Our Easy Bread Recipe for Kids!

 I'm a bit rubbish at cooking and baking but I do like doing things that involve the kids, and baking is a great way to get them involved in food and can also be pretty creative and fun too! This easy bread recipe is really easy to do and doesn't take too long, so easily holds the attention of the boys. Wemake it in the morning in time for lunch and then we have it with soup. Best of all there's lots of educational things to talk about too, these are a few things we talked about today:

• Numbers - on the scales (they go up when you put more stuff in), on the jug, on the oven
• Colours and textures - of the ingredients, we also have a rainbow coloured nest of mixing bowls
• 'Wet' and 'Dry' -  this recipe is good for this as you mix all the wet together and all the dry together and then combine them.
• Sizes - as the bread rises it starts small, and gets bigger
• Temperatures - Bread likes to grow when its warm, and cook in the hot oven - don't touch!
• Smells - baking bread has a great smell!

 

 Recipe:

• 500g Bread Flour
• 7g Fast action yeast (this is usually the size of the sachets you can get)
• 1tsp Salt
• 2 tbsp Olive oil
• 1tbsp clear honey
• 200ml of hand hot water
• Oven: 200c (180c for fan assisted).

I'm not sure where this recipe came from originally - its written on a scrap of paper now in my recipe folder now!

• We put all the dry ingredients into a big bowl and Isaac and Oscar used a whisk to mix them up, they’re really good at this but need a few reminders to try and keep the ingredients in the bowl rather than on the floor.

• We then mix all the wet ingredients together in a jug. Again – stirring can be done by the kids.

• Tip the liquid into the flour/yeast/salt mixture - Isaac can do this himself with some help, he really likes tipping things into each other just now so this was a pleasing job for him.

• Then get your hands in there and squidge and stir it all together. Isaac despite being a mud lark outdoors is a bit of a clean freak in the house and doesn’t actually like getting stuff on his fingers very much, so this part is usually left to Oscar and Mummy.

• Once you’ve got all the ingredients to stick into one big lump, tip it out onto your worksurface, I usually oil rather than flour the surface as I find it sticks less but its’ up to you really.

• Then go bonkers kneading your dough, I do stretch forward and fold back type motion with the heel of my hand, and then swing it around a bit and thump it down – don’t be scared of it, it likes it rough! The kids love poking, pulling, bashing and rolling the dough – it seems to work okay too – as long as you keep at it long enough. The key I have found it to do it till you think its done, then do it a whole lot more. Eventually it will be silky smooth and super stretchy.

• Shape your dough how you want it; Isaac and Oscar made balls with theirs and I put mine in a loaf tin today. Then leave it in a warmy place to rise for an hour. Don’t really be too scared the place is too warm, the yeast loves it nice and warmy. If you’re preheating your main oven and have a top oven/grill that’s a good place, or on top of a radiator, or on the lid of your slow cooker, or in the airing cupboard – all good.

• After an hour I chuck the risen bread into the preheated oven. How long I leave it for depends on the size of the thing I’m making – rolls usually 20ish minutes, a loaf 30-35minutes.

Turn it out and if you believe in old wives tales let it cool before you eat it – if not chop it slather it with butter and scoff it! mmmMMmmm