MORAVIA - There are few things to compare with a warm, freshly baked loaf of bread, hot from the oven.
Sam Tenney / The Citizen
Paula Gray, an instructor with The King Arthur Flour Company's Life Skills Program, shows students at Millard Fillmore Elementary School in Moravia how to measure flour for baking. Students were given bags of flour to bake two loaves of bread each over the weekend; one to keep, and one to donate to the Community Food Pantry.
Paula Gray, an instructor with The King Arthur Flour Company's Life Skills Program, shows students at Millard Fillmore Elementary School in Moravia how to measure flour for baking. Students were given bags of flour to bake two loaves of bread each over the weekend; one to keep, and one to donate to the Community Food Pantry.
Founded in 1790, King Arthur Flour is America's oldest flour company and has been a cornerstone in countless loaves of bread in the past two centuries.
Last week, Paula Gray, an instructor in King Arthur's life skills program, paid a visit from Vermont to Millard Fillmore Elementary School to give more than 250 students a few lessons in bread making.
Millard Fillmore special education teacher Meg Hughes got the ball rolling on getting Gray to Moravia.
“I thought this would be a great idea for the students,” Hughes said. “I applied for a grant and found out that we got chosen for this. When you bake bread, you have to think about things like math and science. I thought it would be a great opportunity for all the students to learn not only some math and science, but also how to bake.”
“There is a lot going on when you make bread,” Gray added. “There is math and science and chemical changes all just to make a single loaf.”
Along with two student helpers, Courtney McUmber, 11, and Jacob Cabisca, 12, both fifth graders at the school, Gray gave a quick crash course on the intricacies of making a good loaf.
“I have a few tips and tricks,” Gray said.
Along the way, Gray also imparted some insight into the different kinds of flour and their respective uses.
“There is all-purpose flour, and there is whole-grain flour,” Gray explained. “You start with a wheat kernel and for whole-wheat flour you have all three parts: the bran, the starch and the germ. In all purpose-flour, the bran and the germ are removed.”
Gray went on to explain that one of the more interesting parts of the bread making process is the yeast, which is actually alive, feeding the sugar that is added to create the chemical reaction necessary to make bread.
“Yeast is the secret,” Gray said. “It is dormant right now, but it is actually alive. You wake it up with warm water, and when it eats the sugar, it creates CO2 (carbon dioxide).”
Gray had McUmber and Cabisca handle a lot of the work, from demonstrating the proper way to measure flour and other baking ingredients to rolling and handling
the dough.
“I help my mom in the kitchen pretty much every time she cooks, McUmber said, ”and this was really a lot of fun.“
Cabisca, who also had the chance to show off his pizza throwing skills, tossing the dough high in the air and catching it again, is no stranger to the kitchen either.
“My dad is a really good cook,” Cabisca said. “He does a lot of catering. I like helping him; he has taught me a lot about cooking.”
After measuring out all the ingredients and kneading the dough, Gray took the students through the final preparation, demonstrating how to determine the final shape of the bread from a regular loaf to a fancy braided option.
Then Friday, all the students who attended were presented with a bag of bread-making supplies from King Arthur Flour and asked to go home and take part in the final phase of the project over the weekend.
Students were asked to make two loaves of bread, one for their families and one to be brought back to school and donated to the local food pantry.
“I think this is a great opportunity for all these kids,” Hughes said. “They are learning a lot, and they get to do something for other people. At the same time they are learning a life skill, something they will be able to use for the rest of their lives.”
For their part, the students couldn't wait to get home and give their own bread a shot.
“I think it will be fun,” Cabisca said. “And we'll be making bread for a good cause too. I think that will be really nice.”
Last week, Paula Gray, an instructor in King Arthur's life skills program, paid a visit from Vermont to Millard Fillmore Elementary School to give more than 250 students a few lessons in bread making.
Millard Fillmore special education teacher Meg Hughes got the ball rolling on getting Gray to Moravia.
“I thought this would be a great idea for the students,” Hughes said. “I applied for a grant and found out that we got chosen for this. When you bake bread, you have to think about things like math and science. I thought it would be a great opportunity for all the students to learn not only some math and science, but also how to bake.”
“There is a lot going on when you make bread,” Gray added. “There is math and science and chemical changes all just to make a single loaf.”
Along with two student helpers, Courtney McUmber, 11, and Jacob Cabisca, 12, both fifth graders at the school, Gray gave a quick crash course on the intricacies of making a good loaf.
“I have a few tips and tricks,” Gray said.
Along the way, Gray also imparted some insight into the different kinds of flour and their respective uses.
“There is all-purpose flour, and there is whole-grain flour,” Gray explained. “You start with a wheat kernel and for whole-wheat flour you have all three parts: the bran, the starch and the germ. In all purpose-flour, the bran and the germ are removed.”
Gray went on to explain that one of the more interesting parts of the bread making process is the yeast, which is actually alive, feeding the sugar that is added to create the chemical reaction necessary to make bread.
“Yeast is the secret,” Gray said. “It is dormant right now, but it is actually alive. You wake it up with warm water, and when it eats the sugar, it creates CO2 (carbon dioxide).”
Gray had McUmber and Cabisca handle a lot of the work, from demonstrating the proper way to measure flour and other baking ingredients to rolling and handling
the dough.
“I help my mom in the kitchen pretty much every time she cooks, McUmber said, ”and this was really a lot of fun.“
Cabisca, who also had the chance to show off his pizza throwing skills, tossing the dough high in the air and catching it again, is no stranger to the kitchen either.
“My dad is a really good cook,” Cabisca said. “He does a lot of catering. I like helping him; he has taught me a lot about cooking.”
After measuring out all the ingredients and kneading the dough, Gray took the students through the final preparation, demonstrating how to determine the final shape of the bread from a regular loaf to a fancy braided option.
Then Friday, all the students who attended were presented with a bag of bread-making supplies from King Arthur Flour and asked to go home and take part in the final phase of the project over the weekend.
Students were asked to make two loaves of bread, one for their families and one to be brought back to school and donated to the local food pantry.
“I think this is a great opportunity for all these kids,” Hughes said. “They are learning a lot, and they get to do something for other people. At the same time they are learning a life skill, something they will be able to use for the rest of their lives.”
For their part, the students couldn't wait to get home and give their own bread a shot.
“I think it will be fun,” Cabisca said. “And we'll be making bread for a good cause too. I think that will be really nice.”
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