During the pandemic of 2020, everyone turned their efforts into baking bread. Is it because baking bread is a soothing outlet? Is it because children are home from school and parents are trying their best to keep up working remotely and homeschooling their children, so they take a break to bake bread? You realize “break” and “bread” are spelled the same except for the last letter, right?
I have a few friends and relatives with young children and I was thinking of ways to engage them in child-friendly cooking activities. So I reached back into the website where I posted a bread-in-a-bag Challah recipe. The Challah recipe is easy to make too, with a few more steps than the recipe in this post. If you are into this way of making bread, you may want to check out that post.
This recipe is a little more child-friendly and produces two child-sized loaves of bread. I fell in love with it because it reminded me of the field trips I took as a young girl to the bread manufacturers in Los Angeles, California. We would tour the plant and learn how they made bread, breathe in the rich yeasty aromas of baking the bread, and return home with our own little loaf of bread (which was promptly eaten in the bus on the way home).
Since kids are not going on field trips these days, why not bring a little of that experience to them in their own kitchen?
Dry ingredients spooned into the bag. Children can practice their match skills measuring out the ingredients.
Wet ingredients added. Children learn that measuring wet ingredients is different than measuring dry and uses different measuring tools.
Now the fun begins! Smush (technical term) the bag of dough in your hands giving it a good mix and mash. Several children can help with this task and find it entertaining.
Divide the dough into two small loaf pans to rise for a bit and bake.
And it’s done! It’s hard to wait until the bread has cooled to begin slicing it.
Bread slices easily and is great toasted for breakfast, or used for mini sandwiches.
Oh and dressed up as French Toast this little bread is fabulous!
Yields 2 small loaves
Save RecipeIngredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (or 1 packet)
- 1 cup warm water
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
Instructions
- PREP: Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray mini loaf pans with cooking spray.
- In a resealable plastic bag, place 1 cup flour, sugar and yeast and add warm water. Seal the bag and squish together with your hands to mix. Let rest 10 minutes at room temperature to activate yeast.
- Add 1 cup flour, oil and salt to the bag and reseal. Another smush of the bag to mix ingredients.
- Combine the remaining cup of flour to the bag of ingredients and mix.
- Remove the dough from the bag and knead 5 minutes or until smooth (you may need a little more flour on your kneading surface).
- Divide the dough in two and place in loaf pans. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise 30 minutes. Brush top of the bread with olive oil and bake until golden (about 30 minutes).
Notes
Adapted from Delish