Can You Bake a Pumpkin Pie Darlin’ Bradley?

My three year-old grandson Bradley loves to help in the kitchen. He’s very patient and listens to instructions, so when I heard his little voice ask, “Grammy can we bake a cherry pie?”, I was delighted to join him in the kitchen. Turns out, the day he asked that, I had no cherries, but did have a big can of pumpkin. There was pie crust in the frig that needed to be used, so we made pumpkin pie. (Truth be told, he simply wanted a vehicle for whipped cream…)

We used the recipe from the back of the pumpkin can. I like that one since it doesn’t use nutmeg – I’m not a huge fan of nutmeg in my pumpkin pie, or in much of anything else for that matter.

I always point out the recipe to him, so he knows that cooking involves reading, and we always count ingredients as we use them, two eggs, one spoonful of this, three pieces of that, and he helps measure those ingredients, so he works on math skills as well when in the kitchen.

He started by spooning the pumpkin into the bowl, while Grammy got the rest of the ingredients lined up, and of course, took some photos.

Pouring is an important skill to practice:

And using the whisk builds those large muscles, as well as remembering the difference between fast and slow stirring so it doesn’t spill over the edges…

 

Pinching the edges of the crust works those small muscles as well as practicing patience to get all the way around the pie plate.

It was a long wait while it baked and cooled, then when I handed it to him for a photo, his reaction was, “This wooks dee-wishus Grammy!”.

 

 

It WAS dee-wishus, Bradley – hey, Grammy has a job for you for Thanksgiving!