On one level, bread dough is a lot like play dough. Both are soft and pliable, and both can be shaped, pulled, twisted and squished into monsters and animals. But unlike play dough, bread dough fills your house with wonderful smells as it's baking--and produces fresh warm loaves perfect for spreading with butter.
It's no wonder baking bread with kids is always a roaring success, especially when the weather is blustery, like it was one recent afternoon when I invited a group of kids into my kitchen to bake. While I shaped an old-fashioned loaf of wheat bread, the kids got creative with the dough, designing snakes, funny faces and puppies with raisin eyes. But the highlight was when they crafted a March lion and lamb using a garlic press to make the fierce mane and woolly fleece.
As they squeezed out strands of dough, I explained that March comes in with stormy weather, like a lion, and goes out with mild, warm days, like a lamb. If only the weather could be as predictable as our bread craft project.
Deanna F. Cook is the editor of FAMILYFUN'S COOKBOOK, FAMILYFUN'S COOKIES FOR CHRISTMAS, and FAMILYFUN'S CRAFTS, all from Hyperion, and the author of THE KIDS' MULTICULTURAL COOKBOOK and KIDS' PUMPKIN PROJECTS, both from Williamson.
