Birthday Treats

 

One of the fun things about school is bringing treats for your birthday.  It is something that I have done several times since I began teaching.  Because my birthday is in mid May, towards the end of the academic year, I have often been swamped by the many other end of the year projects that seem to somehow squeeze into the already packed week.   However, it is always fun to spread a little joy through cookies (which are quick to make) now and then.

This year I brought treats to my two classes that hosted me through my student teaching.  One class received the dice (Dise) bars, featured in a previous post, so both classes have now received these fun treats.  Though they are not exactly a healthy snack, they are fun and I think "OK" if you only have them once in a while.  I followed the recipe on my earlier post and even took my recommendations for piping in the dough through a zipper-lock bag (worked well) and placing simpler numbers by the edges (also an improvement).

The other class received applesauce monsters.  The applesauce monsters were inspired by a student from the first placement who brought this kind of treat for his birthday.  It was a total hoot to draw the eyes - moving their gaze for different effects.  Though the part that was even better was drawing the eyebrows!  Everyone knows (whether they realize it or not) that the eyebrows make the face, so once I had several sets of gazes (4 looking left, 4 looking right, etc.), I changed the eyebrows to add the expression! 

What a fun (and healthy) way to make a day special!

Dice (DISE) Bars!

Here is the recipe for the amazing, the delicious, the outstanding, the ooey-gooey

Di c se Bars! 

Makes 48 square bars

 (T = Tablespoons, t = teaspoons, c = cups, oz. = ounces)  
Ingredients:
3 1/2 c. flour
3 1/2 t.  baking powder
1/2 t. salt
5 eggs
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1 1/4 c. butter or margarine, softened
3 c. brown sugar
1 12oz. bag of regular chocolate chips (milk-chocolate or semi-sweet work well)
part of a bag of mini-chocolate chips (it should take 168, but extras may be needed)
*If you want to make a pan of regular chocolate-chip bars, use an 18oz. bag of chocolate chips and do not divide the dough in step 2.

All ready to be baked!  Note how the scoring helped guide the dot-pattern placement.

You can mix the dough ahead of time, but be sure it is room-temperature to spread into the pan!

Preheat oven to 350
1) Mix all the ingredients except chocolate chips in a bowl.
2) Divide the dough in half; mix one bag of regular chocolate chips (or your favorite chip) into one half.  Leave the other portion of dough plain. The dough can be refrigerated at this point for several days.
3) Spray a jelly-roll pan with cooking spray.  If you use parchment paper or aluminum foil to line the pan, you can use a pastry bag to pipe the dough without pushing the the paper or foil around the pan.
-- A quick and simple form of "pastry bag" is a zipper-lock bag with one corner cut at 1/4 inch.  Then squeeze the dough out by squeezing the bag like a toothpaste tube: from the back to the front.
Spread the dough with chocolate chips first, and then place the plain dough on top.
4) Score the squares by drawing a toothpick or wooden skewer across the top of the dough, helping you see where to place the dots.  Then follow the pattern of dots on dice (or dominoes) in each square by placing mini-chocolate chips, point-down, in each square.  This takes patience!
-- Be aware that the bars will expand during cooking, contract during cooling, which creates a ridge by the edge.  I recommend placing the "1" and "2" pattern by the edges to reduce the other patterns becoming contorted.  The "1" and "2" will expand more than the "5" and "6" patterns because they have fewer dots holding them down.
5) Bake the bars at 350 degrees for 20-40 minutes.  Aluminum pans will take longer, dark pans will take less time.  Using the convection setting will reduce the time.  Bake for less time to get softer bars.  You may wish to rotate the pan 180 degrees part-way through baking for even browning.
6) Allow the bars to cool completely before cutting.  You may wish to cut them ahead of time in the pan, to make for easier serving later.

Baked: notice the funky dots on the "4"... I would not place "4" by the edge next time!

 Note: Do Not freeze these bars - they will become very hard and tough.

These came out very gooey, and after a day in the fridge they firmed up into perfect, chewy bars!

That's Just Ducky

Have you ever heard a phrase that would actually be quite silly if taken literally?  I want you to tell the truth now; don't pull my leg!

Studying language is so much more than learning nouns and verbs.  When our turns of phrases are learned, it makes language so much more interesting and fun - it's a real hoot!

This week is my last week of teaching fully in the classroom; next week I begin to phase out and let my cooperating teacher take over again.   Because the school year is wrapping up, it is also nearing the end of the time for "Word Journeys," a word study and spelling time for students.  This program has students organizing words by spelling patterns, which has been shown to be much more effective for students to learn to spell words correctly than just "memorizing" them.  The more connections we can make in our learning of words, the better we can remember how to spell them and how to spell other words that fall into the same patterns!

On a slightly different note, this morning I had my second duck sighting here at school.  I had to take a crack at getting its cute mug!  Lucky for me, I carry my camera!  I hope you have a day that is just ducky too!