Bake for Good : Where Home Ec Meets Character!

Recently, our home school group was selected to take part in the King Arthur Flour Bake for Good program - and we had a fabulous time!!!!! For over twenty years, the Bake for Good Kids Program has been helping kids learn to bake and then share their homework with those in need. In some cases, the company travels to a location to host an event, but we were provided all of the supplies and hosted the event through the home school group.

Imagine my husband's surprise when sixty pounds of flour and several other boxes of supplies arrived on the doorstep one afternoon! The company provided ingredients, packaging, course booklets for the kids, and tote bags!

The program is designed to teach kids in grades 4-7 how science, math, and reading all come together in a real-world activity. The culmination of the project is a lesson in philanthropy, when they donate their efforts to a local charity.

The day before the BIG DAY, another home school neighbor and I got together and baked up a batch of practice bread. We wanted to know exactly what we'd gotten ourselves into....how long would it take? Were there any extra supplies we needed? What snags were we going to run into? All the little things that you want to be apprised of before entering a room with lots of kids and open sacks of flour! We practiced with our boys, to see how well the kids would do with the project.

We walked through the four hour process, from mixing the yeast, to letting it rise, to the baking process. (During rise times, we proceeded with the usual co-op classes.)

The following morning, we bagged up the bread and drove it up to Straight Street Ministries, a food charity in the next town over. They were very happy to see us, and many loaves of bread were delivered to locals in need within a matter of hours. Overall, it was a win-win event!

Want to learn the basics of bread making?  It's easy!

Ingredients :

• King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour - 2 cups
• King Arthur White Flour - 2 cups
• Yeast - 1 packet
• Water - 2 cups warm
• Oil - 1/4 cup
• Sugar - 1/4 cup
• Salt - 1 tbsp

Directions :

1. A lot of the families at the event had only ever used a bread-maker.  While they are a great kitchen tool and very handy, they are not suitable for this particular recipe.
2. In a large bowl, combine sugar, yeast, whole wheat flour, and warm water.  Cover with towel and let rest until bubbly.
3. Stir in cooking oil and salt.
4. Stir in 3 cups white flour, one cup at a time.  Measure out one more cup of flour and sprinkle half of that onto the sticky dough.  Work into dough.
5. Flour hands and turn dough onto floured surface.  Knead well.  While it is resting, wipe oil onto inside of bowl.
6. Knead a little bit more, then put the dough back into the bowl and cover.  Let rise in a warm place for an hour and a half.
7. Punch down down.  Divide into half and form into loaves.
8. Place loaves on a greased cookie sheet, and cover with a towel.  Let rise again for 30 minutes.
9. Preheat oven to 375.
10. Remove covering, slash tops of loaves, and bake 30 minutes.  Let cool, and enjoy!

This wasn't the first time our co-op had participated in the Bake for Good program....over the past five years, we have baked bread for the local ministry three times.  Many thanks to the King Arthur Flour Company for supporting this amazing program!!!