The Educators' Spin On It

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Making Rosenmunnar (Swedish Thumbprint Cookies) with Kids: Around the World in 12 Dishes

Learn about Sweden with Kids. Making Rosenmunnar (Swedish Thumbprint Cookies) and Braided Swedish Coffee Bread as you explore the world with food.

Thumbprint cookie recipe for Rosenmunnar from Sweden for kids

We started our global journey the same way Phileas Fogg did in London, UK, and are now moving northeast into Stockholm, Sweden.

Making Rosenmunnar (Swedish Thumbprint Cookies) with Kids

This month, My 5 year old and I had a blast looking through cookbooks and recipe websites trying to decide what to make for our cooking stop in Sweden. 

Coming from a Scandinavian background, we had trouble deciding if we wanted to make the Spritz cookie or the Rosenmunnar  – a Swedish thumbprint cookie. The Swedish thumbprint cookie won as we had never made them before and any excuse to use our home-made blueberry and peach preserves is a winner! 

Thumbprint cookie recipe from Sweden

If you are looking for an easy, hands on kids cookie – this is it!

The kids can help measure, roll the balls, press the thumbprints, and fill the jam. 

(Just make sure the kids are not near the cookie as it comes out of the oven – they are HOT) 

After they cooled off, Hubbie gave them his stamp of approval, “these are addictive” he said as he ate a  two handfuls!

Braided Swedish Coffee Bread Recipe

Then, because the oven was on, we also tried this Bread Machine Swedish Coffee Bread. 

We use our bread machine a lot to knead and rise the bread.  I prefer the crust when it has been baked in a real oven though – so this seemed like a perfect recipe for us. 

You can always substitute half of the flour for white whole wheat or whole wheat flour. It will make it a little heavier and denser, but also healthier.  We went for the all white flour this time. 

Child making Braided Bread

The recipe does not call for raisins, but my 5 year old asked if we could add them.  Why not? 

We started the bread in the machine first, then made the cookies.  My bread machine takes a little over an hour to make the dough through the first raise. 

After the cookies were done, we were able to begin braiding the bread.

Braiding bread is great therapy (in my opinion) and kids really need to grasp the pattern. After we braided the bread, we let it raise one more time before baking it!

Braided Bread with Kids

I think it turned out great! We are a family that bakes together often and I love that this challenge encourages us to try foods from around the world.

Sweden Activities for Kids

Here are some additional activities about Sweden for kids. We’d love to have you join us too!

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Crafts and Resources

Here’s is some background information, books, printables and crafts for you children to do about Sweden.

Around the World in 12 Dishes

How to join the fun!

  • Cook a dish from Sweden: The goal is to explore this country through FOOD and activities if you wish. Make a typical dish (sweet or savoury) from the country with the kids, take photos and have fun!
  • Typical dishes: Köttbullar med potatismus (Meatballs with mashed potatoes), gravlax, pyttipanna (a kind of hash), chokladboll (chocolate balls) or Kanelbulle (cinnamon rolls) (Here is a link for more inspiration: Swedish cuisine).
  • Print your passport:
  • Color a placemat
  • Make a craft: you can make a country related craft with the kids
  • Read a book: “D…Is For Dala Horse”.
  • Fun fact: Did you know that Swedes are known for their innovations? Swedish Inventions include: The perfected design of the zipper (Gideon Sundbäck), the marine propeller (John Ericsson), the refrigerator (Carl Munters and Baltzar von Platen), the computer mouse (HÃ¥kan Lans), the pace-maker (Rune Elmqvist).
  • Share with us in the comments below or on our Facebook Page
  • Pinterest: We will add your photos to a “Around the World in 12 Dishes” Pinterest Boards (one for the dishes, one for the crafts) you will be a great source of inspiration for everyone 🙂

Want more adventures around the world? Explore these Global Activities for Kids!

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Comments

  1. yummy – we use the same type of study in our homeschool 😉 I'll have to link up when we "get to" sweeden 🙂 Thanks for linking with Kids in the Kitchen!

  2. Fantastic. I am following Around the World ideas with interest. In fact, I just started my own "Read Around the World" program at home – the first post is coming up tomorrow. If daughter chooses Sweden, I'll have to check the ideas on the list.

  3. We will need to give those cookies a whirl. I am attempting to make strawberry preserves, so the cookie recipe would be great for using up the strawberries.

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United Kingdom Recipes for Kids (Around the World in 12 Dishes)

Let’s head to the UK in the kitchen with these fun and easy United Kingdom recipes for kids! Scones, Tarts, Shepherds Pie, Bangers and Mash and more in our cooking around the world series.

United Kingdom Recipes for Kids featuring scones and bangers and mash. Easy recipes for the kids to make as the cook around the world

Welcome to “Around The World in 12 Dishes”. We will be taking you on a journey around the world, (loosely) following in Phileas Fogg’s footsteps, exploring 12 different countries with our children, by cooking 12 dishes with them.

The world is such a wonderfully diverse and colorful place. Our children see maps, flags and books. They see postcards and maybe they see films about the world, but let’s really bring it to life through food! Taste and smell don’t often get explored, we think this would be wonderfully fun and interesting for you and your children.

Not only is it an exciting and different way to learn about cultures, but cooking with children brings so many opportunities for learning- math, science, literacy, language development, and even geography! Plus cooking creates lasting family memories and something yummy to enjoy!

It’s time to take a trip with the help of a book, a mixing bowl, and a great imagination!

United Kingdom Recipes for Kids

There are a few classic recipes that are traditional for the United Kingdom that are easy for kids to make. As part of our cooking around the world series, we’ve put together a collection of these recipes for kids here for you to choose from. We made both scones and bangers and mash as we learned about the UK.

Scones Recipe for Kids

With our good friends visiting their homeland of UK this week, we baked and cooked some dishes from around the world. Scones are a big hit in our household and we usually make one batch a week.

My 5 year old can make biscuits and scones almost entirely on her own. The trick is to set out all the supplies ahead of time!

She scoups, pours, measures and mixes on her own. The best advice someone once gave me for keeping scones light and fluffy is not to overmix, we take this to heart and our scones usually turn out fabulous! I help with putting the batter on the pan and baking it.

To stick with the Brittish tradition of drinking tea, we had a cuppa tea with our scones for a girls tea party on the deck.

Healthy Mom Tip ***I usually exchange half of the white flour for white whole wheat to make this a bit healthier. I know it is not in true Brittish fasion, but we eat scones enough that if I can use more whole grains, my family is eating just a bit healthier.

We have also been know to add nuts, oatmeal, and ground flax seed to some of our scones too for the added nutrition.

Here is a recipe for crumpets and another one for scones if you would like to try something new too!

In addition to our weekly scones, I am challenging myself to make at least one meal a week that is new, one of those meals each month will be a dish from another country.

Bangers and Mash Recipe for Kids

This week, we made BANGERS AND MASH.

Here is my tot making the MASH!

Now I know that my kids like sausage (I know I changed a turkey sausage for the pork, so it is not a TRUE Brittish Pub dish, but if you haven’t figured it our yet, I like to put my OWN SPIN on things!) and that they like mashed potatoes, but wasn’t sure what they would think about onion rings and gravy – and all of it together??? I shouldn’t have been worried.

As we were eating, my 2 year old was stealing everyone’s onions off their plates and inhaling them, he even used a few as onion bracelets before slurping them up (I am not an onion fan at all and was extremely surprised by his newfound onion love).

My hubbie said this was a nice treat to try something new, and my five year old was disappointed there wasn’t thirds for all!

Kid Friendly United Kingdom Recipes

United Kingdom Suitcase Craft

Here is a link to some ideas for more crafts for England.

Disclosure: This post contains amazon affiliate links.

England Activity for Kids

To connect our cooking to even more learning, we brought out our Atlas this week and found the places our friends would be visiting on their vacation.

One of my tots favorite knee bouncing rhymes is “Trot, trot to London,” so we also found London and Dover! I can’t believe that for the number of times we have sang and bounced him on our knees that it is the first time we are showing him where and what the poem is about!

Keep the learning going and get crafty too!

Here’s an adorable idea to creating your own United Kingdom Coloring Book using your own photos or from the web with Little Hand that Cook with Books in the United Kingdom.

England Unit for Kids featuring bear wearing England Flag on shirt

Activity Ideas about United Kingdom for Kids

Looking for some additional recipes for kids to make? Try these…

raspberry coconut muffins recipe
chef for the educators spin on it
Indian Samosas on plate

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Comments

  1. Oh my goodness. I am now in love with this series. Started with the Japan page and then came here. I love trying new recipes (especially easy ones) and ones from other countries are just plain fun! I pinned the Bangers and Mash, crumpets, and scones! If I make any of them I will link it up! Love This!

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