Morning Tea – Sun Bread

Quote of the Day – from a very confident 4 year-old, who has been coming to Orana Playgroup for about 3 years: “Narelle, I can smell the buns from outside. They smell yum! I lift my nose up to sniff them.”

We made Sun Bread for morning tea. It was a little more effort to make the Sun Bread dough but everyone agreed that it was worth it. Yellow fluffy buns that smelt scrumptious and tasted just as good.

The original recipe is at  http://www.elisakleven.com/recipe.html. I had a bit of trouble with the recipe, so I made an Australian version of Sun Bread. The original recipe calls for 3 eggs per 2 cups of flour. As I put 10 cups of flour into the dough for playgroup, that would have been 15 eggs which would have been much too much. I use jumbo sized free-range eggs. The American recipe also said to use 2 packages of active dry yeast per 2 cups of flour, which would have been 10 sachets of yeast and once again too much.

Here are the ingredients for 10 cups of flour…

10 cups plain flour

300g unsalted butter

9 jumbo sized free range eggs

half a cup of milk

5 sachets of dried yeast (7g per sachet)

about half a cup of raw sugar – I never measure it

 

The yeast didn’t rise as well in the milk. I usually use water. I was really worried about it not getting so foamy, but I needn’t have, it was fine. After kneading it for 10 minutes the dough was soft and buttery, or as the book says “glossy, springy, smooth to hold”.

I won’t be able to make sun bread dough every week for playgroup. The cost of eggs and butter will blow the budget, but it was a nice activity to tie in with the story Sun Bread by Elisa Kleven. The children enjoyed hearing the story again, and they did some sun crafts. Elisa Kleven also wrote the story The Puddle Pail which we had so much fun with last term.

We had slinky apples for morning tea too. Napier is only too happy to use the slinky machine. One of our families has a slinky machine at home and they have a slinky song which they got from the Ace Ventura movie…  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFI2Nzu5zJU.  It was a jolly time.

At morning tea we had a discussion about unusual sandwiches. One girl at playgroup has ham, cheese, and vegemite sandwiches for her lunch – altogether that is. There were tales of ham, jam, and cucumber sandwiches, cold potato and sultana sandwiches, and cold potato and vegemite sandwiches. What’s the quirkiest sandwich you’ve ever heard of?

Cooking for Children

Here is a link to an excellent booklet produced by the Australian government. Everything you wanted to know about feeding children and cooking for children, a weekly menu plan, and simple and nutritious recipes with a grocery list. Brilliant!

Get up & grow

Bread Bun Recipe

I’m frequently asked for the recipe of the bread buns we have for morning tea. So here it is, this recipe makes enough buns for twelve families at playgroup, so adjust according to your need. We love Elisa Kleven’s Sun Bread at playgroup but it is too heavy on our playgroup budget, so here is the compromise…

Orana Sun Bread

10 cups plain flour

2 eggs

500 ml warm milk

3 sachets of dried yeast

3 big spoons of golden syrup

100g butter

some extra milk to make it the right consistency

 

                                                     

Sun Bread by Elisa Kleven

I had a bit of trouble with the original Sun Bread recipe (https://www.copymethat.com/r/wsbFdMi/sun-bread/) so I made an Australian version of Sun Bread. The original recipe calls for 3 eggs per 2 cups of flour. As I put 10 cups of flour into the dough for playgroup, that would have been 15 eggs which would have been much too much. I use jumbo sized free-range eggs. The American recipe also said to use 2 packages of active dry yeast per 2 cups of flour, which would have been 10 sachets of yeast and once again too much.

Here are the ingredients I used for 10 cups of flour…

10 cups plain flour

300g unsalted butter

9 jumbo sized free range eggs

half a cup of milk

5 sachets of dried yeast (7g per sachet)

about half a cup of raw sugar – I never measure it

 

Ordinary Bun Recipe

This is the recipe we used before we discovered Sun Bread…

6 cups white flour

2 cups wholemeal flour

6 tablespoons good quality oil

3 dried yeast sachets

6 tablespoons golden syrup (or a bit extra if you like). You could try treacle too.

2 cups warm water or milk

You can add some mixed spice if you like.

                        

Put the water, yeast, and golden syrup into a bowl together to ferment, mix well. Mix the other ingredients together into a different bowl. Pour the yeast mixture into the flour mixture and give it a good stir. You might need a little extra warm water, just a smidge. I find the bread dough doesn’t like to be handled too much, it doesn’t rise as well. Cover the ball of dough loosely with cling wrap or a tea towel, and place in a warm spot to rise. I don’t punch it or knead when it has risen, I divide it into small balls and give to the kids to shape it. Add sultanas, chopped apricots, anything you like really, be creative. Cook in a preheated oven, about 180 degrees celsius for 20 minutes. Enjoy with butter, jam, golden syrup, honey, etc. Yum!

Some playgroup families have had bun making as an activity at their children’s birthday parties, and it is a good activity for the children during school holidays.

Narelle xox