Local fourth graders had a real hands-on lesson that was fun to do, taught several important concepts, tasted good and was good for them.
Pratt County Extension agent Jodi Drake was the guest instructor for a Kansas Day bread-making activity Tuesday at Skyline School and Thursday at the fairgrounds for Pratt’s Southwest Elementary School.
She handed out bags of ingredients and led the students in a step-by-step process to start a chemical reaction of yeast, sugar, warm water and a little oil. In groups of four, they added a mixture that included whole wheat flour, and then measured white flour into a zipper-type bag. With the bag closed, they squeezed to combine ingredients, before dumping the dough out onto tables for the final kneading.
At that point, the dough was divided so each student got a ball of dough that would eventually turn into his or her very own loaf of bread.
Kneading his dough vigorously, Coleton Cummins said that he helps his mom make bread and described how they cover it with a bucket to let it rise for an hour — maybe two, he amended.
Drake explained the function of kneading — it stretches the dough and allows it to hold the gas bubbles being released by the yeast.
“That’s what causes our bread to rise,” she explained.
After the students shaped the dough to fit a small baking pan, the loaves were set aside to rise in a warm place before being baked. During the afternoon, Drake delivered the fresh bread to the school, so students could sample a slice.
Bread is an important staple of a healthy diet, Drake said, if it includes whole wheat flour. The recipe she used was about half white and half whole wheat. Some kids like the light brown bread that is a little chewy and some don’t — but they’re more likely to try the healthier version if they’ve made it themselves, and especially, if they get to smell it baking, as students in the later session would.
“In white flour, all the good stuff (bran and germ that contain many nutrients) is thrown away to make it pretty and white,” Drake told the students.
