Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Our Bread Bears

Today I finally attempted to use Aunt Heidi's tutorial on how to make Whole Wheat Honey Bread Bears. The pictures she had on her blog were soooo cute and she made it sound so easy that today when Stephen asked what craft we could make, I quickly said, "Let's make the bread bears!"

Before I continue, let me just say that I'm thankful that Fred had to take the camera to a client's today so I was unable to take pictures of our final product. They were quite deformed and looked nothing like the pictures on the tutorial.

So, there I was, elbow-deep in whole wheat flour and overactive yeast, trying to shoo away six little hands that all wanted to scoop and dump the flour mixture. After the initial combining of ingredients, I realized I was in trouble. My dough didn't look ANYTHING like Aunt Heidi's pictures!! Without even scraping the goop off of my hands, I dialed her number (probably even waking her up ... sorry, Aunt Heidi, but the boys were up early and bored by 8:00) and had to ask for help. After following her advice, I was able to incorporate enough extra water into the dough to start kneading it and getting it to look right.

Poor Timothy was so anxious to have his own bread bear that he kept asking every five minutes if it was done yet and could he have a piece. This was while I was still yanking my shoulder muscles out ... I mean ... while I was still kneading for approximately 12 minutes like the tutorial said to do. We let the dough rise (or do I say "raise"?) in a bowl in the oven, to keep those little fingers from poking and proding it to see if it was done yet, then we finally were able to start shaping our little friends.

The boys, who were whining and crying at this point, saw what I was doing and forgot their woes as they pulled up their stools to "help" yet again. I gave them some blobs of dough and we all worked together to make our own little bread bears. Now, Aunt Heidi's recipe said that one batch of dough should make 15 little bears. Our recipe made 5 little bears, then two plain ladybugs (not as many little arms and legs and ears to deal with) and then one loaf of bread (with no arms, legs or head to deal with!). The boys' favorite part was taking the skewer and poking in a belly button on those bears!

Many, many hours later, according to Timothy, the bears were FINALLY done! He was so proud of his new little friend with a snout that fell off and rolled into the back of the oven that he grabbed the head, pulled it off and stuffed it into his mouth! Stephen gave the best compliment, though, when he said, "Mommy, this is the best bread you ever made! You better use only this recipe from now on!"

Tonight's bedtime story even revolved around our bread bears. When the mommy in the story opened the door to see if her bread bears were ready, they all jumped up and shouted SURPRISE! and had a little party in the oven! Christopher especially loved this story and kept shouting SURPRISE and laughing hysterically at the silliness of it all.

Aunt Heidi, thank you for the delicious recipe and for bailing me out this morning! We love the bread bears and even if I don't attempt them again for several years, I'm sure I'll be using the recipe for plain old loaves of bread that don't rely on as much detail. Mmmmm. The smell of freshly baked bread is still wonderfully strong tonight as I write this. I think I need to go cut a huge slice off of a lone tummy that's left here.

7 comments:

GramS said...

Sounds like a FULL day of baking. I'm sure the boys had fun! The hard part is the waiting till it's baked. You can do up the dough in your bread machine and divide it into little bears, now that you know about how much would be the body, head, arms & legs. They are so cute! I'm glad you tried it.

Ohio_Momto3boys said...

I can picture this completely! What a hoot! Aren't boys the most fun ever?
Could you please send me the link to the breadbear tutorial?

Anonymous said...

Martha- I am so impressed that you tried them. So many people say " we could make these!" and then never , ever even try! I made them with Jordan's Kindergarten class one year(Robin helped,thank God) and we had 18 little boys and girls poking belly buttons! Most of the bears had currants stuck into their belly buttons and multiple holes poked randomly around their torso!

Next time you are in town and have a morning free- come over and we will make them together!
I'm glad the kids enjoyed the bread!

And you didn't wake me up- I have what I think had turned into walking pneumonia and I just sound bad on the phone. And --You are welcome to call anytime.

Karen said...

I would have NEVER done such a feat even with 13 or 16 year olds!!! And...Edson doesn't even let me wash dishes or clean off the tray. I'm glad you had fun.

liz said...

I love the image of you dialing the phone with dough on your hands! (I'm glad I'm not the only one who's done that!)

Peg Toth said...

Just think of the wonderful memories your are helping to make for your boys! Admit it, you really did have fun baking the bread. Where can I get the tutorial? Would like to try it with the grands when I have an all day babysitting job. (At least with 7 of them here...and maybe even 2 when we go to Park Rapids the next time. Would be fun, and Grandma's don't mind the mess.
(If you don't use the bread machine, how about the dough hook on a Kitchenaid Mixer! That would save sore shoulders...or maybe you need to live closer to U. Russ.
(I'm glad your guys are learning the fine art of cooking/baking-every guy should!)

Martha said...

Here's the link to Aunt Heidi's tutorial for the bread bears. If any of you try them, let us know how they turned out!!

http://heidiannie.livejournal.com/2008/08/18/