Yesterday morning was particularly challenging. I should have realised that it was going to be a long one when Atticus insisted on wearing daddy’s Santa hat on the way to school. I thought I had left the house with three happy children when it was located and the other two didn’t raise a single objection. I failed to realised that the Santa hat would in fact cause a meltdown of gigantic proportions as I didn’t have the foresight to name it before leaving the house and I refused to let my little gingernutter take it into school. He also had to keep on readjusting the hat so he could see where he was going while walking! We must have looked quite comical walking down the street and me yelling to remind him to readjust his hat. Oh and that is not mentioning the fact that it got drenched thanks to the beautiful school run shower we had this morning. In hindsight, I should have remembered to pick up the hat for the collection, but hey ho no-one is perfect and it was still somewhat soggy. I was delighted that he had forgotten about the hat the following morning and we avoided a repeat of the argument at the classroom door!
So to cheer myself up after the traumatic and rather damp school run, I decided to make some sesame toast shapes with Ophelia. You can cut these into any shape you choose and they are perfect as croutons in soup if you fancy getting children involved in Christmas food preparation. Mine also enjoyed them as a fun addition to their beans on toast. These are lots of fun to make with kids. Seb and Atticus (at 6 and 4) would be able to manage these with minimal parental input. Ophelia needed some help, but she did enjoy trying to spread the margarine and use the cookie cutters to cut out shapes before splatting them in a plate of sesame seeds. Yes they could be considered somewhat wasteful as you are stamping shapes out of bread. Alternatively you could just slice the bread into triangles or squares to avoid the wastage.
Ingredients
- Bread (we used 50/50, but white or wholemeal would work too)
- Butter or margarine (we used an olive spread)
- Sesame seeds
Method
- Preheat the oven to 150°c fan and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or greaseproof paper.
- Spread one side of the slice of bread with butter.
- If you are using shapes, cut the shapes out with the cookie cutters.
- Put the some sesame seeds on a plate in an even layer.
- Put the buttered side up into the sesame seeds so that they stick and place them sesame seed side down onto the surface.
- Spread the back side of the shapes with butter and put on the sesame seed plate so that both sides are covered.
- Place in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.
- Remove and turn them over and return to the oven for a further 20 minutes. They will look golden and crisp when finished cooking.
These will keep in an airtight container for a couple of days so can be made in advance of any festive celebrations. Ours didn’t survive 12 hours with the three kids and their dad! I hope that you enjoy them.
