School Lesson Bread
When I was working part time looking for a job I found bread baking to be a fulfilling enjoyable part of my day to look forward to. Since starting work full time as a teacher however my bread baking has dropped to zero as lesson planning has taken up more and more time. Then a couple of weeks ago I found out I would be teaching microbes to year 8's (~12 years of age), so I couldn't resist the chance to combine something I love with what should hopefully be a good way to teach some of the topic.
For just over a weeks time I have booked out a food technology lab for 1:40 minutes and I'm looking for a good bread recipe to go from separate ingredients to finished loaf/rolls in this time (ideally one and a half hours but I know I'm pushing it). Has anyone ever done this before or can anyone point me in the right direction for an appropriate recipe?
N.B. My students will have access to fairly good ovens, parchment covered trays and mixing bowls. I'm looking for a fairly simple wheatflour and dried yeast style recipe but one that can be individualised so the small groups they are working in can choose to either make individual rolls or club together to make a big loaf. However any suggestions that people have will be greatfully received.
Comments
You could try a very simple pizza dough that mixes and is ready to bake in an hour--in the meantime your students could slice vegies to put on top.
But, if you really want to show them the power of the microbes (yeast) how about mixing the dough the day before in the classroom? If you can come up with a couple of clear plastic food grade buckets, you could mix an ABin5 dough (see the master recipe on their website which can be scaled up), let them see the rise after 2 hours, and the refrigerate the buckets overnight (if you can find the space).
In the lab the next day, each child could grab a hunk of dough, shape it, give it its "counter rest" and bake it. That could be done in 1:30 or so, and the final oven spring will add some drama to the process.
Another option is for you to prepare the dough in advance so that the kids can shape and bake it in the lab, and while there they can make new dough to take home so that they can see the process.