Bread making ABCs: it's something any kid can do - and so can you - includes related articles on measurements and yeast

In 1992, Jim Bernard, a science teacher at Killingly Intermediate School in Dayville, Conn., had a bright idea: Instead of just telling his students about yeast, why not show them what happens when the living, single-celled organism is fed? Bernard knew perfectly well that if you give yeast three simple things -- moisture, food (starch and sugar) and a nice, warm environment, it begins to busily convert its food, through fermentation, into alcohol and carbon dioxide. In bread baking, that gas is trapped in tiny bubbles in the bread dough, causing it to rise. Bernard thought if he could give his students yeast, flour and some basic instructions, they could actually see this process with their own eyes -- so he contacted King Arthur, a 200-year-old flour company in nearby Norwich, Vt., and asked for some support.

In response to his request, they sent him not only the ingredients needed to prepare yeast dough in class but enough for each student to make two loaves of bread at home. They also sent Michael Jubinsky, a baker, to instruct the kids and gave students an incentive to practice baking at home: They asked them to bring in one of the two home-baked loaves to donate to ;local food kitchen for the needy.

The program was a huge success and generated extensive word-of-mouth. King Arthur received so many requests for the program that it became institutionalized at the company, earning it a name -- The Life Skills Bread Baking Program -- and inspiring an accompanying booklet entitled, A Short Course in Baking with Yeast. Today, more than 20,000 students at 60 schools have learned a lesson that will last them a lifetime: They will not only nourish themselves but nourish others too. And all they need to do so is their hands, flour, yeast, water and an oven.

Communities become involved in different ways. Classes range in attendance from 150 to 820 students and are usually held in a school cafeteria or auditorium hall where a King Arthur baker is assisted by two students. A professional chef's demonstration mirror is mounted above the work station so the audience can see every step of the process. The company ships the ingredients before the class (all the flour is donated by King Arthur and all the yeast by Red Star Yeast Company). In many locales, a supermarket will donate bags for the take-home baking kits, and volunteers will help portion and pack the yeast and flour. In some cases, the classes are so large, and the rate of return of baked bread brought back to feed the hungry so high that the donations are divided and delivered to several different charities.

"Over the years, between 70 percent and 90 percent of the students bring back bread to donate," says Joe Caron of King Arthur Flour. "And the highest rates of return -- about 90 percent -- come from schools in the poorer rural or inner-city neighborhoods."

Michael Jubinsky, one of the four King Arthur baker instructors, remembers a recent class he taught to students in a particularly poor neighborhood. One of the students asked him, "What if you don't have a bowl?" Jubinsky replied, "Do you have a pot? Then that will work." At the end of the class when Jubinsky asked the students if they would bring one of their loaves of bread back to donate to a shelter, a teenager jubilantly exclaimed, "You mean we re going to give it to the needy?" Jubinsky recalls, "It was absolutely awesome to see how proud this made them."

Farley Rezendes, another King Arthur Baker instructor, says, "I tell students `I got started in baking around your age -- when I was in eighth-grade.' After every class several students come up to me and ask how they can become bakers. Perhaps they realize for the first time that it's a career option." Rezendes, who has a degree in pastry arts from Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., says, "I see this as a life-skill, whether or not you choose it as a career. Many of the kids in my classes have no idea where bread, much less wheat, comes from. They think bread is something that comes from a shelf in a store. So when they learn how simple it is to make something very good and very nutritious, and they know exactly what's in it -- well, it's inspiring."

Although the program is usually taught to fifth-, sixth-, seventh and eighth-graders, it has been taught to first- and second-graders too. Diane Paraskevas, a PTA program chairperson at St. Paul School in Princeton, N.J., read about the program in a local paper and decided there was no reason it couldn't be taught to all the students at St. Paul, from first through eighth grade. King Arthur agreed. "Afterward, I got a lot of calls from parents who said the students not only learned to bake bread at school but came home and taught them how to bake. We sent home 341 bread kits on Friday and on Monday 300 loaves of bread came back, " says Paraskevas proudly.

With the same basic dough recipe, one also can make rolls, English muffins, pretzels and pizza crusts. So dig in -- you'll soon see why bread-making is grabbing the hearts and hands of kids everywhere.

Basic Bread Dough

This basic recipe makes two loaves of bread or one loaf and any one of the variations that follow. For wheat bread, substitute 2 cups whole wheat flour for 2 cups unbleached flour.

2 cups warm water (95 to 1 1 5
    degrees)
1 Tbs.sugar
1/4-oz. package or 1 Tbs. active dry
    yeast
5 to 6 cups unbleached all-purpose
    flour
1 Tbs. salt
Additional flour for kneading
Cornmeal for dusting baking pan

Cloverleaf Rolls

Lightly oil 12 standard muffin pan cups; set aside. With lightly floured hands, divide dough into 12 equal pieces. Divide each piece into three pieces and shape into balls. Place three dough balls in each muffin cup. Cover rolls and let rise in warm place until doubled in size, 30 to 60 minutes. Bake at 400 degrees until golden, about 15 to 20 minutes. Makes 12 rolls. PER SLICE: 98 CAL.; 3G PROT.; 1G TOTAL FAT (0 SAT. FAT) 20G CARB.; 0 CHOL.; 291MG SOD.; 1G FIBER. VEGAN

Sandwich Buns

Lightly oil baking sheet; set aside. On lightly floured surface with lightly floured rolling pin, roll out dough 3/4-inch thick. Cut out dough with 3- to 4-inch round cookie cutter. Reroll dough scraps and cut additional buns. Place 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet. Cover buns and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 30 to 60 minutes. Bake at 400 degrees until golden, about 15 to 20 minutes. Makes 8 buns. PER BUN: 147 CAL.; 4G PROT.; 0 TOTAL FAT (0 SAT. FAT) 31G CAPB.; 0 CHOL.; 437MG SOD.; 1G FIBER. VEGAN

Skillet English Muffins

Lightly oil baking sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal; set aside. Roll out dough between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick. Cut out dough with 3-to 4-inch round cookie cutter. Reroll dough scraps and cut additional muffins. Place muffins 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled in size, 30 to 60 minutes.

Lightly oil large skillet and heat over medium-low heat. With spatula, transfer muffins to skillet, cornmeal side down. Cook until underside is golden, 10 to 15 minutes, Turn and cook until underside is golden, 10 to 15 minutes . Cool on wire rack. To serve, split muffins in half lengthwise with a fork and toast. Makes 10 muffins. PER MUFFIN: 117 CAL.; 3G PROT.; 0 TOTAL FAT (0 SAT. FAT) 25G CARB.; 0 CHOL.; 350MG SOD.; 1G FIBER. VIEGAN

Pretzels

Lightly oil baking sheet; set aside. Divide dough into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into 20 inch long rope. (You may need to let dough rest several times during rolling so it can be stretched long enough.) Tie each rope into pretzel shape and seal edges with a little water. Let pretzels rest for 15 minutes.

In large saucepan, bring 3 inches water to simmer. Add 2 teaspoons baking soda. With slotted spoon, gently lower two to three pretzels into water. Increase heat to maintain simmer and cook for about 1 minute. Transfer pretzels to prepared pan, spacing about 2 inches apart. Repeat with remaining pretzels.

In small bowl, beat 1 egg with 2 or 3 teaspoons water. Brush pretzels with egg wash, then sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake at 450 degrees until crusty and brown. about 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Makes 8 pretzels. PER PRETZEL; 147 CAL.; 4G PROT.; 0 TOTAL FAT (0 SAT. FAT) 31G CARB.; 0 CHOL.; 437MG SOD.; 1G FIBER. OVO-LACTO

Pizza

Lightly oil 14-inch pizza pan and sprinkle with cornmeal. Flatten dough. With lightly floured rolling pin, roll out dough to 14-inch circle. Slide onto prepared pan. Spread crust with prepared pizza or marinara sauce, leaving 1/2-inch border around edge. Sprinkle with any combination of sauteed sliced onions, bee peppers, mushrooms or broccoli florets. Top with shredded mozzarella cheese. Let rise for 20 to 30 minutes.

Bake at 450 degrees until cheese is melted and crust is crisp and golden, 15 to 20 minute. Makes 8 servings. PER SERVING WITHOUT TOPPING: 147 CAL.; 4G PROT.; 0 TOTAL FAT (0 SAT. FAT); 31G CARB.; 0 CHOL.; 437MG SOD.; 1G FIBER VEGAN

Nancy Ross RYAN is a Chicago-based food-writer, working on her fourth cookbook, Great Chefs Celebrate the Seasons, a companion volume to the Great Chefs cooking series for television.

Measuring Up

Before flour is packaged at the mill, it is well-sifted. During shipment, the flour settles and becomes compressed. Before you measure it, you want to return it to its sifted, airy state so that each cup of flour weighs about 4 ounces. To do this, fluff up the flour in the bag or storage container with a fork or whisk it until it is light. If you scoop out the flour directly from the sack without fluffing it, the amount will be greater and can weigh 5 to 5 1/2 ounces. This extra ounce per cup can make a big difference in the final outcome of baked goods, especially bread. To correctly measure flour, spoon it into a one-cup dry measure. When the cup is full, level it with the flat edge of a knife blade or spatula.

About Yeast

Yeast is a living, single-cell organism. There are many varieties of "wild" yeast present in the air around us all the time. Since the 1800s, when Louis Pasteur discovered how yeast works, scientists have isolated and reproduced different strains of yeast for yogurt and cheese, beer and wine as well as bread.

There are several kinds of commercial yeast available for bakers:

* Active dry yeast: This is the most commonly available and most widely used kind of yeast for home-bakers. it is a dormant, dry yeast that becomes active only when dissolved in liquid that contains a bit of sugar or flour. This yeast is available in 1/4-oz. packets, by the jar in grocery stores, or in bulk at natural food stores. One 1/4-oz. packet of active dry yeast is equal to 1 scant tablespoon of bulk active dry yeast or 1 cake of compressed yeast. Active dry yeast can be kept several months in the refrigerator and almost indefinitely in the freezer.

* Compressed cake yeast: This fresh yeast comes in 1/2-oz. cakes and must be kept refrigerated or frozen. it has a refrigerated shelf life of about two weeks and can be frozen up to three months. (If frozen, thaw the cakes in the refrigerator before activating.) Because it has a shorter shelf life than active dry yeast, it is not as commonly used. One 1/2-oz. of compressed yeast equals 1/4-oz. packet or 1 scant tablespoon of active dry yeast.

* Quick-rising yeast: A newly developed strain of yeast that has a higher protein content than active dry yeast. It is quicker to use for bread-making because it eliminates the proofing process (dissolving the yeast in warm water and letting it stand until it begins to bubble) and makes the rising process faster. According to some bakers, the only drawback to this yeast is that the faster the bread rises, the less flavor it develops. (The longer the rising periods, the fuller the flavor of the finished bread.) Like active dry yeast it will keep several months in the refrigerator and almost indefinitely in the freezer.

COPYRIGHT 1997 Vegetarian Times, Inc. All rights reserved.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group