This is the next sourdough project I have planned – and with a slice of Vermont cheddar cheese? Ah…..

SOURDOUGH PASTRY (PIE CRUST)
For a 9″ double-crust pie:

Sift together:

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Cut in 2/3 cup shortening until it resembles coarse crumbs.
Stir in 1/2 cup fresh starter, just until all ingredients are moistened.
Add a few drops water if too dry, a spoonful more flour if too moist.
Cover or wrap and let stand 30 minutes.
Roll out, use and bake as for any pie crust.

Our starter was ready for use on Friday – right on schedule. Our first loaf of bread was a great success!

Our Recipe

* 1 cup of sourdough starter (note: the starter has to be at room temperature to use. Because this was the first time we were using this starter, it was already there. Next time, I will take a cup of starter out the night before we plan to make the bread and let it warm up overnight.)

* 1 & 1/2 cups of warm water

* 1 teaspoon of salt

* 1/3 cup of sugar

* 1/2 cup of vegetable oil

* 6 cups of flour

1. Mix the sugar, vegetable oil, salt, water and the cup of starter together in a large bowl. Add the flour, one cup at a time, stirring well with each cup. Take the dough out of the bowl, form it into a roundish lump and grease it with margarine or oil. Place it into a clean, greased bowl, cover with a clean towel and let it rise overnight.

(There is no quick way to make sourdough bread. I don’t know if that’s fortunate or unfortunate – it’s just the way it is. Be prepared to start the night before you plan to bake your bread to give the dough time to rise.)

2. The following morning, take the dough from the bowl and knead it on a floured surface for ten minutes. Divide the dough in half and place into two greased loaf pans. Cover with the clean towel and allow to rise until it’s double in bulk – about an hour to an hour and a half.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake the loaves for 40 to 45 minutes or until they are golden brown and have a hollow sound when tapped. Turn them out of the pans and let them cool on wire racks. If you prefer a softer crust ( I do) brush the loaves with margarine while they’re cooling.

Sourdough bread isn’t difficult to make (once you get the hang of not killing the starter…) but it is time consuming. Very.

My feeling is – You get so much more at the end than just two loaves of good bread. Maya and I spent a lot of time in the kitchen together, day after day for a week – making and tending the starter, watching it work and ferment, mixing the bread, watching it rise, shaping the loaves…
There was science and math, reading and sensory learning – there was love. A lot of learning and memory making and two loaves of really good bread!

Today’s Free for Friday just fell into my lap when Jamie Sue left a comment on one of my posts. Check out Her site – Free Printable Fun for Everyone. It’s just what it says it is – Free and Fun for Everyone! Thanks, Jamie Sue!

1. If you’d like to use “The Little Red Hen” as an opportunity to also focus on the color Red, visit Jean Warren at the Preschool Express for a list of ways to work Red in as a parallel theme.

2. Music and Movement with “The Little Red Hen Song” 
(sing to the tune “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”)

This is the way I plant the seed,
Plant the seed,
Plant the seed,
This is the way I plant the seed,
Early in the morning.

Repeat using the following verses:

This is the way I
…cut the wheat
…go to the mill
…make the dough
…bake the bread
…eat the bread
Early in the morning.

3. Put together a baking “prop box” for dramatic play. Include an apron, bread pans, a plastic mixing bowl, measuring cups and spoons.

4. Mix up some salt dough for “baking” bread.
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1-1/2 cups hot water (from tap)
2 teaspoons vegetable oil (optional)
Mix the salt and flour together, then gradually add the water until the dough becomes elastic. (Some recipes call for 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil at this point.) If your mixture turns out too sticky, add more flour. If it turns out too crumbly, add more water. Knead the dough until it’s a good consistency. The dough will keep for a few days stored in the refrigerator

5 First School has some good paper crafts, including puppets to make for acting out the story and characters for a felt board.

6. Put together another prop box with farm animals – including a hen, of course. Add blocks for more creative play.

7. Family members can think of ways to help one another then create and decorate “I Can Help” certificates as gifts.

8. Sprout some wheat seeds (use wheat grass seeds packaged for indoor cats if you can’t find the real thing) Put the seeds on top of a slightly moist paper towel in a zip lock bag and tape to a sunny window. Here’s a slide show presentation of the Little Red Hen’s wheat sprouting and growing (pretty cool!)

9. Go on an outing to a bakery or to a farm with chickens, if you’re lucky enough to have one of those nearby.

10. Starfall has a very pretty version of the story to read online

11. Don’t forget to download the antique version I shared earlier this week – beautiful illustrations (use them to make felt board characters) or print the black and white line drawings as coloring pages

12. Bake some bread together. It could be a traditional yeast bread, a quick bread like banana bread (kids love that) or the sourdough bread project we’ve got going on at our house.

13. How does your family help one another? How about the people in your neighborhood, school or church? Draw a picture together or make a collage showing how people help one another.

Be sure to visit other Thursday Thirteeners by Clicking Here

I put up the felt board. Maya has been telling stories to me all morning.

As you can see, a “felt board” does not have to be some long, involved project. For this one, I taped two pieces of felt to the refrigerator door. I’ve heard from some Very Clever ladies who glued felt to the inside of a (new, clean) pizza box lid, then used the closed box to store the story pieces.

Characters for the story pieces are not hard to make either. I’ve had this set for The Little Red Hen for years, I used it in the classroom long before Miss Maya joined our family. I know that I printed it from a story board group that I belonged to – but I don’t remember who or where. Please let me know if you designed this set – you deserve a lot of credit and I want to give it to you!

To find story pieces for your felt board, you can look in old children’s books, coloring books, search online, draw your own, use magazines…. The trick is to get the pieces to stick to the felt. With the wonderful advent of velcro – it’s not all that tricky! I just cut tiny squares of self-adhesive velcro and stick the “sticky” side onto the back of the illustrations. I laminate them with clear contac paper first for durability.

Another way to make the pieces stay on the felt – and one that in the long run is less expensive, if you plan a lot of felt board stories – is to use a flannel backed plastic (vinyl?) tablecloth from the dollar store. Glue your story characters to the front of the table cloth, cut them out – the flannel will hold to the felt board nicely. A whole lot of stories can be illustrated on one tablecloth!

Tomorrow’s Thursday Thirteen will be a list of resources for a preschool Little Red Hen theme – I’ll be sure to include story board links in the list!