*Christmas Bread Brownie Activity-December 2008*
Vanilla Eggnog Bread, Spiced Pumpkin Bread and Chocolate Zucchini Bread (mini-loaves)
Activities: Bagging up mini-loaves in decorative cello bags and labeled, assembling recipe cards, and foam Christmas tree ornaments
Tis the season to bake with the Brownie Troop...Fa-la-la-la-la...La-la-la-la! This activity is quickly becoming a yearly event, and a great way for me to keep up with how things are with the kids in the last class I taught at my old school. The noise level is usually at a fever pitch from the moment they walk in to the moment they leave with their goodies because we're all so busy finding out what's new.
Feeling the pinch from the recent economic down-turn, I thought it was important to incorporate a lesson in sharing with this year's activity. So I planned to bake simple bread recipes with them, allowing for 1 loaf to take home to their family and one to share with another family. Due to time (and kitchen) restraints, I baked off one whole batch of each loaf prior to the day's events, leaving each group of girls to bake the second batch that afternoon.
Since most of the time spent together would be waiting for the breads to bake, we planned activities such as bagging and tagging the already baked breads, gluing recipes to holiday cardstock and an ornament craft for their tree at home.
Given how busy the girls were, I'm actually amazed we only had one hiccup-an unfortunate sacrifice of one batch of chocolate zucchini breads to the Saint Elizabeth, the patron saint of bakers. I think that I will have to be a little firmer about the noise level and express a need for focusing on the task in front of them rather than arguing over who gets to do what. But all in all, things went very well and we finished the day only 6 loaves short (which were going to be gifts for the Brownie Troop leaders & helpers). More unfortunate was how quickly the troop leader's house went from smelling of Christmas to swirling with smoke as the offending batch was mixed with little, if any flour, and so bubbled and burned with the fury of melted sugar.
As fast as the prep time went before they arrived at the house, we were already saying goodbye as each girl was loaded up with 1 finished loaf, bagged and tagged, a recipe card and their ornament with the promise that they would receive the second loaf the next day as they were just out of the oven and too hot to handle. It was fast and furious, but, as always-FUN!
Hmmm...I wonder what next year will bring?
*Happy Holiday Baking!*
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