Holiday Recipe---It's not too late for holiday baking!!

I made this recipe with my students at our annual Holiday Skills Day. I found it on my all-time favorite magazine and website, FamilyFun. The recipe is chocolate cookie bark. I am going to be honest. The version that I made with my students looks nothing like the picture on the site but nonetheless, it was fantastic and super fun to make! It's a great recipe that utilizes basic cooking skills. The other reason why I totally dig it is because I think it is a recipe that any level can do. I am happy that my student Jimmy and his family consented to letting me use him in this blog post. Jimmy is probably the coolest Braille reader at his age in the entire state of CT. I hope you will get a chance to see more of this kid. He's the whole package.


Here's the recipe: http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/chocolate-cookie-bark-685279/

And here's what it looks like in real life...

This was a great (but simple) cooking lesson that you can do in your classrooms or family.
You don't have to save this one for holidays only.
I think this could be fun for New Years treat, party, etc. 

The first thing I did was go over the materials and ingredients (see picture below). I had them taste milk chocolate and white chocolate chips and compare them. I used the cookie sheet as the defined work space. Jimmy got right to work after his kitchen orientation. Pictured above is Jimmy breaking up his Oreos.

With the cookies crumbled, we measured out our chips (we decided to combine chips). We headed to the microwave and melted our chips. Cooking tip: I had Jimmy gently shake the bowl with the chips in it. There is a sound that the chips make. Students can tell when chips are done because they don't shake when melted. We mixed our cookies and chips together.

 Jimmy and I did a little teamwork to get him in the right position for scraping his bowl. 

This is what our finished product looks like---kinda. We scooped everything onto our parchment paper and wrapped it up. Then we shaped it into a square and put it in the fridge. 

This was such a fun cooking lesson! I did this recipe two students at a time for three rounds. The recipe users also gave a great suggestion of using mint chocolate cookies (mmmm....I love mint!). I also think you can do this with pudding cups, use cookie cutters, etc. There are a lot of possibilities  with this recipe. For students with limited abilities, do it the simple way that we did by just shaping into a square and freezing it. 

Happy baking!!