Jennifer Garner Bakes While Trying Not to Wake Kids

Operation: Make breakfast without waking the kids. Jennifer Garner posted a hilarious Instagram video on Tuesday, December 11, and it’s resonating with moms everywhere.

In the clip, the pajama-clad Peppermint actress is seen in her kitchen at 5:30 a.m., scrambling to prepare a special breakfast for her children, Violet, 13, Seraphina, 9, and Samuel, 6.

“This time of year it is extra cozy to send kids to school with something warm in their bellies,” Garner, 46, wrote in the caption. She went on to explain that her brood feels “extra cozy” about baking guru Rose Levy Beranbaum’s chocolate chip bread. “This recipe isn’t crazy sweet and, with a good swish of peanut butter, is just the thing for my early rising middle schooler,” she wrote. “You can find the full episode on IGTV. #PretendCookingShow.”

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This time of year it is extra cozy to send kids to school with something warm in their bellies. My kids feel extra cozy about @realbakingwithrose’s chocolate bread. This recipe isn’t crazy sweet and, with a good swish of peanut butter, is just the thing for my early rising middle schooler. You can find the full episode on IGTV. #PretendCookingShow #bangwentthecabinet #😡😩🤦🏻‍♀️wentmybrain #hurryupchristmas🤶🏻 . #TheBreadBible Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bread Ingredients: 3 Tbs plus 1/2 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder 3 Tbs boiling water 1/2 Tbs pure vanilla extract 3 large eggs 1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbs sugar 3/4 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 13 Tbs unsalted butter, softened 3 Tbs chocolate mini chips or bittersweet chocolate (chopped) . Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 350F. 2. Whisk cocoa and boiling water until smooth. Allow to cool to room temperature, then gently whisk in vanilla and eggs. 3. In a mixer bowl, combine cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds to blend. Add half the chocolate paste and the butter and mix until dry ingredients are moistened. Increase speed to medium-high and beat for 1 minute to aerate and develop structure. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Gradually add remaining chocolate paste in two batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition to incorporate the ingredients and strengthen the structure. Scrape down the bowl. Fold in chocolate mini chips/chopped chocolate. 4. Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan and smooth the surface with a spatula. 5. Bake for 50-60 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center will read about 200F. (The bread shouldn’t start to shrink from the sides of the pan until after removal from the oven.) 6. Set the bread on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Loosen the sides of the bread and invert onto an oiled wire rack. Reinvert so it is top side up and cool completely.

A post shared by Jennifer Garner (@jennifer.garner) on Dec 11, 2018 at 12:02pm PST

Though Garner usually makes it a point to measure and prep ingredients the night before, on this particular morning, however, she was not prepared.

“I didn’t do that this time,” she quipped. But that wasn’t Garner’s only problem. The 13 Going on 30 star, who was trying to be as quiet as possible as to not rouse her kids from their slumber, kept slamming her kitchen cabinets.

Jennifer Garner Early Morning Baking Not Wake Kids — Jennifer Garner in her video on Instagram. Courtesy Jennifer Garner/Instagram

Luckily, the treat turned out just fine, thanks to Garner’s quick thinking. She used a cheese grater to “soften” the butter in a hurry, a hack that would surely make her hero Ina Garten proud!

The West Virginia native shares Violet, Seraphina and Samuel with her ex-husband Ben Affleck. The former couple split in 2015 after 10 years of marriage, and finalized their divorce this past October. Garner has been dating tech company CEO John Miller for more than six months.

“The relationship continues to be extremely serious,” a source told Us Weekly exclusively last month. “John is head over heels in love with Jennifer.”

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