INGREDIENTS: Our
basic bread is made up of 5 ingredients: flour, yeast,
honey, water, and salt. We will talk about each of
these and show them what we use to mix them all together
(our BIG bowls, BIG mixing paddles, our BIG scale,
and our BIG mixer).
FLOUR: Our flour is
freshly ground every day from whole “berries” of
Montana wheat. We will show the children a wheat stalk,
whole berries, whole wheat flour and the mill used
to stone-grind the flour.
YEAST: Yeast is what
makes our bread rise. It is a fungus that eats the
sugar in the dough and produces air bubbles. The children
will see, smell and feel the yeast.
HONEY: We use honey
to sweeten the bread. It also helps the yeast to do
its work. The children will see the BIG barrels in
which our honey is stored.
KNEADING: When the dough
is ready to be made into loaves, we weigh and cut it
up into pieces. We push and roll it with our hands
till it is the right shape and then put it into pans.
The children will see the kneaders in action at the
big table.
PROOFING: After we knead
the dough it is set aside to rise, or “proof.” This
is where the children can see the yeast work as the
dough often doubles in size!
BAKING: After the bread
proofs, it is ready to go into our BIG oven. We will
help the kids climb a step ladder to see the flames,
rotating shelves and baking loaves.
SELLING: When the bread
is all done, and has cooled enough that we can put
it in bags, we sell it! The tour ends up in our front
customer area where we talk about this process. Finally,
we give the children their own mini loaf to take home
with them!