Bread and Butter

Our theme for the month of March was "Folk Tales Down on the Farm." As part of this theme we read and compared different versions of various folk tales. One of my favorites is always "The Little Red Hen," so to go along with that story my class made bread together.  I am not quite brave enough to make bread the old fashioned way with all the kneading and resting and rising; and honestly I am not sure that we would have the patience to do it that way!  I brought in my bread machine and we talked about wet ingredients and dry ingredients and then added them all together and poured them in the bread machine.  We checked on it throughout the morning and were able to see the mixture change and rise in the machine.

While we were waiting for the bread to bake, we also made some butter. If you have never made butter, it is one of the most simple and fun things to make!  Start with room temperature heavy cream and a clean, lidded jar.  Pour the cream into the jar and add a clean marble if you wish.

SHAKE!  A lot! Take turns, because this part can take a while. The colder your cream; the longer it will take.

As you shake the sound will change from a sloshy liquid sound to a very quiet, almost silent sound. The cream is getting thicker and you are about half way there.

Shake some more!!

The sound will change again to a sloshy liquid sound accompanied by a louder "thunk." That is because the cream has separated into butter and buttermilk.

Shake it a little longer and then separate the butter from the buttermilk. Rinse the butter with clear water while stirring it around in the bowl. This will remove all the buttermilk and make your butter stay fresher longer.

Add butter to your fresh baked loaf of bread.

Eat and enjoy!!

 We ate our fresh bread and butter for afternoon snack and had enough left over to share with parents.