Conversions: taste the difference

Faces whitened with flour, aprons stained in smeared chocolate and hands sticky with sugar and egg, Amber Baur’s sixth-graders could have been mistaken for the school’s kitchen staff.

Eastbluff Elementary’s School’s multipurpose room was converted into a small bakery for a couple of hours Wednesday when Baur’s class learned fractions in a different, but tasteful way.

Baur’s students were using math to reduce recipes meant for several dozen down to enough for a class of 20.

If the kids miscalculated, they wouldn’t see any red ink on paper. They’d just see sour faces.

“Most kids say you don’t use math in real life. But this shows you need math to make or buy stuff,” said 11-year-old Trevor Cohen, who was busy making cookies with two classmates. “I’ve never made them [before] but this is really fun. I feel like a cook.”

Wednesday’s cooking experiment was the culmination of weeks of math over several areas.

Students simplified, added and subtracted fractions and mixed numbers for their recipes. Measurements were in standard and metric units.

Baur uses the Internet and “Web Quests” to get her kids excited about numbers, and so far, food. This is the second Web Quest of the year.

The first project in September had students creating a grocery list and working with a $300 budget. They had to figure out what items they needed and how many for a barbecue for 48 people. That quest familiarized students with money, estimating and common terms in sales, like discount and total cost.

Students were eager to tackle the project, Baur said. She remembered her students asking in advance for the details. Even over a holiday weekend, she noticed students checking her website the day she posted it online.

Last week, the wait was over.

Twelve-year-old Taylor Daoust was confident her group’s calculations for granola energy bars was correct.

“If we got it wrong,” she said, “it would probably taste bad.”

TRIPLE CHOCOLATE CRANBERRY COOKIES

From the kitchen of Janice Morrow, Eastbluff parent. Makes about 24.

Ingredients

¼ cup butter, softened

½ cup dark brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup canola oil

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch processed)

¼ teaspoon salt, optional

1/3 cup coarsely chopped dark chocolate (2 ounces)

1/3 cup coarsely chopped milk chocolate (2 ounces)

2/3 cup dried cranberries

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mash together the butter and sugars with a fork until well combined. Add the oil and egg and beat until creamy. Mix in the vanilla.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, cocoa powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well.

Stir in the dark chocolate, milk chocolate and the cranberries and mix well.

Using a tablespoon, scoop the batter onto a silpat-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at [email protected].