Honey Bear Bread

With this honey bear bread recipe, we usually do a lesson about honey bees and honey, and the
health benefits of honey. We touch on how honey is made and show the children pictures of bees and honey combs. This is a very easy and lovely recipe that you can make yourself with your child. For this month, we used our dough and let the children be creative to make flowers, dragons, mice ,bunnies and any shape they like from the dough.

Method for honey bear bread

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.

Dough

In a large mixing bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let sit for 5 minutes. Add the honey, salt and egg. Stir until blended.

Add 3 cups of flour and mix until the dough comes together. If using a standing mixer, knead the dough with the dough attachment for 5-7 minutes, or until elastic. If not, knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until soft and elastic (about 8 minutes), adding more flour to keep the dough from sticking if necessary.

Do not add too much flour! The dough will become more workable the longer you knead. Transfer the kneaded dough to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel.

Let the dough rise in a warm area until it doubles in size, about 2 hours. Punch dough down, divide into 12 equal portions, and shape each portion into a round ball.

When baking with your children, let them be creative and make flowers, mice, bear-faces, dragons or turtles, or for that matter anything they want. Let them make different characters using honey bear bread dough!

Place in a pan (or on baking sheets) coated lightly with cooking spray. Cover with a kitchen towel and let it rise for another 20 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine the melted butter and 1 tablespoon honey. Brush over the rolls.

Bake for 10-13 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm or at room temperature.