Virtual Story Time 04/27/20

4/27/2020

Welcome to the SEVENTH Virtual Story Time with the Paddington Station Staff!

Happy Monday! Today we have lots of great content in store for you - we hope you enjoy another fabulous story time with the Paddington Staff! Put on your apron, grab a bowl, and get inspired to bake!

Today's Virtual Story Time features story time and activities with Science Teacher Wendy plus magical hats with Librarian Kelly!

The Science of Bread with Wendy

First - a science experiment with Wendy! Press play!!

Storytime! The Little Red Hen with Wendy!

A lesson in making bread at home - starring our favorite scientific chef, Wendy!

Greetings Paddington friends!

One way I have been using my time at home these days is baking fresh bread. There is nothing like having bread still warm from the oven, topped with salted butter. YUM!! It got me thinking a little more about how science is truly all around us in so many things we do around the house. I thought I would talk a little bit about the science of bread-making.

I’ve been using a very simple process for bread making. The link to the full recipe is provided below.
https://www.jennycancook.com/recipes/faster-no-knead-bread/

Let’s walk through the steps and talk a little bit about some of the science behind the yummy-ness.

First, the flour:
3 CUPS OF ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR.

I scoop it from the large container into my measuring cup, then I brush off the top bit to make sure the flour is level to the top of the measuring cup. Baking is a very precise science, and it is important to add the correct amounts of ingredients! I add the three cups to a large mixing bowl.

Then, the yeast:
¼ TEASPOON ACTIVE YEAST.

Yeast is essential to bread-making. Some breads, like sourdough, use a “starter” which is a combination of flour and water that sits for awhile, pulling wild yeast that is in the air around us. It can make some amazing bread, but it does take a lot of attention and extra flour to maintain. Right now, I like things to be pretty simple, so I use store-bought active yeast. I add the yeast directly into the bowl with the flour.

Yeast is a living funghi organism. It consumes carbohydrate sugars (here found in our flour) and produces Carbon Dioxide gas and methanol. This gas creates tiny bubbles that we will see later in our risen dough. The scientific term for this process is called fermentation.

You can also see evidence of tiny bubbles in baked bread (all the holes). Without good yeast activity, our bread would more closely resemble a rock or dense pancake.

Then a little salt:
1 TEASPOON SALT
Salt adds flavor to the bread and it also helps give the gluten structure so the bread doesn’t get too dense.

MIX THESE DRY INGREDIENTS TOGETHER IN THE MIXING BOWL

Finally the water:
Here is where we have to be precise again. We need to add 1 ½ cups of water to the dry ingredients. It is very important for the water to be between 125 and 130 degrees so the yeast can do it’s job. I have put together an experiment with yeast and water temperature in another document below.

Add the warm water to the mixing bowl, and mix everything together until you have a sticky wet dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and leave on the counter or in an oven (turned off) for three hours. The oven method is helpful if it is a little chilly in your home. You want the dough to stay around 70 degrees.

After three hours, uncover the bowl. The dough should have nearly doubled in size because of all that gas the yeast produced!

Spread some flour on a clean kitchen counter. Dump the sticky dough onto the floured area. This is a simple dough that you do not need to knead. Instead take a pastry scraper or flat spatula and fold the dough. One visual you can use is like when you are putting on a baby’s diaper. First fold the bottom, then fold in the sides. Then spin it around a half turn and repeat. As a result, you should start to see a nice ball of dough form.

Tear off a large sheet of parchment paper and place it inside of a clean, large mixing bowl. Place this ball of dough inside that bowl. Let it rest for another 30 minutes. Turn on the oven to 450 degrees, and place a covered Dutch oven pot inside the oven to warm up as well. The heat in the baking process will stop the process of fermentation and kill the yeast. Remember also that yeast make ethanol as it digest the sugars. This ethanol will evaporate in the hot oven.

After 30 minutes, carefully pull the Dutch oven out of the oven. Pick up the parchment paper and place it and the dough ball inside of the Dutch oven. Cover, and bake 30 minutes. Then pull the pot out, remove the parchment paper, but leave the bread in the pot. Leave uncovered and bake another 15 minutes.

Let cool for at least 20 minutes and enjoy!
When you slice into it, you should be able to see lots of tiny holes. Those yeast were busy!! The structure of the holes is maintained by the gluten in the flour. Gluten free breads required other ingredients to help the bread maintain the structure and show the tiny holes.