Lena’s Bread Dough

Lena and Russell make bread in their cookery lesson. They knead the soft dough, then put it in a large bowl while their teacher explains the next step.

The dough needs time to rise before it is shaped. Russell covers the bowl with a clean cloth and leaves it on the bench beside the cold window.

After a while, Lena lifts one edge of the cloth. The dough still looks like a small mound at the bottom, almost the same as before.

“Have we done something wrong?” Russell asks. Their teacher checks the dough and feels how cool the bowl is beside the open window.

She helps them move it to a warmer place away from the window. It is comfortably warm there, with no hot tray or oven touching the bowl.

They leave the cloth in place and work on another part of the lesson. Lena sets out a tray while Russell clears the flour from the bench.

When they look again, the dough has risen higher in the bowl. Its soft round top is now well above the place where it started.

Their teacher helps them get ready to shape the bread. “It needed warmth and time,” Lena says, pleased that waiting and checking have helped them understand.