Thinking about some new ideas for middle school labs got me to thinking about a lab I did early in my teaching career when I taught a foreign 
foods cooking class. At the time we were studying French cuisine and the lab was making homemade CREPES. Initially I was intimidated by crepes because they looked too difficult and fancy, but after working through some demonstrations with my students I found they really were a lot easier to prepare than they looked! Crepes are basically really thin, delicate pancakes filled with a sweet or savory filling. Since I know teenagers love desserts and chocolate is a favorite filling, I thought I would explore a recipe that would combine the two popular ingredients along with fruit and work a creative crepe lab back into the curriculum.
Time Frame: 3 Periods (43 minutes)
Class Size: 16
National Standards
- 14.1.2 Analyze the effects of psychological, cultural, and social influences on food choices and other nutrition practices.
- 14.3.3 Demonstrate ability to select, store, prepare, and serve nutritious and aesthetically pleasing foods.
Materials
- SMARTBOARD or Screen & Projector
- Laptops
- Play-Doh
- Ingredients for Lab
Set
- Write the word CREPES on the board and ask the following as a bell ringer: How do you pronounce the word, what is it and what do you do with it? I always get a kick out of the responses I get especially the pronunciation.
- Share with students: the pronunciations are kreps or crapes (like grapes), they are a type of pancake and you cook it, fill it and eat it!
Activities
Days 1 & 2
- Using the laptops and suggested websites, students will learn more about crepes by completing the “Crazy for Crepes Scavenger Hunt” (linked below).
- To learn more about crepe cookery, have students view the “Crepe Expectations” of Good Eats with Alton Brown available on Amazon for a minimal fee.
- After the video, give each student a small wad of Play-Doh and demonstrate and practice how to do the various folds shown in the below illustration (which I would put up on the SMARTBOARD or screen for students to view while we practice).
Day 3
- Prepare and serve Nutella Banana Crepes in the lab.
- Mix ingredients to make the batter.
- Cook the crepes.
- Fill the crepes with Nutella and sliced bananas & fold
- Garnish the crepes with drizzled chocolate and powdered sugar
- Enjoy!
Attachments
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