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I had to test out the product ahead of time, so we made a loaf before the party. Princess E couldn't wait to try the bread, so I let her help me make it.
I should clarify that. By "help", I mean I let her make it while I took pictures.
Here is our finished sample loaf. It had a thick crust and the loaf was super heavy.
Then, it was time to get cleaned up and ready for our party. After I learned how easy it was for Princess E to make the bread, I changed the party plan. Instead of all us moms making the bread, we let the kid's have fun. Sure, we were there to supervise, but we let them have the fun.
We try to blend homeschooling into everyday activities. So, we turned our little party into a cooking lesson, hygiene lesson, and a chemistry lesson.
They took turns adding the ingredients for their creations. They got a kick out of watching the yeast begin to work. The recipes are very simple and are great for an after work dinner. Everything is premeasured and packaged for ease, except for water. All you need to make these loaves is a cup of water. What could be easier?
We let the children plan their own loaves and shapes. Just look at all these awesome loaves!
Did I tell you it takes less than an hour, start to finish to have a fresh loaf of bread? Of that, less than 10 minutes is active time. Just 10 minutes.
This was our smallest "loaf". She decided to save this morsel of yumminess to share with the pooches.
Here's another of the loaves.
Now, let me tell you a little abou the Fleischmann's Simply Homemade bread mixes. They come in four varieties:
Country White
Stoneground Wheat
Multigrain
Italian Herb
At our party, I asked which was everyone's favorite. It was pretty well divided between Country White, Stoneground Wheat and Italian Herb. Personally, my favorite was the Italian Herb.
We talked about different ideas for making different bread creations. One suggested stuffing the Italian Herb bread with pepperoni, mozarella cheese and spaghetti sauce. That would be delicious. A similar recipe is posted on the Simply Homemade recipe page. Other suggestions were to make cheese rolls, by mixing in cheese sticks, cooking hot dogs inside shaped dough, and cutting up the leftover bread and making croutons. All of those sounded like kid-friendly ideas except the last one wouldn't work. What leftover bread? Ha!
I think my favorite thing about this line of bread is that I can allow Princess E to make it, pretty much by herself. It's a great way to practice her baking skills. You don't even have to knead the dough. You just stir it all together. She can do everything except take the bread out of the oven. Okay, she probably could do that too, but we're not ready to let her pull hot pans out of a 400 degree oven.
You can pick-up Fleischmann's Simply Homemade Bread Mixes at your favorite grocery store. A list of chains is provided on their website. I encourage you to visit the website and take a look.
Many thanks to MommyParties and Fleischmann's Simply Homemade for providing me the products to host this gathering. We had a lot of fun! We moms (and dads!) enjoyed watching the children enthusiastically craft their loaves, and we enjoyed sampling the end results. The children enjoyed being "in charge" of the kitchen, wearing their own oven mits, and proudly showing off their designs. It made for a great party!
Disclaimer: The bread mixes, coupons, apron and oven mitts were provided to me to be able to host this party. The opinions expressed in the post are mine or those of my guests.
