The age range of our group is 5 – 9. While not a huge difference in years, there’s a fair amount of space when talking about attention span and impulse control. Aside from the logical chronology of easy to more complex, the main requirements for lessons seem to be: yummy, keep it moving and/or have a place to break for silliness and sustenance.
Keeping all that in mind, what recipes should we tackle?
I wanted to follow a basic intro to baking curriculum, albeit an extremely abridged one! It made sense to introduce the kids to the elements of baking starting with yeasted bread. I mean you’ve got three ingredients to deal with in the simplest recipe…water, flour, and yeast. Add salt, sugar and a fat and that’s still pretty workable for young hands. Plus, yeast. It’s alive. It’s neat.
So,
Lesson 1: Soft pretzels. Not bread exactly, but the mixing method is the same. And kids like pretzels.
Lesson 2: Pate a choux. Fun. To. Say.
Lesson 3: Pumpkin chocolate chip bread pre-Halloween. Intro to chemical leaveners.
Lesson 4: Apple pies for Thanksgiving.
Lesson 5: Cookies, holidayish.
Lesson 6: Frangipane tart, perhaps with fruit.
Lesson 7: Lemon pound cake in preparation for the more difficult cakes…
Lesson 8: Chocolate cake and buttercream
Lesson 9: Chiffon cake with berries and whipped cream
Totally doable right?
