Food Science: Baking Bread

Today the children in Room 6 have been learning how to make bread. For some of the children it was the first time they had ever seen bread made, but for everyone it was a great learning experience.

To begin, we had a brainstorm to help us think about what we already know about cooking. We had some good ideas about foods that we cook with and also how to be safe when cooking.

Brainstorming

What do we already know
about cooking?

Then Mrs Browne showed us the ingredients and the recipe, which tells you how to make the bread.

Recipe

Ingredients: Flour, yeast, sugar, salt, oil, milk powder, water

We touched, tasted and smelt the ingredients. We liked the sugar best!

Sarah (Max's Mum) explained what yeast is. She said "Yeast is a tiny animal. We can wake up the yeast with warm water and give it sugar for energy. Wait and you will see how it wakes up!". We all said "Wow!!"



Sarah added the dry yeast to the warm water and we watched and waited...

Catherine: "Its gone all soft"

Jessica: "Its fluffy!"

Max: "Will we see an animal?"

Sam: "It smells like bread"

Mrs Browne helped us to carefully measure the ingredients and then she added them to the bread-making machine.

Is the cup full?

Measuring the flour

The bread-maker mixed all the ingredients together and then kept it warm. Everyone had a look into the bread machine. Sam smelt the yeast and said "Its smells nice". Michelle said "It looks like dough" and Aston noticed the shape of the tin, saying "Its square. I have square bread for my sandwiches".

A little later when the machine had stopped mixing we looked again. Fabio noticed that the bread was getting bigger, he said this was because of the "heat and the bubbles". Abdul warned us that "While its getting warm don't open it!"

While we waited for the bread dough to rest, we made some playdough, so that we could feel what the dough was like to mix, touch and shape.

Aoi

Aston's sushi

Fabio's sausages

Kitty's ring

Jordan's table and chairs

Kitty's snail

After all our hard work we needed a rest in the sunshine. 

It took a long time for the bread to rest, cook and cool a little, so it was almost home time before we got to see what it looked like. But the wait was well worth it!

The bread was still hot, so Mrs Browne was very careful holding the tin with a cloth, and cutting it into slices for us to taste.

We chose what topping we liked to have on our bread, and then came back for seconds, and thirds!

Max thought the bread "tastes like pancakes", while Michelle simply said that it was "Delicious!". Abdul was so excited that he made Mrs Browne gave him the recipe to take home to his Mum, so they could bake some bread together.

Aston: "I've made fairy bread!"

Leave a comment below to tell us about what you have learned from our baking experience today...