Evaluation

The Purpose of the assignment was to understand how important it is to have a healthy breakfast and learn how to cook several appropriate balanced breakfast meals.

The assignment went over 2 terms in total. The first part was theory on nutrients and practicing cooking a range of breakfast meals. Then we actually got to choose and focus on one balanced breakfast meal to cook for a partner. About 4-5 hours in total of researching and gaining knowledge and about 6 hours of practising cooking meals. the time between the two aspects was just balanced good. We needed about the same of each to understand the two areas; knowledge and prac. I learnt about possible healthy breakfast meals. I also gained very good experience and techniques in cooking these meals. 

When cooking my recipe i needed to know how to separate eggs and how to beat egg whites. I already knew how to read a recipe, use beaters, use the egg separate and grate. However, I developed really good skills of cooking the pancakes. As I went along I got better at cooking it to the right amount and keeping the pan a suitable temperature. I learn a lot that I will be able to use when I am cooking. Firstly I learnt that when you grate the apple all the juice comes out too and that’s how you get the apple juice. I also taught myself a lesson to never separate the eggs over the sink so the whites go down the drain. Lastly I learnt that wholemeal flour leaves husks after you sift it and these can be added to thicken the pancakes.  I am now experienced on how to make pancakes and will definitely be cooking them for my family.

Before my cooking day I had printed of my recipe and read it thorugh lots of times to make sure I almost knew it off by heart. This helped a lot as I didn’t have to keep checking the recipe and I knew what had to be done. I made a minor mistake but it was fixed easily. When the recipe said to separate your eggs I kept the egg yolk and the whites went down the sink. Then I realised that I needed to keep the egg whites for later. This is was a little mistake and was soon resolved by getting two more eggs.

My timing was a bit slow. As listed before things went wrong and that held me up. Really, the mixing should of only taken half the time it took me. The cooking process was good though. The first two pancakes I put on, the pan was way to hot and instantly burnt them. I just took them off chucked them out and turned off the pan. I waited 2 mins until I put the pan back on to a 4, which I found was the right temperature. After I had no problems and cooked them and flipped!

The end result looked very professional. I used different shapes and sizes to balance the dish. In the middle were big pancakes and around the edges were little ones. The colours were quite neutral with pancakes, the honey and then the pure white icing sugar. The dish looked simple but nice. They were very fluffy and not to sweet as it was covered in simple toppings. My partner loved them so i knew i had done a good job! 

Overall the ingredients I used were all fairly healthy. The apple was good to cook with as it was easy to grate and the juice came out when it was grating. This was like a natural sweetener and no sugar was added. I think I would change to a different recipe as this one was a very detailed one. It tasted good but it took a little too long. Like the way the eggs had to be done, this was a time consuming part even if I did keep both parts. 

I really did enjoy this task. I though it was really good how we could be independent and choose our own dish to cook for our partner. The best part was cooking the pancakes and seeing them turn out a perfect light brown! Then the fun part was to plate it up neatly and presentable to my partner! For the future I will try and stay more on task so I can get the mixture done and spend more time cooking. 

QUESTIONS

•       Did you change any aspects of the recipe. Give reasons for changes.

yes I did. I Changed the toppings. The recipe suggested I topped the pancakes with maple syrup and ice cream. I though this would be too heavy and sweet. I came up with a light topping with just simple honey and icing sugar dusted. This was better as it didn’t take over the flavor of the pancakes.

•       Explain how you could improve the nutritional content eg. using wholegrain products (cereal and toast, increasing fruit intake etc.), different cooking methods etc.

The ricotta in the pancakes could be left out this would make the pancakes less fattening but they may not taste as good. Also for excluding the toppings is an option. However that would make the pancake meal a bit plain. All of the ingredient aspects are healthy . Wholemeal flour is used and no sugar is added.

1.    Comment on the exercise as a whole.

1.    Was it interesting

Yes, finding healthy breakfasts and learning the techniques to cook them was very interesting as I know that I will be using these things that I have learnt for my morning breakfasts.

2.    Was it challenging

Some parts came easy however other parts required lots of thinking and deciding,

3.    What did you learn

I learnt alot of knowledge orientated things as well as cooking techniques.