{Day 9} Bread in a Bag

Today I turned bread making into a Science lesson for my 4 year old. I found these instructions over at Skip to My Lou for making bread in a bag with little ones. The author said it was done with her sons 4th grade class. I thought this would be an easy one to do with my daughter but it was actually more difficult than we thought ... or maybe I just thought it was because I chose to be very hands off. I held the bag open and my daughter did everything else. :) Oh, except adding the oil because, really would you trust a 4 year old to hold a big jug of oil in one hand and try to carefully pour it into a tablespoon she's holding in the other hand?? :) My little (big?!) girl was SO proud of herself and her bread! The recipe says you can use active dry yeast or fast-rise yeast (instant). I would recommend using only instant yeast. We used active dry yeast and found we didn't get a very good rise from it. If you have a lot of time, go ahead and do this recipe with your kids! It's a great learning experience and  a fun activity to do with your kids (and a great homeschool activity! :) ) but, it's not the greatest activity when you're already having a rushed day. DH tried the bread when he came home and liked it but noticed some colour blotches in it. :) Yeah, that's because at one point my 4yo was colouring with Crayola markers, got it all over her fingers and forgot to wash her hands before pressing out the dough ... and I forgot to remind her until after I saw blue and green finger prints all over the one piece of dough. lol Good thing Crayola is non-toxic!! :D  And at least it only got on one loaf! :)  I would describe the bread, as made, as heavy but very moist and soft on the inside with a nice, not too hard or crispy crust. DH said it had a bit of a zip to it but we can't figure out what would have given it that (unless that was also the Crayola markers). On a whole, we were quite pleased it. For the recipe, please head directly to Skip to My Lou where I linked above. :)

For now, photos of my daughter doing her thing! :)

Mixing the first bit of water, flour, sugar and yeast. :)

Even though she totally looks unimpressed with me, she is actually having fun! :) See the blue Crayola ink by her mouth?! :) Here she's kneading the dough before we split it into 3 pieces.

Of the 3 pieces of dough, I flattened out 1 to show her what to do. She did the other two. She's working hard to get it flat and rectangle! :)

Rolling up the flattened dough (as per instructions) before letting it rise one last time. Look at those hands work!

Why does she look so grown up in this picture?! Here she's covering the dough with a towel while it rises. :)

The finished bread! My dear girl is SO proud of it! :) She wants to bring some of it to Grandma & Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving this weekend! :)