Baking with Residents
It’s important to ensure your residents are engaged in activities other than their daily routine of mundane tasks. Activities such as word games, bingo, excursions and listening to music are great for the mind and soul.
A topic many residents enjoy speaking about is food. Not necessarily the food provided in care, rather what they used to eat or cook when they were younger. Many residents (both women and men) deeply miss cooking and baking, and doing it “their way” (which they usually insist is the right way!). Therefore, a much-loved activity can be a morning baking session with fellow residents and an assisting staff member or volunteer.
Selecting a recipe, being guided and assisted to help measure and mix ingredients, and creating that day’s afternoon tea for all to share can bring a sense of community and achievement as well as nostalgia. Even if some individuals cannot physically participate, being in the room and being part of the process might be the highlight of their day.
We recommend you try this savoury scone recipe with your residents. It makes a nice change from the sweet offerings so common for morning and afternoon tea. It’s well known that when individuals are involved in the cooking process, they’re more likely to eat the finished product. So these scones are sure to be well enjoyed and eaten-up fast (by residents and staff alike!).
Lady Flo’s Pumpkin Scones
Lady Flo may have been the wife of Queensland’s Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, but it was her Pumpkin Scones which shot her to fame.
Ingredients
2 cups self-raising flour
1 cup pumpkin, cooked and mashed (cold)
1 tablespoon butter
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Method
Preheat your oven to 225’c.
Beat the butter until soft and add the sugar and salt.
Mix in the pumpkin mash and the egg. Now slowly stir in the flour.
Turn dough onto a floured board and knead.
Roll out and cut dough into small circles.
Place onto a greased tray and bake for 15-20 minutes.
Note: while it’s not in Flo’s original recipe, a pinch of cinnamon gives another dimension!
Recipe from: http://www.yourlifechoices.com.au/news/flos-pumpkin-scones