THE MEASURE, MIX, AND BAKE PROGRAM

eet the 2000 national extension Family and Consumer Sciences baking education award winner. Congratulations and thanks to Martha M. Yount for her winning lesson plan! Martha M. Yount County Extension Agent, Family and Consumer Science Breathitt County Jackson, Ky. The Measure, Mix, and Bake Program Program Goals:  •  Provide children and their families with the basic skills needed for scratch baking • Promote improved nutrition through expanded food skills • Educate children on kitchen sanitation and safety methods • Promote constructive family activities • Extend basic baking skill learning opportunities beyond the traditional classroom Measure, Mix, and Bake outcomes:  •  Students will demonstrate knowledge of fundamental scratch baking skills: dry and liquid measurement, creaming and mixing batter, adding eggs and dividing batter or dough for even baking • Ten food handling safety and kitchen safety practices will be taught • Students will prepare products and receive take-home recipes to help develop basic cooking skills and home food preparation practices • Skills in math, science, reading, and following directions will be practiced • The community will receive eight opportunities to gain knowledge and skills in baking, plus the recipes, through the televised "Kids in the Kitchen" show on local cable TV "While teaching a child and his/her family to bake cookies and brownies is certainly not a cure for poor nutrition, it is a way to introduce basic food preparation skills that might de-mystify the whole cooking process." - Martha Yount, County Extension Agent, Family and Consumer Sciences What 50+ kids produced and 1,800 households experienced:  •  Nine basic, scratch baking recipes prepared by County Extension Family and Consumer Sciences agent Martha Yount and a first or third grader • "Kids in the Kitchen" show produced by high school journalism students • Math, science, and reading skills in action • Classroom education brought into their homes • Resource management - learning baking skills to save time, money, health, and build self-esteem, family life, and community well-being Lesson contents: We have included for your use:  •  Research-based reasons to teach home baking skills • List of "Ten Baking Safety Checks" • "Classroom Enrichment Guide for Drop Sugar Cookie" (Note: The on-line lesson plan contains the correct Drop Sugar Cookie recipe. Please use this recipe (and not the recipe in the printed copy) when baking the cookies.) lesson (designed for grades 1-3) • Eight great "Measure, Mix, and Bake" recipes with nutrition information • Wordless evaluation form for lower elementary ages • Baking education resources • Release form letter Ten Baking Safety Checks: ___ Wash hands for 20 seconds (before starting, when returning to food) with warm water and soap all over hands and wrists, rinse well, and dry with a clean towel. ___ Clean dishcloth(s). (Change daily.) ___ Work surface and sink cleaned before, after, and as needed (sanitize with 1 teaspoon bleach added to 1 quart water). ___ Eggs stored in cartons (not refrigerator door) at 40°F. (Any raw egg drips cleaned up immediately.) ___ Hair tied or held back. ___ Raw dough or batter is not to be eaten. Dough or batter is covered and refrigerated if not baked right away. ___ Oven rack is placed where it is needed before preheating the oven*. ___ Two clean, dry oven mitts or pads available by the oven. ___ Counter space and cooling rack ready for hot pan when it is removed from the oven and a clear traffic path to it. ___ Clean containers or new plastic bags used for storing baked products. * Adults should be available to help children with all "hot jobs," such as loading and removing baking pans from the hot oven and handling hot products. Cooking in the Classroom Enrichment Program "First I took Drop Sugar Cookies (Note: The on-line lesson plan contains the correct Drop Sugar Cookie recipe. Please use this recipe (and not the recipe in the printed copy) when baking the cookies.) into the first and third grades as a classroom enrichment program. This Cooking in the Classroom lesson helped send kids home with a kindled interest in cooking for themselves, some basic skills, and prepared them for the TV experience." - Martha Yount, County Extension Agent, Family and Consumer Sciences Cooking in the Classroom lesson: Baking Drop Sugar Cookies (Note: The on-line lesson plan contains the correct Drop Sugar Cookie recipe. Please use this recipe (and not the recipe in the printed copy) when baking the cookies.) Audience: Early primary (grades 1-3) Objectives: Following the lesson, students will:  •  Demonstrate proper hand washing before cooking • Identify two to four ways to work safely in the kitchen (for their age) • Recite two functions of a written recipe • Demonstrate the skills needed to measure flour and liquids, and mix a simple batter Skills practiced included: counting, following directions, hand-eye coordination, measuring dry and liquid ingredients, mixing, and reading accuracy/comprehension. Ingredients needed (for four groups each consisting of 4-6 students): Lesson outline Recipe sheets (plus copies to take home) Hand sanitizer Paper towels Vinyl tablecloth Toaster oven Extension cord 2 cookie baking sheets 4 pot holders 4 mixing bowls Containers for flour and sugar Pastry blender or forks 4 large mixing spoons 4 table knives Small bowl Cooking (pan) spray Cookie stamps, optional Spatula to remove cookies Cooling rack (paper to identify each group's cookies) Paper napkins Minute timer 1 package sugar cookies with price noted Ingredients needed (for four groups of 4-6 students each): 2 sticks (8 ounces) butter or margarine ½ cup shortening 6 cups self-rising flour* 3 tablespoons baking powder 3 teaspoons salt 2 2/3 cups granulated sugar ½ cup 2% milk 4 teaspoons vanilla 4 large eggs * Or, 6 cups all-purpose flour (may be one-half whole-wheat flour), 3 tablespoons baking powder, and 3 teaspoons salt. Tips:  •  You may want to bring extra ingredients in case of spills • If possible, print out informal "Baking 101" completion certificates or provide a sticker for their successful baking course • Bring large t-shirts or aprons to pull on in case students are concerned about clothes Cooking in the Classroom lesson outline: Drop Sugar Cookies (Note: The on-line lesson plan contains the correct Drop Sugar Cookie recipe. Please use this recipe (and not the recipe in the printed copy) when baking the cookies.) I. Introduction A. What we'll be doing - baking Drop Sugar Cookies. (Note: The on-line lesson plan contains the correct Drop Sugar Cookie recipe. Please use this recipe (and not the recipe in the printed copy) when baking the cookies.) B. How many of you have helped bake at home? C. Why bake them ourselves?1 (Ask students to give ideas; e.g., fun with family/friends, tastes good, make something special for someone special.) 1. Learning to cook is part of an "active lifestyle." How much effort is it to open a package vs. prepare something for yourselves? We also can eat a more healthful diet if we learn to cook and eat at home.2 2. Show a cookie label for a commercial sugar cookies; explain how homemade cookies can be a great snack with less fat and even add some needed whole grain to our diets, if we choose3! (Use the same weight or size of cookies.) 3. What is the cost difference between preparing the Drop Sugar Cookies (Note: The on-line lesson plan contains the correct Drop Sugar Cookie recipe. Please use this recipe (and not the recipe in the printed copy) when baking the cookies.) and buying sugar cookies? (Compare an equal weight of commercial cookies.) II. Let's begin A. Divide the class into four groups each consisting of 4 to 6 students. Each group will take about 20 minutes at the baking work station. Small groups rotate to the cookie baking station as the rest work on other projects. As each group's sample pan of cookies goes into the toaster oven, those students return to their seats and a new group begins mixing their batch. Be sure to place the toaster oven out of reach of the children. B. Handwashing. Demonstrate/emphasize the correct method. C. Emphasize the "Ten Baking Safety Checks." Choose two items to emphasize about kitchen and food safety such as: 1. Hot things (stoves, cookie sheets) need adult help. 2. Never eat raw dough. III. Read the recipe* and emphasize the Two Rs of cooking (have them do each) A. Read the ingredient list. Do you have the ingredients? B. Read the steps before starting. IV. Follow the steps in each small group A. Work through each step and demonstrate, but let the students actually measure the ingredients and combine the dough so all of the students can do something. B. Be prepared with patience and extra ingredients for spills. C. Bake one sample pan of cookies for each group to taste from their batch. Reserve the remaining dough to be baked later. V. Clean up A. Have each group help wipe the baking table. B. Have students complete wordless survey. VI. Follow up (return to the classroom a few days later and evaluate) A. Ask the students, "What's first before cooking? [Wash hands - how?] B. Name two kitchen and food safety steps. [Hot items for adults; no raw dough.] C. Why is the written recipe helpful? [To remember all ingredients; know what to do.] D. Ask teacher for feedback and students for the wordless evaluations. * You may want to give the teacher a copy of the recipe in advance and have her read through it the day before you come. Recipes for Measure, Mix, and Bake Program The following recipes were the focus of eight "Kids in the Kitchen" segments aired on a local cable station. One first or third grader starred with Martha Yount in each segment.  •  Measure, Mix, and Bake Double Chocolate Brownies • Measure, Mix, and Bake No-Knead Yeast Rolls • Measure, Mix, and Bake Ice Cream Cornmeal Muffins • Measure, Mix, and Bake White Cupcakes • Measure, Mix, and Bake Mini-Muffins • Measure, Mix, and Bake Cornmeal Muffins • Measure, Mix, and Bake Carrot Cake • Measure, Mix, and Bake Chocolate Cake References: 1. Not exclusive to limited resource families. Yankelovich Partners, Inc. reported in 1997: "Although Americans love to eat, most do not know how to cook. In fact, more than half of Americans feel they have less knowledge and fewer cooking skills today than their mothers and grandmothers had." (USA Today SnapShots®, 1997) 2. Lin, Biing-Hwan; Guthrie, Joanne; Frazao, Elizabeth. Away-from-Home Foods Increasingly Important to Quality of American Diet. USDA-Economic Research Service Agriculture Information Bulletin 749. January, 1999. Order at 800-999-6779 or access Web site at www.econ.ag.gov. (Notes: "The nutritional content of foods prepared at home (home foods) has improved more than that of away-from-home foods in recent years. In 1995, away-from- home foods typically contained more of the nutrients over consumed (fat and saturated fat) and less of those under consumed (calcium, fiber, and iron) than home foods." Lin, et al.) 3. 2000 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Access a report at www.usda.gov/cnpp until published in 2000. 4. Herbst, Sharon Tyler. The Food Lover's Tiptionary. 1994. Hearst Books, William Morrow & Company, New York, N.Y. ISBN 0-688-12146-2. Other resources: Baking for Success. Lessons that go beyond kneading dough. 1998. Video and three multi-age experience lessons on brownies, cornbread, and focaccia. Available through the Home Baking Association; 10841 S. Crossroads Drive, Suite 105, Parker, CO 80138; phone: (303) 840-8787; www.homebaking.org. Baking Resource Guide. Revised edition, 1998. Listings of baking ingredient company and trade association baking resources. Write or call to request it from the Home Baking Association. (See address and phone above.) www.homebaking.org. Web site with links to over 24 home baking ingredient companies and trade associations. Home Baking Association. View lesson plans from the 1998 Home Baking Association National Baking Extension Family & Consumer Sciences Educator Award Winner.