This week, my son became the baker in the family by himself. My daughter came to watch and inspect. To clarify, that counts, too. We decided to make another easy bread recipe, Dutch-oven bread. Some people call it no-knead bread. I have blogged about this recipe before here: Dutch-oven bread.
Mixing the wet and dry ingredients
My son loved mixing the dough and expressed regret that he was not supposed to knead the bread. I suppose we are gearing up for full-on kneading bread recipes. At least he seems to be eager and ready to do it.
As with any recipe, oven temperatures vary. My bottom oven tends to be slower than my top oven, for instance. So I raised the temperature to 500F, as in the original recipe from Mark Bittman, but then the bread got a bit burned on the crust. We will know for next time.
-
- Dough before rising
-
- Dough after rising
This is the beauty of teaching children how to bake: they learn how to learn, how to remember their mistakes and not repeat them next time, and how to persevere. These are real-life skills they can take into adulthood.
Dutch oven bread
Even though the crust got a little burned, they ate it and loved it. In fact, they consumed the entire bread that day, in one meal. Bread slices with butter and jam – that is all they wanted to have for lunch, plus milk. I usually insist on veggies or fruit with every meal, but this time I let it go. They were having too much fun with their bread, jam, and butter.
