by Jennie Ellis, Kindergarten Teacher
Baking bread with your child is a wonderful activity to share with them. When we bake bread in our class, it takes us time as we get all the ingredients gathered together and measure them out, this is a great way to work in math and following simple directions. This bread needs to rise twice so it helps build up that patience muscle!
Have them help start to finish with clean up, table washing, wash dishes, etc.
We sing a simple bread baking song while we knead the dough. You can add or subtract to the song as you see fit.
Bread Song
This is the way we knead the dough, knead the dough, knead the dough, this is the way we knead the dough early in the morning. or evening or afternoon, whatever time you are kneading the dough :)
Then we add to it....
This is the way we pound the dough, pound the dough, pound the dough, etc etc
We do about three verses, either pounding the dough, rolling the dough, pinching the dough, etc. You can make up your own here and go on forever. Sometimes we get silly and say things like, this is the way we.....make the pizza, make the pizza, etc etc.
They really love kneading and singing this song, it really is a favorite activity for them.
Recipe
Ingredients:
2 tbsp yeast
3 cups warm liquid
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp honey
1/3 cup oil (melted butter works)
3 tsp salt
6-8 cups of flour mixture (wheat, white-2 cups of the mixture can be oatmeal which gives a nice texture, millet, seeds, etc)
Directions:
Mix yeast, 1T honey and some warm water in a bowl. Leave it to foam up
Combine with warm liquid, oil, salt, honey and yeast mixture in a large bowl.
Add the sifted flour mixture until the liquid is absorbed. Let sit for 5 minutes.
Continue adding the flour mixture until the dough is kneadable. Knead dough and form into rolls or loaves. (Recipe should make 2 loaves or 24 rolls)
Place on a cookie sheet in a preheated 200 degree convection oven for 15 minutes to rise.
Turn up to 300 degrees and bake (rolls) for 15-20 minutes until done.
Serve warm with butter. You can even make your own! Fill a small mason jar with heavy cream and have your child shake it for 6-8minutes (great will work here!) in the end you will have butter and some buttermilk too! Of course any butter taste great, we add honey and cinnamon for a sweet treat sometimes!
Enjoy the fruits of your labor together.
