$750 Bread
Kyla with her award-winning bread.
My daughter, Kyla, loves to cook. As a member of 4-H, she enters food at the county fair annually. This last year she won 4th place in the Junior Division for her homemade whole wheat bread. Kyla’s entry made it into the Premium Sale, which was a first for our family.
Needless to say, our whole family was excited for Kyla. Her grandma bought her a new outfit. I took her to the store to purchase a basket, ribbon, and some kitchen towels to give with her two loaves of bread. The morning of the sale Kyla set out to prepare a new batch of bread.
Her secret is freshly ground flour. My husband bought me a grinder for Christmas. It has become one of my favorite gifts of all-time. I use it almost daily. I will do a whole article soon on my grinder.
At the auction, Kyla stood in front of everyone proudly. She smiled and held her pretty basket of bread for all to see. Her smile widened as the bidding started. In the end, she sold her loaves of bread for $700.00 to the Grimes County Poor Boys. In addition, our local Coufal-Prater John Deere store added $50.00. Kyla was glowing!!
Consequently we changed the name of her bread to reflect the amount she won. It is now $750.00 Bread. Kyla has now started a college fund which I thought was quite practical. She is planning on trying to perfect her recipe for this year’s contest as well as enter some other baked goods. We want to put out a special thank you to the Poor Boys as well as Coufal-Prater for supporting the youth in our county.
If your children are not involved in 4-H, I highly recommend looking into it. Visit your local chapter at their next meeting. 4-H is not just for country kids or for raising animals. There are literally hundreds of projects available to explore and participate at the county, district, and state levels. My children for example do photography, food and nutrition, clothing and textiles, horticulture, and music performance to name a few of the various projects available to pursue. In addition to having opportunities to learn a skill, 4-H offers many opportunities to gain scholarship money. It is a club certainly worth researching for any family with school-aged children. I would definitely recommend 4-H to home-schooling families. It is a way that your children can interact safely with other children in a fun, learning environment with parental supervision. I really like our 4-H group, 4-Hers-on-the-Brazos.
Besides the secret of using freshly ground flour, proofing the yeast is important to the success of your loaves. Here is Kyla’s award-winning bread recipe. We hope you enjoy it!
$750.00 Bread
2-1/2 cups warm water (about 110 degrees)
1-1/2 tbsp yeast
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup oil
2-1/2 tsp sea salt
1-1/2 tsp vital wheat gluten
6-7 cups flour (I use Montana Prairie Gold Wheat Berries)
Combine the water, yeast, and two cups of flour into a large mixing bowl. Allow to sit for 15 minutes. Add honey, oil, salt, gluten, and 4-5 cups of flour. Mix until no dough is sticking to the sides of the bowl. Knead the dough with oiled hands for 7-10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Form the dough into two loaves and place them in greased loaf pans. Cover with a clean kitchen towel. Allow to rise until the loaves double their original size. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. The bread should be a golden brown and it should sound hollow when thumped. This recipe makes two loaves.
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