Baking and Pastry Arts Students Send Cookies to Iraq
Published 09.22.2005
Students in the School of Hospitality's introduction to baking class recently sent cookies they made in class to soldiers from the Williamsport-based National Guard unit who are currently serving in Iraq.
Students in the introduction to baking class at Pennsylvania College of Technology learn about the effects ingredients have on the consistency, texture and flavor of cookies.
As part of a lab experiment, they use a standard chocolate chip cookie recipe, but each student changes something in the recipe. For example, one student may use butter and another will use margarine to see the flavor difference. Another student adds an extra egg, another real vanilla versus imitation, another all brown sugar instead of half granulated sugar and half brown sugar.
The student then discusses the flavor, spread and texture differences. They also bake the cookies in different ovens to observe the spread, browning, time and temperature differences of the various ovens in the lab.
All the cookies still taste great. This semester the students packaged the cookies and sent them tothe local National Guard unit currently serving in Iraq. It will also be a learning experience to see how long the cookies take to arrive and whether the packaging was significant enough to keep the cookies intact.
"This is a good learning opportunity for our students and a well deserved treat for our local soldiers," said Suzann L. Major, assistant professor of food and hospitality management/culinary arts.