I’m sure if you teach a food class and run labs you know that you always have a few odds and ends type of ingredients leftover. It’s just how it is no matter how hard you try to calculate them correctly! Having students prepare Kitchen Sink Cookies Challenge is a great way to use up all of those ”bits” of leftovers in a tasty, creative way!

Set

• This is a great lab or challenge to do to review the function of ingredients! If you are in need of a lesson or activity, please check out the following posts: Basic Baking Ingredients: What’s My Function? or SketchNotes: The Magnificent 7 Baking Ingredients. You could even add it as a lab when teaching the Cookie Baking Unit.
• What does the phrase or idiom “EVERYTHING BUT THE KITCHEN SINK” mean? When was it invented or how did it come to be? How might it apply to food or specifically cookies?
• The phrase/idiom was invented during WWII when as many household items as possible were contributed to the war efforts. It means using everything possible. In the case of food, it means using up every possible ingredient to make a tasty product. In the cookies case, it’s referring to the mix-ins which have the ability to create a surprising flavor profile.
• Let students know that they will be experimenting with different flavors in this cookie lab or challenge, while using up a variety of leftover ingredients…aka mix-ins! However, to keep it interesting, they will have to solve the clues around your sweet or savory mix-in in order to receive it!

Materials

• iPads or Laptops
• Projector & Screen
• Envelopes
• Variety of Mix-in Ingredients

Activities

• Note: Decide which mix-in ingredients you are going to have available for students to use. Find those clues and cut them apart, placing one sweet and one savory in a sealed envelope for students to choose randomly prior to the lab. If you have additional mix-ins not mentioned, you can easily create your own set of clues.
• The title of the challenge is “Cookie Chaos: The Mix-In Mystery Challenge”. To assign the mystery mix-ins, cut apart the clues for each of the mix-ins. Place a clue set in an envelope and place all envelopes in a basket. Kitchen groups select one envelope from the basket. When all groups have selected, set the timer for 3 minutes. Groups have 3 minutes to solve the clues to be able to identify their mix-in ingredient and “quietly” tell you before the time runs out. If successful, groups get +3 added to their score. If not, then they lose 3 points from their score, but still receive the ingredient.  If they only guess one of the mix-ins, then they only get +1.5 points,but still receive their ingredients.
• Students prepare the cookies in the lab and come up with a catchy name and description before presenting them to a panel of judges for evaluation. Be sure they take several photos of their cookie creation for potential use later. Depending on the size of the cookies, you may want to split cookies, making smaller portions, for the judges. Afterall, they have other cookies to sample!
• If you need the key to the mix-in clues, please email me and I’ll send them your way.
• Give each judge an evaluation sheet to fill out as they sample cookies and tally up the points to see which group wins. While judges are doing their thing, groups can sample each others cookies and rank their preferences to see how they compare to the judges!
• As an optional bulletin board idea, have students use the catchy name, description and photos to create an advertisement using Google Slides building blocks. Here is a tutorial explaining how to use the Building Blocks add-on.

Attachments

• What Am I?_Mix-in Clues (PDF)
• Kitchen Sink Recipe (PDF)
• Kitchen Sink Cookies Judging Sheet (PDF)