Easy and Delicious Bread Recipe - With Bread Science Lesson (2024)

We’ve been stuck at home for a few days due to school closures, so it was time to get the kids back into the kitchen and learning some science and math the old fashion way… cooking and baking! To kick things off we made some bread and boy it turned out amazing! After sharing some pictures on social media I was asked for the recipe. So here it is!

Easy Bread Recipe To Make At Home

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One of the things I love about making bread with the kids is that they can feel the science happening right under their hands. They can watch it with their eyes. And they can taste the delicious results of science at work.

This is multi-sensory learning at its best!

Plus the kids are learning important life skills. I want them to know that they don’t need to rely on a store for their food. If needed, they can make everything they need at home with a few simple ingredients.

First up, let’s explore the science behind bread making so you can turn this into a fascinating kitchen science lesson for the kids.

Bread Science

Blooming Yeast

In the first step of this experiment you are going to bloom the yeast. This is a fascinating chemical reaction that will have your kids jumping with excitement!

So what is happening when we bloom yeast?

We are triggering fermentation. Simply by adding yeast, sugar and warm water together, we set off a reaction. The yeast starts feeding on the sugars and produces carbon dioxide. As kids watch that potion like reaction expand and grow you can explain that this reaction is what causes our bread to rise.

Gluten Strands

When flour and water are mixed together the glutenin and gliadin become gluten. Gluten is a tightly wound mess of protein strands but when it is kneaded these strands unravel, stretch and rearrange themselves into a strong structured network of protein strands called dough. This network is both elastic and plastic meaning it will change shape easily but will always try to move back to its original shape when left alone.

As your kids knead the dough in this recipe, they will feel this change happening. Right under their hands!

When we add all of the ingredients together the carbon dioxide released by the fermentation of the yeast gets trapped in the gluten network and creates bubbles. This results in the dough expanding which can be pretty spectacular if you overfill your pans. In the end we are left with the fluffy, porous, foam like texture of bread. Which is oh so delicious!

Different Breads

We’ve made bread many times. The great thing with bread making is that there are so many different ways to make it! We’ve made a White Bread Loaf, Pita Pockets, Bannock, No Knead Bread and a delicious Irish Soda Bread.

The science behind this recipe is the same as our Basic Bread Loaf. We are simply using a slightly different recipe and technique that includes blooming the yeast (which kids LOVE!). This recipe also uses quite a bit of sugar which we don’t normally use. But if you like a sweeter bread, this is a good, easy bread recipe.

Easy Bread Recipe

For this recipe you need a few supplies.

Large mixing bowl
2 cup and 1 cup sized measuring cups
Floured surface (I use a large cutting board)
Loaf pans or baking trays if you want to make buns
Oven

Ingredients

This recipe makes 2 loaves of bread or 2 dozen buns.

1.5 tbsp Active Yeast
1/2 tbsp Sugar
1/2 cup Warm Water
5 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tbsp salt
1.5 cups warm water
1/4 cup vegetable oil

How To Make Bread

We start by blooming our yeast as we discussed in the science section. This is super easy.

Simply add 1.5 tbsp of yeast to 1/2 tbsp sugar. Then mix in 1/2 cup of warm water. Don’t use water that is too hot. We want it safe for kids to do this step. Think bath water temperature. I found it best to do this in a 2 cup measuring cup or a bowl will work too. While that is blooming, which takes about 5 minutes. Start preparing the other ingredients.

Into a large bowl add 5 cups of flour (regular flour is what we used), 1/4 cup sugar, and 1/2 tbsp salt. Stir together.

Now add the liquids to the dry mix. Pour in the bloomed yeast, 1.5 cups of warm water and 1/4 cup of oil.

Mix everything together then turn it out onto a floured surface and start kneading. It will start out sticky but as those gluten strands start to stretch it will be tacky without gluing your fingers together.

If you need to, and it is just still really sticky even after lots of kneading, add a bit more flour.

Use a bit of oil and grease the inside of the large mixing bowl, then place the kneaded dough back into the bowl and cover it with a towel.

Let it sit for 1 hour. Kids will love peeking and watching it grow!

After an hour have the kids punch it! The dough will deflate kind of like a balloon.

Knead the dough one more time quickly, then divide it up into greased loaf pans. You can use a bit of oil or butter to grease the pans.

Cover with a tea towel and let it rise once more for 1 more hour.

After an hour pour a little melted butter on top of the dough and place it in the oven at 375° for and bake for 20 to 30 minutes. Until the tops are nicely brown.

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