Bread Making

January 10, 2006

At my school we have a week where we get to do different things for the two periods between break and recess; we get to do activities like, stenciling t-shirts, Mexican cooking, Pysanky, [the Ukrainian art of dyeing eggs], bread-making and many more. I chose bread-making.

In bread-making class we learned many interesting things about making bread. Our instructor used this basic bread recipe.

Ultra Basic Bread
4 cups flour (Bread or All Purpose, or up to 2 cups Whole Wheat Flour)
1 3/4 cup water
2 tsp salt
1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast dissolved in a few Tbsps of the water, or 2 tsp instant yeast put in dry, after the salt
A little vegetable oil (or olive oil)

On the first day, we made ultra basic bread. Our instructor taught us the basic steps; some of the steps were very interesting: one of which was “the windowpane test” which is used to test how much longer you need to knead and how far the gluten is developed. (Gluten is like a web that traps the air bubbles from the yeast.)

Over the next four days we were allowed to experiment with whole wheat, raisins, the amount of honey, apples, and oats. On the third day I made whole wheat oat bread with a combination of fresh and dried apples. It was very strangely sweet and tart because I used granny smith apples. I also tried whole wheat bread with honey, which was not much different from the regular whole wheat bread but you could tell that it was different because it had a slight twinge of sweetness.

My birthday was a few days ago and I received a book from a dear friend called “The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread” by Peter Reinhart, it had some fabulous techniques for shaping and making bread as well as some great recipes. The other day I made some pull-apart dinner rolls to have with soup and they were great if I may say so myself. [My sister ate at least seven in 2 days!]

In conclusion I think that bread-making is a fun activity that is productive and useful. [and tasty!]

Isis (not her real name) is fourteen years old and is really interested in food because her dad is a good cook. She was practically raised in a Vietnamese restaurant, and as a baby ate her first solid foods there, which were rice noodles. She tries most foods that are offered to her and her parents urge her to also. For example, when she was 7 years old, she was at a French restaurant and her parents were having snails and they easily talked her into trying them. They ended up being pretty good! Isis takes ballet, plays soccer, sings in a choir, and loves to travel. Isis went to Italy for two weeks and when she came back she went on and on about the food, especially the gelato. Isis thinks that if you are going to eat, why not eat well if you can? There seems to be no reason not to.

Email questions or comments for these two young women to webmaster@drgourmet.com.