Letter (and Number) Bread

CLB had a friend over to play with today, so CLG and I decided to bake some bread for dinner. It's always fun having some girl time, especially since CLG enjoys baking and cooking as much as I do. We picked a bread recipe out of the book, The Alpha-Bakery Children's Cookbook by Gold Medal.
This book has a recipe for each letter of the alphabet! It's a fun little book with recipes that my two Crazy Kids can make, with help from me of course! For the letter t, the book has a recipe for turtle bread, which is basically bread in the shape of a turtle. We did this when CLG was focusing on the letter T, but this week, we're actually reviewing the letters, B, C, S, and T, along with the number three. So CLG thought it would be fun to make these letters and numbers out of bread and eat them for dinner. And that's just what we did!

CLG finishing up her "C"

Here are all our letters (and our number 3)

Getting ready to take a 20 minute rest after all that work!

Rested and risen, time for the oven!

Yum! Ready for dinner!

The bread has a wonderful taste and texture, and it went beautifully with our spaghetti dinner. Even better, CLG had fun making the bread and then practicing her letter and number making skills by playing with the dough. All in all, it was a nice way to spend an afternoon!

Letter (and Number) Bread Recipe
adapted from the Gold Medal Alpha-Bakery Children's Cookbook

Ingredients
2 to 4 cups of all purpose flour
1 package of rapid rise active dry yeast
1 TBSP of sugar
1 tsp of salt
1/2 cup of water
1/3 cup of milk
1 TBSP butter

Directions

1. Mix the yeast, 1 1/2 cups of the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Put water, milk and butter in a microwavable container. Microwave it for 15 seconds, and test the temperature. If it's warm (between 125 to 130 degrees) take it out. If not, microwave for another 15 seconds. Wait for the butter to melt a bit and then add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture.

2. Stir in one egg, and then stir in enough flour so that the dough is stiff enough to handle. Sprinkle a surface with flour and then knead the dough on this for about 5 minutes, adding flour to the board as needed. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

3. Spray one or two cookie sheets with baking spray. Cut the bread into six evenly divided chunks, and form them into long "worms". Form the worms into whatever letters or numbers you desire. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes. While the dough is resting, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

4. Place the cookie sheet(s) into the oven and bake the bread for 10 to 15 minutes. The bread should be a golden brown and make a hollow sound when you tap on the bottom of a piece.