By: Lisette Pastoriza
This week in Chef L’s Culinary Arts class we learned how to make cinnamon rolls. It was really fun, but we had a lot to learn before we even stepped foot in the kitchen. First, we had to know all about safety and sanitation in the kitchen. We saw some videos of people doing the craziest things, and then we would talk about why it was wrong and what we would do instead. We also had to learn all the tools and equipment that we use in the kitchen, such as measurements and recipe conversions, as well as how to follow a recipe. We had fun ways of learning about these things; we used word games and graphic organizers to remember the measurements, and we were also learning tricks to remember the conversations by playing games on this website called Kahoot. Everyone would compete with each other to get the right answer and gain more points. Sometimes the winners even got prizes, but most importantly, this made our learning fun and interesting.
Finally, we learned about quick breads. Chef L did a demonstration so that we could learn how to make the biscuit dough that we would be using to make cinnamon rolls. We learned what all the different ingredients were for in the bake shop, and even learned an additional set of new tools. We also learned how to use a balance scale to measure the ingredients we needed to use. We use balance scales instead of measuring cups because they are more accurate. We also learned the difference between quick breads and yeast breads. We learned that they are referred to as “quick” because they use baking powder instead of yeast. Then we used the biscuit dough to make our own cinnamon rolls. We even learned how to make the icing to put on top. After all the work and learning that we put into this process, our final product was worth it because the cinnamon rolls were delicious. I can’t wait to see what we learn to make next unit!