I made up this recipe rhyme a while ago, and just recently dug it up again. Caterpillar and I had a grand time baking today, and it was really nice to be able to recite this and reference where we were in the process. She was a lot more patient through the whole thing knowing which step we were at and what would come next. I’m kind of inspired to come up with more of them, so stay tuned if you like things like this.
(You are welcome to print this off and use it with your kids, but if you like this enough to share it with others, please give credit and link back to here, thanks!)
How To Bake Bread:
One cup of water, warm to the touch.
Two cups of flour, but not too much!
A big pinch of yeast to help it rise,
Another of salt, just the same size.
A spoonful of oil, and then use your brawn
To stir it together ‘til the lumps are all gone!
Cover it up and let it start to rise,
Then leave it alone ‘til it’s doubled in size.
Shape your loaf however you make it.
Let it double again, and then you can bake it!
When the crust is light brown, carefully take out your treat,
Let it cool for a bit, then it’s ready to eat!
If you do use this with your kid(s), make sure to have something for them to do while the bread is raising. A half hour show is about the right length of time, or read books or play games together, but have something to keep impatience from becoming too much of a problem.
Also, this is basically a scaled down version of The All-Purpose Bread Recipe found here, and the details of what you can do with the dough can be found at that link. It could turn into anything from a loaf of bread to cinnamon rolls, pizza, or even pitas if you wanted. If you want to make an even smaller batch, you could give your kids half-cup measuring cups to use (I do this if Caterpillar is making her batch of bread alongside my bigger batch for the family). Try to let your kids do as much of the work as they can get away with, but grown-ups will obviously have to do any oven work.
Don’t worry about being too precise with the measurements – let the pinches and the spoonfuls be just that. The ingredients all have a fairly decent margin of error, and most kids aren’t worried about getting a “perfect” loaf – they just want to have fun and end up with something they can eat at the end.
Tags: dairy free, kids, vegan