The students in Mrs. Lewis’ Middle School Cooking Class got a head start on baking for Christmas when they learned how to decorate cookies in their December 16 class.  For Mrs. Lewis, it’s all about sharing her love of cooking with the students and teaching them the fundamentals so they gain confidence and be creative.

During the class, the students crushed candy canes to make peppermint dust, learned how to melt chocolate over a double-boiler, carefully dipped store-bought cookies into the melted chocolate, and then decorated them with sprinkles and the crushed peppermint.

“In this class we learned that sometimes baking can be semi-homemade,” Lewis said. “If you don’t have a lot of time, there are short cuts that you can use and still have a delicious and attractive dessert.”

In addition to decorating Christmas cookies, other cooking class projects have included making gingerbread houses, making pumpkin pie and fancy mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving, learning how to cook eggs several ways, and making salads using lettuce, kale, cucumbers, and peppers grown in the ACS school garden.

The Middle School Cooking Class meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays and is a semester-long class. Lewis also teaches a high school elective cooking class.