Baking bread with a nine year old

I would keep it simple. Use the "basic white bread" recipe that is in the cookbook supply with the mixer. WW bread is more problematic to make and I don't think small children like WW bread as well as plain white bread.

My concern would be that you want her to take the loaf home with her. This means she doesn't get to taste it with butter and jam when it's hot. A cup of hot sweet tea with milk? I'd make two loaves, eat one right away, and take one home..

Hi --

The bread I usually make -- the only one I know how to make -- is challah bread. The kids enjoy doing it with me, especially becasue they like the braiding and painting-with-eggwhite at the end, before the final rise.

I agree that you should make one loaf to eat right away, the other to take home.

--Beth Kevles snipped-for-privacy@aol.com

-- a page for the milk-allergic Disclaimer: Nothing in this message should be construed as medical advice. Please consult with your own medical practicioner.NOTE: No email is read at my MIT address. Use the AOL one if you wouldlike me to reply.

Howdy,

Bread is not at its best when it is still hot from the oven. (In fact, in France, it is not legal to sell such.)

It is at its best after it has cooled (and is then re-heated if one wants it warm.) When still hot from the oven, it has all sorts of off tastes from by-products that will evaporate as it cools.

All the best,

Whether that's good or bad is up to the person eating it.

I have a nine year old grand child... He enjoys every loaf of bread that I make and He enjoys rolling pizza dough and making pizza, I doubt if his concentration would last through the lengthy process of hand kneading the dough. Measuring the ingredients and putting them into the bread machine, standing on a stool with a flashlight peeking into the little window to see what's happening all hold his interest for about 10 minutes. We have had fun making monkey bread, He was able to get his hands on the dough , make the little balls and roll them in cinnamon sugar. I bake the rolled cinnamon sugar balls in a bunt pan, it's a great treat for nine year olds! I told him that some day I'd let him shape a monster ( alligator or something similar) out of bread dough and I'd bake monster bread for him. This is probably going to be an April vacation project. that interested him!

Not to be sexist, but he is a boy and enjoys eating the goodies more than making them!

Have fun with your niece!

Rina

Well, I can't deny that bread is best when cooled, but I think it's stretching the forebearance of any child to pull something they helped prepare out of the oven, and then tell them they can't eat it. Heck, even I find that difficult. I'd let it cool for ten minutes, but surely serve some warm. I don't think the off flavors will bother the child, or even be noticed. And a little butter and jam can hide a multitude of sins.

It may well still be warm when we take it home with her. She's staying over tonight, is a late riser, and I'm taking her home tomorrow evening.

I can't eat white bread because it spikes my blood glucose too high (type 2 diabetic), which is why she'll be taking it all home with her.

Priscilla

We've already touched a bit on the biology of bread making, and I want to go into it more, about yeast and gluten and so on. She won't have to knead it except for a bit if she wants and some at beginning and end to get a feel for the difference. Emma's got a very curious mind about many things, including science and nature. Then she'll be off curled up with a book during much of my kneading, I expect, unless she wants to stay with me and chat about which cats came to visit her over night.

Emma's already made pie crust with her Dad (they made the Thanksgiving pumpkin pie this past year), and she's interested in learning. Eating, too, but learning how to do something her Aunt Scilly does is a draw for her. She's eaten my bread at holidays and likes it.

I expect we'll have a ball. We generally do. Backgammon is also on the agenda. I don't think she's old enough yet to handle cribbage.

Priscilla

She likes my WW bread, but I had figured to start with basic (which in this culture is white) bread. I was just hoping that someone had a good basic recipe to share, one that I knew was good -- although I can also just trust Joy of Cooking on this as I do on so much.

Priscilla

If it's cooled enough, we'll have some before we go, but a whole loaf? That's an awful lot of bread. I can't really eat white bread because it spikes my blood glucose too much, and even half a loaf is too much bread for a skinny nine year-old! I don't want to make her sick. Plus, I don't think she'd want that much. She's a very sensible kid about food.

Priscilla

Priscilla I started baking also at a young age around 10 years old, first just watching my mom. My mom got pissed off with me whenever I pester her with so many questions. So to whet up my curiosity, he kept me busy..,prepare the pans,and other utensils etc. Whenever she makes bread , she wants me to help knead the dough( which was for me was fun)., Gradually she introduced me on the basics, I made by simple white bread and she watch me as I followed the recipe he simplified for me. I did not get it right after a few trials, the bread either did not rise well, taste yeasty and had poor appearance, etc but as I was persistent and really curious I gradually learned from my mistakes, and improved my bread. From that she introduced me how to make pies, cakes , cookies, and pancakes. At a young age I had my share of oven burns, scalds etc but I was not daunted by the pain, the effort and sweat and she was really impressed. I never regret that experience as that was what prodded me to take chemistry in college as I love mixing things up and working with my hands, and it was the outgrowth of my deep interest in baking at a young age. Therefore from my experience when a kid wants to play around in the kitchen be sure that is not a flash in the pan or just a sudden impulse of curiosity to know something but really a sincere desire to learn on things by themselves.. Let them realize that its not all fun at all that you sometimes get hurt in the point of doing it. My mom admonished me several times about the perils of kitchen work but I was a stubborn kid. Finally my mom relented and that was the time she' baptized' me to baking by allowing me to help her in the baking chores. . If you are a very protective mom, and have a weak stomach for kids crying in pain as his fingers and skin got burned or scalded, better think twice before you allow your kid to do the kitchen stuff that involves baking and cooking. Always keep in mind, there is no royal road to knowledge and consider that pain is big part in acquiring knowledge and skill and its more difficult to teach a kid who had so much curiosity and usually hyperactive.; than grown up person say a teenager.who has already gain some form of maturity what kitchen work is all about. So think about it carefully. Now regarding the recipe it does not matter, don't ever try to influence here with your peculiarity such as diet restrictions as that will tend stifle learning. A whole wheat loaf is a bit difficult to make than a white bread. Even as a kid it took me a long time to get my wholemeal bread right than with the white bread. It is good also that she likes the product he or she makes as even if it does not come out good she or he will still take pride of the results and even consume it. Roy

Why not just use the basic recipe that came with your KA mixer - the one that I suggested?

Thanks for your response, Roy. Emma's my niece, not my daughter, but I just translated those sentences to match. ;-)

This first bread baking will be with Emma assisting and observing. More active participation will be as she wants. I'd given her the options of cookies or bread for this weekend, and she said bread because she'd made cookies before. "I've never baked bread before," she warned, and I assured her that I wasn't relying on her for expertise, I was simply offering a chance for her to learn how to do it. That met with firm approval. I generally offer and accept what she chooses. I have some really good goop for burns, just in case. Her mother is the over-protective one. I'm more of the "the kid's going to have to learn, and I'll inform her and then be there for her when it hurts" school.

The recipe matters because I NEED A RECIPE, but I guess I'll go to Joy of Cooking. ;-)

Priscilla

Priscilla IMO the recipe does not matter at all. When my mom taught me how to make bread she just randomly selected from her well used cookbook and simplified it for me and that's it! Therefore I think that you are doing fine with extracting similar item from your favorite cookbook. Good Luck! Roy

God knows where it is at this point.

Priscilla

Here's a good recipe that we like. It's pretty straightforward. You can make it into 2 loaves or 24 rolls or some of each. I got the recipe from my ex-husbands grandma.

Mom's White Bread

2 C warm water 1/4 C sugar 3/4 t salt 1 pkg yeast 1/4 C vegetable oil 6 C all purpose flour

Mix water, sugar, salt, yeast, oil and 4 C flour until fairly smooth. Let rise 10 minutes. Mix in up to 2 C flour. This should make a fairly stiff dough. Let rise until doubled. Punch down and let rest for 10 minutes. Shape into two loaves or 24 rolls. Let rise in greased pans until doubled. Bake loaves at 375 degrees for 40 minutes, rolls will take less time.

marcella

Thanks, but.... no kneading? And how much yeast is in a package? I buy it by the bag.

Priscilla

Or to own deoderant

San Francisco sour dough bread is best eaten warm from the oven.