Welcome to my Blog

Hello! My name is Jay Gaunt, and I am currently a first-year teacher candidate at Brock University! In our tech class, we will be exploring a passion project of our choosing through a process called Genius Hour. Genius hour is a fun and innovative way to allow students to creatively research and learn about something that interests them. This blog will be my journey with that project with updates weekly with what I learn along the way.

The question I chose to explore for my Genius Hour Project is: How can I decide what the best chocolate chip cookie recipe is? My goal for this project is to find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe to share with my family and friends. To measure my success, I plan to create a rating system. I will create a scale from 1-5 for various categories and have myself and others evaluate each cookie. Although my rating system has not been created yet, some example categories could be taste, texture and overall enjoyment.

My first step will be to find a variety of recipes that have something unique to each of them that makes them different from each other. This can be found through existing recipes already in my house, cookbooks, and the internet.

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Everything is Sweeter with Maple, eh

I realized this week that I need to make 2 cookie recipes to be on track to complete my Genius Hour project on time... Therefore, this post will include the next 2 recipes in one! As the true Canadian I am, I have decided to make Maple Syrup Cookies for my first recipe this week! As for the backstory behind the discovery of this recipe, I had tweeted that everyone should send me their favourite chocolate chip cookie recipes. Since I am Canadian, my Australian friend, Angus, thought it was funny that these cookies included our drink of choice, maple syrup (please see the meme I created featuring the lovely Angus, I am very proud of it). I found the making of this dough to be very different than what I am used to because you need to melt your butter, but then once you're done the preparation, the dough must chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. You then must continue to put it back in the fridge between each batch. I don't usually work with chilled dough, so I found...

Cookies with a Crunch

Last blog post I stated that I would need to come up with a rating system during my next Genius Hour time slot. I am happy to announce that I have done just that! Behold, my rating system. Each participant will be given 4 scales to complete while enjoying their cookie. First, they will evaluate the cookie aesthetic. This means that they will be looking at how much the appearance of the cookie makes them want to eat it, or not eat it. I'm sure we have all experienced foods that look a little funky, and we don't want to put it in our mouths. Second, the lucky participant will be evaluating taste. This is pretty self-explanatory. Do they like the flavour. Next, they will be rating the consistency or texture of the cookie. Is it soft, crumbly, chewy? We want to know. Finally, the judge will rate their overall enjoyment of the cookie, taking all categories into consideration. As you can see on the number line above, 1 is the lowest ranking, with the exclamation of 'gross'...

Harley Quinn, Nice to Meet Ya

Remember, in the first blog post, when I said my biggest trouble was that I was indecisive... Well, once again, I have changed my plans on what cookies I am going to be making. I wanted a cookie where the secret ingredient wasn't extremely obvious like the potato chips had been, so I went searching the internet for a more incognito ingredient. I have decided to swap out the M&M cookies for a cookie made with pudding (hence the Harley Quinn reference 😉). At this point, my whole house is filled with cookies, and you would think I would be sick of baking, but here I am, still having a great time. The making of this dough was by far the easiest out of all the recipes I attempted during this project! I also found it interesting that there was no salt in this recipe, as I am so used to the dry ingredients always consisting of flour, baking soda, and salt. Watch the video of these (D)elicious (C)ookies (see what I did there?) featuring a LIVE taste test at the end! (link w...

One Chip at a Time

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