The Flying Braided Spaghetti bread monster (My French Bread recipe)

   
  So I have been trying to get my son involved in making food and helping around the house.  He is only four so I don't expect the world of him but I would like him to have some enjoyment in manual labor.  This week is dedicated to him.  I remember my mom and Grandma taking me under their wings and teaching me to bake.  I always wanted to be apart of the action in the kitchen during holidays.  Some of my favorite pictures in my photo album I made for myself a year back are of my grandmother, my mom, and I baking cookies or decorating them.

I have a picture like this of my mom and I doing this when I was a kid.  These are the memories that I want to give to him.

    These types of memories are what I am trying to help people remember with this blog.  I also wanted to help my son create memorable moments that he can pass down through picture or stories.  My hidden plan in showing him this is to help teach him how to cook.  I feel that some of the younger generation don't have the cooking skills that the generation before us have.  Creating family bonding moments tend to occur from situations like this.  Point in case is the photo of Simeon and myself kneading the dough.  What you see is me bonding with my son and smiling, what you don't see is us having fun listening to music and my wife taking photos of us and smiling the whole time.

Simeon is the light of my life and my toughest critic.  I let him test everything before I give it to anyone.  He does give it to me straight, whether he enjoys it or hates it completely.


The Basic recipe is french bread
1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar
2 cups of water
1 1/2 tablespoons of oil (I had some nice hot chili evoo I used)
2 1/4 teaspoons of salt
6 cups of flour

Mix the first three ingredients and let sit for ten minutes.  While that goes mix together the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients in two separate bowls.

After combining the the wet and dry ingredients together and you get to this stage.

Its time to knead this every ten minutes for the next hour. After the rest shape each individual loaf and egg wash like below.

This is my son learning how to get that beautiful shiny professional look to each loaf of bread. Bake your finished and proofed loaves of bread at 375 for 20-25 minutes till GBD (golden brown and Delicious).

 

To make it into braided spaghetti bread take per-cooked spaghetti and sauce and cut mozzarella cheese and load into a flattened out 1/4 of the total amount of dough and cut the outside of into one inch strips.  you will also leave a small triangle at either end of the bread.  Fold up the two triangle then alternate the side you fold over.  Egg was the bread and allow to proof for one hour to allow the bread to rise.

    

 I recommend that if you make the spaghetti bread, make two because it is good and addicting.  Also it reheats well in the microwave