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Learning to Bake Bread

I used to bake bread I would say about once a month.  I was never taught the secrets of bread baking, but was able to follow a recipe and enjoyed freshly baked bread for an occasional breakfast.  It turned out decent enough I thought.  

My daughter wanted to help me, but since I had no real bread baking skills to teach her, I wasn’t too keen on teaching her my roughing it ways.  If I’m going to teach her something, I want to teach her correctly.

I was already enrolled in 18 online classes on Craftsy, so I knew the quality of Craftsy courses, and that they were taught by world-renowned experts in their field.  There is a class called “Artisan Bread Making” taught be Peter Reinhart.  

After reading the reviews, and seeing all the different breads that were taught, I decided that this was another course I wanted to take.  I am so glad I did.  

This was a jam packed in-depth study into the art of bread baking.  I learned not only the techniques, but Mr. Reinhart explains the science of why things happen, and how to make adjustments for different variables.

Among other things, in the class we learn how to make: baguettes, bâtards, boules, ciabatta, focaccia (with herb oil, dried fruit, and other variations), sandwich bread, dinner rolls, marble rye bread, chocolate babka, and more.  

I plan on taking Mr. Reinhart’s advice and master one type of bread before tackling another one. I chose to take on sandwich buns first, since it looked like something my daughter could really get hands on with.  

So glad I did. This was by far the best bread I’ve ever had in my life.

Baking Bread With Kids

This was our first try baking bread after taking the “Artisan Bread Making” class:

First, she watched me measure all the ingredients. With my instructions, she got to put the ingredients in a larger bowl.

Then she tried out adding dough to the scale until she reached the desired weight.  I helped her on this but she did not too bad.

I showed her how to roll a ball.  She watched me and then was able to try one by herself.  

I told her it was sort of like Play Doh, except we wanted to handle it only as much as we needed to, not more.

Arranging her dough in the muffin tin:

child learning to bake bread

Patting…

and rolling like a worm

Trying her best to copy the knot I was doing.  

I was super impressed at how well she did.

Putting on eggwash…

and then decorating with seeds

These are the 2 buns she did before baking:

She decided she only wanted 2 poppy seeds on one of them.

Watching with eager anticipation:

Very proud of the two buns she made.

I can’t even begin to tell you how delicious this bread was.

Rewarded for all her hard work – this is what it’s all about.

Eva

Friday 2nd of October 2015

My kids love the feel of dough. We use waldorf and making bread regularly is part of our curriculum... connecting hands, mind and soul. And enjoying some yummy treat at the end.

Melanie Thomas

Friday 2nd of October 2015

I'll have to look into waldorf, I haven't heard of it before.

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Monday 17th of March 2014

Oh my goodness these photos are adorable!! What a fun project and I think your daughter's rolls turned out wonderfully - they look delicious!

Melanie Thomas

Monday 17th of March 2014

Thanks so much Jody, I was very proud of her. These buns were so delicious we've baked them 3 times since then, including yesterday. Soon we're going to be trying a different type of bread, I'm thinking focaccia.