Cook with Your Kids: Parmesan Bread Shapes

Whether you’ve got a toddler, a preschooler, or an older kid, cooking is an engaging activity you can do together—with delicious results. Plus, research shows that getting kids involved in cooking makes them more willing to try new foods.

But with the youngest chefs—toddlers and preschoolers—it can be tricky to find the right recipe. You want to keep in mind their attention span and have an idea of what they can realistically do to help.

Enter: Parmesan Bread Shapes.

These bread sticks from The Complete Baby and Toddler Cookbook make a simple snack or side that kids as young as 2 years old can help make. In fact, this cookbook has a whole chapter dedicated to recipes you can cook with your kids, with helpful suggestions for how to include them.

For Parmesan Bread Shapes, we use store-bought pizza dough that kids can roll and shape however they like (we give a couple shaping suggestions, but this recipe is a great opportunity to get creative).

Then, kids can brush their bread shapes with a simple garlic butter and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese before handing over the reins to an adult to put them into the oven and pull them out after they’re finished baking. 

With only four ingredients, there’s less prep and less potential for mess than with the eternally fun but decidedly messy undertaking that is making cake or cupcakes with kids (though we love that, too, when there’s time!).