Hollis students take part in ‘Bake for Good’ event
HOLLIS – The best part of bread is usually getting to eat it, but students at Hollis Upper Elementary School seemed to have an all-out blast mixing, kneading and shaping the dough to bake loaves they ultimately would donate to charity.
Amy Driscoll from King Arthur Flour visited the school Tuesday morning to lead a bread making demonstration as part of the company’s Bake for Good: Kids Learn Bake Share Program, which “encourages kids to give back to their community through baking nutritious bread from scratch,” the company said in a statement.
Driscoll and two other teachers based in other areas of the country lead up to 180 demonstrations every year. Each student is then given a kit including all-purpose and wheat flours, yeast, a recipe booklet, a dough scraper and a bread bag. Gluten free flour was available to those who needed it.
The bread dough makes two loaves, one to be brought home and another to be brought back to school. The 320 loaves brought back to the school will then be donated to local organizations including the Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter, local senior centers and possibly police or fire stations,
according to Brenda Nickerson, HUES media specialist.
The program allows students to give back to their community, Driscoll said. She added that kids know that not everyone is dealt the same hand in life and some people really struggle.
“This gives them a way to address that problem,” she said.
Driscoll, who has been visiting schools and doing the demonstrations for six years (although the program is in its 27th year), said it also teaches kids how to bake, which is not often taught in schools.
She and her trusted sidekicks, fourth grader Audrey and fifth grader Avi, whose last names the school asked not be included, learned that the “three steps to measuring a gorgeous cup of flour” are to “fluff, sprinkle and sweep.”
Together they showed how to knead, using a “fold, push and turn” method, and testing by using the “doorbell” trick: pushing two fingers lightly into the dough and watching it spring back.
Avi in particular helped to show how to toss pizza dough (hands together, twist, down, up and apart) and was successful in tossing and catching until he tried to see how high he could toss it and they had to race to catch it.
Driscoll also cautioned students to read the recipes twice, don’t turn the oven on unless there is an adult present and that dental floss is key for “gorgeous smiles and beautiful cinnamon buns.”
However, baking skills and a few tricks of the trade are not all the students walked away with; they also learned some of the real-life applications of the curriculum they are learning in the
classroom.
For example, Driscoll taught that the bread has to be completely cool before it’s put in the bag, because otherwise the warm air will condense and the bread will get soggy.
She also taught about yeast and chemical reactions, carbon dioxide and chemical reactions involved in the bread making process.
Science played a big part of the demonstration, as did math.
“You cannot bake without using math,” Driscoll said. “What do fractions have to do with your life? Fractions have to do with cinnamon rolls.”
She then talked about how to divide the dough into eight equal pieces.
Driscoll hung around after the demonstration to whip up a few batches of dough for her next lesson at the MicroSociety Academy Charter School later that day.
The HUES students will bring the loaves to be donated back to school by April 18, from which they will be distributed to their designated areas.
Hannah LaClaire can be reached at 594-1243 or hlaclaire@nashuatelegraph.com.