Chef Po (3yo) loves tackling simple cooking and baking tasks any time she can. The older she gets, the more excited I am that I get to show her how to do Real Life Things like cooking and self-sufficiency. The baby/toddler stage was cute and all, but I’m loving having a child who can start trying and learning more “advanced” things like cooking something simple from start to finish. She's riiight on the cusp of being able to follow a recipe without it devolving into food play and exploration (an important step in its own right, but like... I just wanna eat some bread already dammit!)

When I moved to the new house in early 2022, I bought myself a French Oven (an enameled Dutch Oven) as a housewarming gift to myself. I've never worked with cast iron before and now I can't believe I went so long without it! I recently discovered the joys of no-knead overnight dutch oven bread and WOW. It's actually amazing. My haughty ass thought it was "bread making" for people who don't know how to make bread uNlIkE mE wHo kN0wS eV3rYtHiNg *hair flip.* Of course I’m kidding, but I really did think it was a “lesser” bread making technique because of the no-knead thing. So I was stunned to read this post from Serious Eats all about what’s really going on with no-knead bread and learn that as it turns out, there is actual science involved!!!

In addition to delicious bread with less effort, I will also be eating a slice of humble pie. Overnight no-knead bread is delicious “real” bread. It’s also a really great low maintenance way to introduce baking to your child(ren). There are minimal ingredients and it’s mostly hands off. It can be adapted for pretty much any age bracket too! Pre-k & Kinder can help you pour and mix the ingredients and you can talk to older kids about how the overnight dough works. (Read the linked article from Serious Eats to learn more for yourself!)

Po and I have gotten into the habit of making it once a week. It needs about 12-18 hours of resting time (this is actually the opposite of rest time because the dough is hard at work!) so we mix it up around 5:30pm and bake it at 8:30am the next day to enjoy hot out of the oven! It’s also incredibly easy to adapt with various flavors depending on the season. I make a spicy Jalapeño Cheddar version for myself, but Po likes to keep it classic without any add ins (but topped with butter and strawberry jam of course!)