In Robertson County, the majority of families have at least one parent that works outside of the home, and the majority of those are employed outside of the county itself.  It is easy to see where this leads to a time shortage, which in turn causes family time, especially meal time to be a rush. Too often fast food is served and traditional recipes fall to the wayside.

 Meanwhile, the leader of my 4-H Cooking class had retired. I decided this was an excellent time to revamp this popular program and expose the 4-H'ers involved to some new concepts. By setting up each semester as a unit, I planned to expose the participating children to useable life skills, new knowledge and old traditions.  In the Fall semester of 2018 I decided a bread baking unit an excellent way to accomplish all of these goals.  This group is allowed to use the Foods lab at the local school and are divided into groups of five or six, as attendance varies between 24 to 35 children, each group with an adult leader assigned to them to emphasize safety and explain various techniques.

 I chose recipes for making "Big Blue" Muffins, a quick "Pumpkin Apple" bread and a yeast bread. I thought the blueberry muffins would get their attention because they were familiar, similar to the much loved cupcake, and they were well received.  Next we tried a quick bread, and I chose the pumpkin bread recipe for this session.  At the onset of this class several kids proclaimed they didn't like pumpkin, but when several parents showed up a bit early to pick them up they were told, "I can't go, the bread isn't ready yet and I want to try it!"  The smell and appearance of the bread was enticing and recipes were taken home to share.

I could see the participants becoming more familiar and able to deal with the different types of bread recipes, and my plan for the last session of the semester was to introduce them to yeast breads.  I knew that in many circumstances, these children would not have the opportunity to experience learning about how yeast works and how it is used in recipes.  As the recipe would take a little longer to cook, I let them prepare the yeast pretzels, learn about kneading and shaping the dough, then explain the concept of how yeast works in bread rising as their own creations were baking in the oven.

By setting up 3 stations featuring a cold setting, a warm setting and a hot setting for yeast cultures to grow in dishes, it was demonstrated to the participants what was the optimal situation for yeast to grow and cause their dough to rise.  When their pretzels were done baking they could sample them with various dips for flavor.

Throughout the semester these activities gave young 4-H cooks the opportunity to learn about the various kinds of breads and what made each unique. They became comfortable with the various mixing and kneading techniques for each recipe.  They now know more about what it requires to produce the different types of breads that they previously took for granted, and got some exposure to baking styles that will influence what they may do in the future.