Warning: This activity involves use of an oven - please have an adult help you.
You will need
Make sure you wash your hands before handling the dough. You can use any bread recipe you like for this activity.
Simple dinner rolls
Ingredients
2 cups plain flour plus extra flour for dusting
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 sachet Instant Dry Yeast
1 egg lightly beaten
2 tablespoons of melted butter
¾ cup of warm water
½ cup of vegetable oil
Equipment
Two mixing bowls, preferably ceramic as ceramic bowls conduct heat more evenly than metal
Cutting board or clean table for kneading the dough
Plastic wrap
Tea towel
Pastry brush
Measuring spoons and cups
Fork and cup to lightly beat the egg
What to do
Mix together the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a bowl.
Add beaten egg, butter and warm water.
Using your hands, mix ingredients well to form soft dough.
You are now ready to knead* the dough. To knead the dough you need to squeeze, push and mash it. It is hard work. If the dough gets sticky add a sprinkling of flour. Do this for about 10 minutes.
After a while the dough will stop being sticky and will become smooth and elastic.
Form the dough into a ball.
Smear oil onto the surface of the second ceramic bowl. Put your ball of dough into the bowl and roll it around so it becomes coated with oil.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it stand in a warm place. Next to the oven if it is turned on, near a heater or outside under sunlight.
Leave it there for about an hour. Your ball of dough should double in size.
The dough will now be a little sticky so rub a little oil on your hands and (this is one of the best parts of bread making) punch the dough. This will deflate the dough by removing all the air.
Knead the dough again and form it into the shape you want. You can make a loaf of bread using a rectangle tin or dinner rolls in small muffin tins. Make sure the baking tin you use is well oiled.
Put the dough in the baking tin, place a tea towel over the top and sit it back in the warm place to let the dough rise.
When your dough has doubled in size again you can put it in a pre-heated oven at 220 degrees Celsius.
If you want a soft crust brush the top of the dough with melted butter before cooking.
Bake the bread for about 40 minutes for a loaf or 15 minutes for dinner rolls. You will know when the bread is cooked when the top is golden brown and when you tap the top it sounds hollow.
*How to knead dough
Place the ball of dough onto a smooth surface that is covered in flour and cover your hands with flour.
Use the heel of your hand and push the dough away from you and lift the dough so it folds back on itself.
Give the dough a little turn and repeat. Put the weight of your body into this motion.
What's happening?
Yeast is a live, single-celled fungus. There are about 160 types of yeast. The yeast fungus that you used to make your bread lies dormant, which is like hibernation, until in comes in contact with warm water. It then starts to eat the sugars found in flour and releases carbon dioxide gas that causes the bread to rise. Just like us, the yeast needs a warm place to survive. The yeast will continue to grow as long as it is kept warm but when you cook your dough the temperature is too hot for the yeast to survive.
The flavour and smell of bread is caused by the yeast. Allowing the bread to rise twice over several hours helps to develop this flavour, this is called leaving the dough to 'prove'. During the proving process, the sugars ferment and carbon dioxide is produced. The production of carbon dioxide gas in lots of little pockets causes the dough to rise, or increase in volume. You can see all these little holes created the carbon dioxide gas in the bread. This process makes the bread light and fluffy and is called leavening.
When you knead the bread, you are causing the gluten to become more elastic. Gluten is a protein that is found in wheat flour and it forms thread-like chains in the dough. When you knead the bread the chains weave together and the dough becomes stretchy. This causes the carbon dioxide bubbles that are formed by the yeast to be trapped inside the elastic dough. If you didn't knead the bread, the carbon dioxide would bubble up to the top of the loaf and escape.
Applications
Fermentation is the conversion of sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide gas, through the action of yeast. Fermentation has been used by humans since prehistoric times when someone discovered that fruit juices left to rot often developed a characteristic smell and could have an interesting effect if you drank them. However, unless this brewing process is carefully undertaken, the drink can make people sick, lose their sight or even die.
The fermentation process is essential when making alcohol. When making wine, the carbon dioxide gas is formed as a side product during the fermentation process, giving rise to the boiling appearance on the surface of the fermenting wine as the gas escapes. The term fermentation is derived from Latin, meaning, to boil. When making beer some of the carbon dioxide remains in the liquid which gives the drink its fizz, just like in fizzy drinks.
The yeast fungus lies dormant until warm water is added.
Add a beaten egg, butter and warm water.
When you knead the bread you are causing the gluten to become more elastic. Gluten is a protein that is found in wheat flour and it forms thread-like chains in the dough.
Cover the dough and let it sit in warm place. The dough should rise and double in size.
Punch the dough and knead it again. Place the dough in a baking tin and leave it to rise again. This should take about ½ an hour.
The flavour and smell of bread is caused by the yeast. When you allow the bread to rise over several hours it helps to develop this flavour.
