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.