COOKING C5

ANZAC BISCUITS

To begin this series of cooking classes, I was assigned to teach with class 5 we cooked Anzac biscuits. Dina the class 5 teacher had requested that we cook cakes and biscuits.

This posed a dilemma for me, because although I am passionate about cooking I am not especially passionate about cakes and biscuits. Viewing the whole habit of nibbling on food, that is largely wheat and dairy based to be somewhat of an exercise in adding on masses of unnecessary body weight for those of us in the mid-life category. Swallowing my position on the ingredients necessary for cake and biscuit cooking classes I went ahead and planned a series of classes for these 10/11 year olds. Basing my choices on their requests and past memorable times of enjoying sweet fare when bulging buttocks were not an issue.

I introduced the class by explaining that we would be making Anzacs as a warm up exercise to see how they went with listening, cooking and cleaning up. There were 15 students in a group dividing into 3 small groups for the three work benches in our school’s kitchen. (OH&S)

Cooking classes have a bit of a reputation for being loud and out of control with mixed sex groups. Though generally the children love cooking! They just do, they love it, (and also this class 5 group love eating)– somehow it empowers them – I know when my daughter cooks at home she feels an opportunity to express herself in the kitchen which is an area in which I am very dominant. It gives her the importance of being the provider of nurturing and nutrients.

Aside I think there is a whole discussion area to be explored on constructivism in the home but let us leave that for another time do check out… EXAMBLOG

To make the situation interesting I offered three different varieties of Anzacs
Muesli Anzacs (muesli substitutes oats)
Traditional Anzacs
Spicy Spelt (here was an opportunity for me to have input in that I love to cook with cinnamon, nutmeg, orange zest etc. and replacing wheat with spelt)

It was a fairly constructivist environment in that the children worked in groups, the recipes were written up on the blackboard, for them to follow. The scaffolding was the recipes, the work areas, the cooking utensils, the ingredients – the rest was up to them – my assistant and I supervised the gas cooking for melting butter and the oven work to avoid injury, and watched that behaviour did not become out of control in a way that would be dangerous to the children.

All went well and we completed with three different tasting types of Anzacs (multiple representations)– I wanted them all to try each variety – which was a challenge as typically the children want to eat exactly what they have made – right from kindergarten days when each bun or biscuit etc. is labelled as it goes into the oven – I always try to bring some type of sharing scenario; in this case asking them to try each type.

In middle lessons Jacinta, a high school cooking teacher, does a process with Yr 7 cooking classes by cooking miles more than enough for the class and actually cooking meals that are distributed around the school for staff at lunchtime. This creates a wonderful feeling of abundance and generosity – much satisfaction in the belly.

With an afternoon lesson we have to work toward home time.

To finish off the lesson I did a survey asking who liked which variety of anzacs the most – from both groups the majority, by far, voted for TRADITIONAL.
And some brainstorming about what they wanted to cook next, they came up with:
Chocolate-coated strawberries
Ice cream
Cheese cake
Triple chocolate brownies
Gingerbread men
Shortbread
Pizzas
Milkshakes

Over 3 weeks I had the benefit of doing a number of recipes twice thus having an immediate opportunity to improve on the organization. The make-up of each group was different each time as well, due to some children participating in a drumming group on the Tuesday.