January 26, 2008 - 8:27am
Why I don't bake when my kids are home
I made two lovely sprouted grain breads recently in the evening, unusuall because I normally bake in the middle of the day. And now I know why I don't bake in the evening too.
I have 3 kids running about in another room adjacent to the kitchen yelling and screaming and doing what they love to do when winding down from school when I put 2 nicely risen loaves in the oven. They were both about 4 inches high and promptly fell to 1 inch high.
They still taste fine, just a wee bit dense though, so I'll make some in the afternoon this week instead :)
I think if I build an extension to the kitchen I'll put a bakery in another building instead.
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I haven't had that particular delight; I'm much more likely to interrupt my process to help with math lessons (EVERYONE loves word problems, right?), and forget some important ingredient. Like yeast.
Don't laugh; I actually did that last week... It's pretty hard to knead that stuff in after the fact!
Timing is everything.
edh
The time kids start to do things like climb the tables and practise flying is when my hands are deep into dough. The only other time that kids are at their worst is when I'm on the phone. Aurgh!
Kids just don't understand how important bread is. :)
My cooking and baking always reflects if I was being interrupted or nagged at, while making it.
Emily who is 5 still delights in flattening my risen dough. I can have a pan ready to go in the oven and she very quickly slaps the top of each one to watch it fall. I realize how fun that must be but they never look the same. It makes me so aggravated!
Audra
I can never bake without kids around (5 ranging from 11 mths to 12 yrs). They always choose to do very silly things when my hands are busy and they always want to "make bread, too!" I have been known to break of pieces of dough so they can "help" (not a good idea for certain sticky doughs I've found out). But I also have children who love any bread that comes out of my oven, so maybe in the end, the whole process is important for their developing love of great bread. I rarely make white bread, they love rye, whole wheat, grain breads. It's all sourdough. And it also means that I can go crazy on experiments because I know it'll get eaten. No no-carbs diet for us!
Jane