ate what came out of the oven.

Now my children are grown up - and I hope one day soon I'll be a grandmother. And as I look around I see children who only know how to cook using the microwave. Taking ready meals from the freezer and zapping them so that 5 minutes later they can eat. Is that nourishing? Is that fun? No of course not. What does it mean for the future generations then? Will the art of home cooking disappear? Not if I have anything to do with it.

TV is full of celebrity chefs doing their level best to show us how to produce elegant inventive nourishing food. Bookshops are full of their glossy colour recipe books. But do kids get it? No. So - what can we do about it?

I believe the answer lies with grandmothers.

It's become the norm now for mothers to work full time - the cost of buying a home these days means very few mums get the chance to stay home with their babies. And many prefer to be out at work, retaining their former identity and environment. Being a stay-at-home mum isn't ideal for everyone.

But - many grandparents are now doing the childminding, to keep costs down for working mothers. This seems to me to be an ideal opportunity for some fun and games in the kitchen.

OK grandma, granny, nanna - let's see what we can do to resurrect the art and fun of home cooking. Let's teach our grandchildren how to create healthy, nourishing food for themselves - let's get away from the fast food culture. This is going to be all about fun, about creating wonderful smells in the kitchen - and on the way learning about basic foodstuffs, basic cooking techniques, setting good habits for the future.

Ready?

Let's go!