Breadmaking at Children's Centres

Saturday 14th April 2012.
Lovely session at the Hollies, Taunton, this morning with around 10 or so families.

My intention in these sessions is just to show parents how easy it is is to make bread, and give them some ideas on making it with their children.

The recipe I use is a simple bread dough:
1 mug bread flour
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
1/3rd mug lukewarm water
1 teaspoon fresh yeast

I demonstrate how I make the dough, then the families join in with  the parents encouraging their children to do as much as they can. The ages of the children varied between 18 months and 4 years old.

One of the parents, Keith, totally got the whole thing very quickly. He made a batch of rolls whilst waiting for his partner and another child:

Keith - and the first rolls he's ever made!

In the meantime his daughter had gone off to play with some of the toys. When Keith's partner and other child arrived, they made a similar batch with Keith teaching them how to do it!

Meanwhile, everyone else was getting on with it, too:

Sorry about the fuzziness - but I've left it in for the two batches at the top. It's a pity, because Martin (I think it was) had made a birds nest with four eggs in it - at the bottom left hand corner

There's Jasmine's bread at the top

Finally, these are Hope's rolls