Cornflake Chinese New Year Cookie Making with Toddler

Chinese New Year is a time to get together with family and friends. In the period leading up to Chinese New Year, people often get busy with sprucing up the house (known as "spring-cleaning") and preparation of goodies to treat guests who visit during the New Year.

Apart from the ever-popular buttery tarts (I made a toddler-friendly Sugar Free Chocolate Tart version), another easy Chinese New Year cookie I love to make would be the Cornflake Cookie.

Cornflake Chinese New Year Cookie Making with Toddler!

This year, I recruited my toddler to be my little help in the kitchen and she absolutely exceeded my expectations. It's remarkable what a 21 month toddler can help with! It's a great 'practical life' experience for her, perfectly Montessori-style!

Cornflake Cookie Recipe

I followed the Honey Cornflakes recipe by The Zonghan with 4 modifications:

• I mixed in whole wheat flakes together with corn flakes to add health benefits of consuming whole grains.
• I reduced the amount of honey used so it was just mildly sweet and more toddler-friendly.
• I used unsalted butter instead of salted to make the cookie low-sodium.
• I used a non-stick mini muffin tray so I didn't have to use liners at all. Less paper wastage!

Hop over to her recipe for the full details.

Ways to Engage Toddlers In Cornflake Cookie Making

Toddlers genuinely like to help and be involved in "grownup activities". Through this cornflake cookie making experience with Little Miss 21 months, I discovered these are the tasks she could do with ease:

• Take cornflakes out from the bag (provide a scooping tool to vary how this can be done)
• Unwrap butter packaging and place butter into the mixing bowl
• Squeeze the honey bottle
• Stir the cornflake and honey mixture
• Toss in toppings like dried cranberries and chocolate chips

Benefits of this Activity

• Handling cornflakes, honey and butter makes for an interesting sensory experience especially given these 3 ingredients have really different textures and appearances
• Conversation with toddler about the cookie making process helps with enriching vocabulary and language development
• Quality bonding between parent and child
• Fosters cultural appreciation and introduces children to traditions and rituals associated with Chinese New Year
• Handling the ingredients provides a great fine motor workout and improves hand-eye coordination
• Being involved in the food creation process helps children understand how food is made and where it comes from, appreciate the food they eat and generally become a less picky eater
• Helping out in the kitchen provides children with a sense of accomplishment as they feel their contributions are being valued

Verdict?

Miss 21 months enjoyed the cornflake cookie making process and the end-result. Most of all, she loved the crunch with every bite.

I am happy that this delightful Chinese New Year cookie could be made 'healthier' for toddlers with a few choiceful modifications so it gave me less guilt to see Miss 21 months snacking on them.

I just hope we don't polish off our stash of these highly addictive cornflake cookies before Chinese New Year ;p

For more CNY toddler activities, check out @miraculove_sg (Instagram), save our pins or join A Toddler Activity A Day Facebook Group.