The course opens up with America’s favorite handheld treat: Cookies. After discussing cookie categories, we explore the characteristics of ingredients and how adjusting them affects cookie outcomes—especially texture. Students learn essential techniques, including creaming, reverse creaming, rolling, cutting, and shaping. We also spotlight issues that seem simple but make a difference, such as proper “room temperature” butter, chilling dough to improve flavor, and rotating pans during baking. Students consider the qualities of their ideal Chocolate Chip Cookie and then conduct a batch comparison. Other recipes include favorites such as Millionaire’s Shortbread, Apple Toffee Cookies, and Lemon Peel Slice & Bakes.

Starches & Sauces make a tasty pair in our second unit. We investigate various thickening agents and methods, including roux, beurre manié, and slurries. Students learn how to assess viscosity and adapt basic sauces to other forms. They prepare a variety of sauces, including white sauce, velouté, hollandaise, and marinara. (The study of sauces extends into the protein units.) On the starch side, we explore the world of potatoes, rice, pasta, and corn products, with a quick look at alternative grains. We get up close and personal with amylose and amylopectin and learn how the ratios of these two molecules impact the characteristics of starchy foods. Recipe preparations range from a batch comparison of basic mashed potatoes (Russet vs. Yukon Gold) to scratch-made fettuccine and gnocchi to grits so creamy and delicious you might pick up a Southern twang.

In Proteins: Moist Heat Cooking, we delve into braising, stewing, steaming, and poaching as we explore the magic of moisture in heat transfer. We learn how really long cooking times can make really tough cuts of meat really delectable, thanks to the collagen/gelatin transformation. We’ll discover why an overnight stay in the fridge can be a cook’s secret weapon for superior flavor and how the gentle art of steaming can be used to cook delicate proteins to perfection. Students will prepare a variety of main dishes, including Chicken Paprikash (a comfort food classic), Chilorio (Sinaloa-style braised pork), and Asian Steamed Cod with Frizzled Ginger (just wow).

Delicious desserts start with a great foundation, so learning about crusts is job #1 in our Pies & Tarts unit. We discover which fats and methods make them tender or sturdy, flaky or crumbly. We then take it a step further with quality comparisons of different finishing washes. We cover docking, blind baking, venting, latticework, and crimping techniques. Of course, the filling is the star of the show, so we explore how to get just the right flavors and textures, whether fruit, custard, cream, or chiffon. Families will definitely want to save room for the desserts in this unit, which include lattice-topped Pear Pie with Salted Caramel Sauce, Key Lime Pie with Gingersnap Crust, and a spectacular Chocolate Cream Pie topped with chocolate shards.

The final unit of the course is Proteins: Dry Heat Cooking, which includes roasting, grilling, searing, broiling, frying, and stir-frying. In it, we investigate butchering as we puzzle out primal cuts and the retail cuts they eventually become. We take a closer look at meat grain and construct a model to demonstrate why slicing direction matters. We explore the science side of brines, rubs, and marinades and discover why some proteins need to rest after cooking while others don’t. The instant-read thermometer is a trusty sidekick as students study safe cooking temperatures and degrees of doneness. The recipes in this unit include Kung Pao Chicken, Chile Rubbed Beef Kabobs, and Sage Roasted Chicken with Vegetables—a sheet pan wonder that’s a favorite among our recipe testers.