YEAST
We begin by sprinkling two teaspoons of dry yeast over warm water. If it's too hot, you'll kill the yeast. A child can test the temperature by holding a finger in the water--it should be comfortable to the touch. If the mixture bubbles up after five minutes, you are ready to proceed; if it doesn't, the yeast is dead (a sign it may have been stale).Using a relatively small amount of yeast gives you more control over the dough, so don't make the mistake of thinking that more yeast will make your bread easier to work with. Too much yeast and your bread gets out of hand, often with large holes created by too much fermentation.
It is important to understand that yeast cells are living organisms, actually microscopic fungi, which are activated by coming into contact with the starch of the flour. (Sugar also activates the yeast but is rarely necessary in bread recipes.) If this fact dampens your children's enthusiasm for tasting the raw dough, you can assure them that the heat from baking kills the yeast, making the bread perfectly fine for consumption. We prefer to use the preservative-free yeast that is available in some quality grocery stores and most health food stores.
KNEADING
Kneading the dough helps to distribute the yeast cells and to develop the flour's gluten--the elastic protein that enables the bread to rise and hold it's shape. To knead, fold the dough over on itself and push it down and out with the palms of your hands. You don't want to tear it--you want to stretch it. Make sure you pop all the bubbles as you knead so that the final loaf will rise evenly.
RISING
After the dough has been kneaded, we return it to a clean bowl and treat it as if it were an infant we were tucking in for a nap (this is the part my daughter likes best). We dampen a terry-cloth hand towel with hot water, wring it out, then place it over the bowl. Another layer of dish towels gets wrapped around this, then the dough is left to rise in a draft-free place. This warm, moist environment ("cozy" my daughter calls it) is the most propitious for the proper fermentation of the yeast and encloses the warmths generated.Scrape the dough away from the sides of the bowl and return to the floured board. Knead for another few minutes, then shape into a leaf by folding in half and patting it.
Place the dough in a lightly greased loaf tin, cover, and allow it to rise again until doubled in bulk.
