With over 12 years of in-person cooking classes for kids under my belt and now, three years of online cooking classes, I’ve become pretty good at figuring out what can be cooked and baked in an hour with minimal ingredients and equipment but I have to say that since we’ve been back with our baking club on a trial basis this term, I’ve found myself having to put extra thought into the recipes.
Working in an actual classroom means I have to bring over all the equipment I need each time (from another building three floors up) so I really need to make sure that I have everything I need when the sessions start = no grabbing of ingredients or equipment last minute, everything needs to be really well thought out. That part I’m still struggling with a little bit, three weeks in, but choosing what to make is slightly easier (I have a lot of recipes to choose from, just need to find the ones that can be made in the time we have, here it’s just over an hour…). Last week we made easy soda bread rolls, a recipe I developed early during the pandemic when yeast was hard to come by – a perfect recipe to make with kids because 1. It doesn’t involve much equipment or many ingredients and it gives pretty instant gratification (and, bonus – it “looks like real bread”!)
Just a few dry ingredients, whisked together…
Add an egg and some plain yogurt = an easy-to-work-with dough (missed the little hands mixing the wet ingredients, they move fast!):
I taught students how to bring the dough together in the bowl with one hand and the other hand on the edge of the bowl so they would always have a clean hand – useful in the kitchen but also useful when you are teaching Zoom classes and need a clean hand to manage the computer/ camera!
Once the dough came together, we used a scale to portion out the “rolls”…
We tried to use a light touch to make “roll-shapes”.
A little brush of milk and a pinch of flour, 25 minutes in the oven and voilà:
(these are “jumbo” muffin tins so the rolls didn’t quite fill them but in a regular muffin tin (<<< affiliate link but this is the one I use and love!), they will.
“Look – it looks like a mini loaf of bread” exclaimed one of the bakers! And yes, it does!
These are lovely fresh the day they are made but also toast up well the next day!
I’d say this was a win: easy recipe, few ingredients, not much equipment, a successful recipe and happy kids!
Stay tuned to see how our exploration of baking evolves over the next 4 weeks!
Soda Bread Roll Recipe
Get the recipe for Soda Bread Rolls here
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They do look great, Mardi…. I can taste ’em with a slab of butter and jam. Lovely.