4 H Bread Workshop

One of the cooking contests the children can participate in fir 4 H is a bread and cookie contest.  There are several different categories: yeast breads, quick breads, muffins, specialty breads, drop cookies, bar cookies, shaped cookies, and more.  This contest is for ages 5-19.  Children under the age of 9 can use a mix, children 9 and over have to bake from scratch.  This is one of my children's favorite contests.

To prepare for it, every year there is a bread workshop.  in 2012 we made yeast dough that we could take home.  My boys turned it into pizza :).  In 2013 we made pretzels.  Last year we missed the workshop because we were in Florida.  This year we learned how to make the perfect muffin and made pineapple muffins and corn bread muffins.

Nick, Alex, Christian, and Lily participated in the workshop.  Anthony did not want to and Emmie is still too little.  They split the children up in groups of 3-4 and put a teen leader in charge of each group.  They did a really good job making sure all of the children had an opportunity to participate, and they did everything including washing the dishes and cleaning up their areas.

The muffins were delicious!  We had never had pineapple muffins before.

Here is the recipe they used:

Muffin Ingredients:

2 c flour
1/2 c sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
8 oz can crushed pineapple
3/4 c milk
1/4 c melted butter
1 egg beaten

Topping Ingredients:

1/4 c melted butter
1/4 t cinnamon
1/3 c brown sugar
1/2 c flour

Instructions:

Stir together flour, sugar baking powder, and salt.  Drain pineapple reserving 1/4 c of the juice.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in reserved juice, eggs, milk, and butte.  Stir until just moistened.

In a separate bowl mix together topping ingredients.

Spoon batter into sprayed muffin cups filling 2/3 of the way full.  Spoon one heaping teaspoon crushed pineapple over top and sprinkle with topping mixture.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

Makes 16 muffins.