There are very few things in the world that are as wonderful as when learning and eating come together as one! Yesterday, our students spent the morning scooping, measuring, mixing, and little bit of tasting. What they were making was a mystery! The recipe consisted of very simple ingredients including flour, butter, salt, sugar, yeast, milk, egg yolk, and cocoa powder. The students excitedly shouted out hypotheses as they observed the changing mixture. These were some of their ideas:
- cookies
- oatmeal cookies
- chocolate chip cookies
- cake
- play dough
- a pillow
- ice cream
- eggs
- bamboo
- baby panda cookie
- pizza
- cupcakes
- pretzels
Once all of the ingredients were added and mixed, we had a dough-like consistency. We then divided the dough into three pieces, adding a cocoa mixture to one, green food coloring to another, and leaving the last one plain. The dough was placed in bowls, covered, and left to rise. In an hour, the dough had doubled and was ready for shaping. We followed the directions; rolling and stretching the dough into a specific shapes and configurations until it was ready for the pan. The mystery loaf took one more hour to rise and then was then placed in the oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.
After much anticipation, the mystery dough was baked and ready for the big reveal! Once out of the pan, the delicious smell wafted through the classroom. It was pretty obvious that we had made some sort of bread but we still weren’t sure what kind. The students erupted into a drum roll as we sliced into our mystery pastry and discovered we had made…PANDA BREAD! Although his faced turned out a little squished, it tasted just as yummy!
If you would like to make panda bread too, the recipe and directions can be found here!
http://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/panda-bread/94fb2589-104c-4bb8-8b7f-260f6004cf7e?nicam4=SocialMedia&nichn4=Pinterest&niseg4=Tablespoon&nicreatID4=Post
