More Blizzard Baking: Bread Sculpture

Clockwise, starting from the far left: panda bear head by Grace, braid by Steve, over-easy egg by Steve, snail by Heather, and in the center is a bird with a cracked head, by Heather.

This recipe satisfies both the baker and the artist in me. It was a little challenging for an 18 month old and maybe even an almost-3 year old, but sculpting bread dough gave us a good 15 minutes of something "different" to do, and it made a really tasty, warm snack straight from the oven. In case you didn't know, my girls are all about snacking.

I simply made this really quick bread dough recipe and then gave the raw dough to the girls to sculpt into whatever shape they wanted. Steve and I joined in, too. We put the finished raw masterpieces on parchment paper, arranged them on a baking sheet, and then baked them. They got a little puffy in the oven, but it was a worthwhile activity even if the end result was not recognizable!

I first came across this recipe, actually called "bread sculpture", a few years ago when I was a teacher/nanny. One change I would make to the recipe is to add more flour to the dough-- I think it would make the dough more sturdy and less likely to deflate into a blob during the sculpting process.

1 package active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

1 tsp. sugar

2 cups flour

1 Tbsp. oil

1 tsp. salt

Mix the water, sugar, and yeast in a bowl. Let sit until foamy.

Add 1 cup flour and stir with a wooden spoon. Beat until smooth, then add the oil and salt. Stir.

Add the second cup of flour and stir until smooth. (*I needed to add 3-4 Tbsp. more flour at this point, my dough was much too sticky)

Turn out onto a well-floured surface and knead for 5 minutes, adding more flour if you need to, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place in an oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 45 mins.

Punch down the dough and work into a smooth ball in your hands. Create sculptures!

Bake sculptures for 15 minutes in a 400 degree oven, or until golden. Remove from pan to cool.

We enjoyed our panda head, snail, braid, egg, and bird with butter and boysenberry jam!

p.s. For our snowed-in Superbowl viewing pleasure, I made another batch of this dough, and after letting it rise I divided it into two equal pieces, rolled each piece into a long rectangle, then arranged pepperoni, ham, roasted red pepper, and mozzarella cheese down the centers. I folded the long edges in and pinched them together to seal, flipped them over seam-side down on a baking sheet, cut some slits down the center, baked at 385 degrees for 20 minutes, and viola! Stromboli!

This dough is really versatile. What would you create with it?