well...first library dessert class was...interesting

M

marilynfl

Moderator
I had been told not to expect more than 6-10 people signing up, but then the full roster (20 people) filled up with 2 on the waiting list.

I was thrilled. Lemon curd for the masses!

However...when the attendees entered the demo room, I noticed that many were mentally handicapped adults. Turns out a coordinator for a local resident home saw the library dessert flyer and signed up her entire group of disabled adults for a day outing at the library. With snacks.

The lesson was...challenging...as several just yelled out questions I couldn't understand. Two patrons got up and left. The other 8 non-handicapped adults stayed and asked lots of interesting questions.

The issue is: I have two more classes planned and the next is caramel candy. This involves lava-like melted sugar and scalding explosive dairy. Not a recipe these handicapped adults will ever be allowed to make.

I plan to speak with the head librarian to get the name of the handicapped groups coordinator. I would like the library to provide me the demo room where I will do a cookie decorating class with this handicapped group. I will provide all the cookies, icing and decoration. Give these adults a fun task and a cookie they can take with them rather than listen to me yak for 1 hour. This would be in lieu of the coordinator signing them up for the caramel class and taking spots kitchen-able adults could attend.

Thoughts? Suggestions?
 
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marilynfl said:
I had been told not to expect more than 6-10 people signing up, but then the full roster (20 people) filled up with 2 on the waiting list.

I was thrilled. Lemon curd for the masses!

However...when the attendees entered the demo room, I noticed that many were mentally handicapped adults. Turns out a coordinator for a local resident home saw the library dessert flyer and signed up her entire group of disabled adults for a day outing at the library. With snacks.

The lesson was...challenging...as several just yelled out questions I couldn't understand. Two attendees got up and left. The other 8 adults stayed and asked lots of interesting questions.

The issue is: I have two more classes planned and the next is caramel candy. This involves lava-like melted sugar and scalding explosive dairy. Not a recipe these handicapped adults will ever be allowed to make.

I plan to speak with the head librarian to get the name of the handicapped groups coordinator. I would like the library to provide me the demo room where I will do a cookie decorating class with this handicapped group. I will provide all the cookies, icing and decoration. Give these adults a fun task and a cookie they can take with them rather than listen to me yak for 1 hour. This would be in lieu of the coordinator signing them up for the caramel class and taking spots kitchen-able adults could attend.

Thoughts? Suggestions?
Click to expand...
I think that is a wonderful solution!
 
To be truly picky, I think it is a massive shortfall (to be kind) for the coordinator to keep you out of the loop and to set these people up for challenges beyond their abilities, clearly just for an outing at your expense. Did this person know that there was to be individual involvement?

Your solution of classes geared to the capabilities of the attendees is certainly a good one. I think cookies would be fun, and although some might not be able to handle all the tasks to the best, they still end up with a product that is basic, well-known, instantly edible....as well as being a take-home reward that can be shown off. Great idea.

And of course, a caramel class demands the experience of people who can respect the heat, sugar, etc. as you note. Lemon curd can teach techniques and the properties of eggs, that don't demand so much experience, but patience and respect for the process. I think the fun part of that class is how useful one of your jars of lemon curd is. It might be followed by a class on the verstility of meringues and how the lemon curd can be integrated.

Good luck. And good on you for handling it so elegantly. Of course we would expect nothing less.
 
I mentioned at the end—full disclosure—that I now make my curd using a Vitamix. A few patrons came up afterward and asked how.

Later, I received this text:

Hello Marilyn
This is J from yesterday’s class. I don’t know if you text but wanted to tell you that I pulled my big girl panties up this morning and made a batch of lemon curd in my Vitamix. It turned out beautifully and am now waiting for it to cool so i can put it into my waiting pie crust😋
 
Oh I love the vitamix text! Lemon curd in the vitamix is the number one favorite thing I use the vm for.

I agree you should definitely speak to the librarian and make sure that maybe there’s a skill level attached to the descriptions of the classes. I think you’re right on track with next steps and I love the cookie baking idea for the disabled adults.
 
Update:

First: I spoke with the main librarian today and it turns out that organizations are NOT allowed to sign up their entire group for classes at the library. This one slipped past them. So that won't be an issue for the caramel class plus they are going to provide me with the contact person so I can do the cookie decorating event with them.

Second: Several patrons asked if you could make a lemon meringue pie with the curd AFTER making it earlier. I wasn't sure so last night I did a test run. I had frozen Dufour puff pastry as well as their rolled pie crust so I blind-baked an 8" pie crust and when it was still slightly warm, added 2.5 cups of curd PLUS 1/4 C heavy cream. This last bit came from the Cooks Illustrated directions for their lemon tart.

Baked it for 13 minutes and when cool, refrigerated it.

This morning I took it out and tipped it vertical. Perfect! No movement in the filling.

Conclusion: this method works.

I'll write up the results and provide the librarian with the data and photos. He will then forward it to the class participants (they had to sign a safety disclosure with name and email), thus keeping their privacy while providing the information.

IMG_4162.JPG IMG_4163.JPG IMG_4165.JPG

PS: For anyone who actually likes the meringue part of lemon meringue pie, the timing would be to add the meringue topping WHILE the filling is still warm. Be sure to drag it all the way to the crust and touch the crust rim, thus sealing in the filling. Broil until golden-tipped.
 
I'm glad that issue got sorted out. That was just not nice.

Here's another use:
I love this pie and guests see it as a real treat. It is so much fluffier than that with a pastry, hence the angel reference.

Mrs. Hawkins’ Angel Pie

4 egg whites Use only 3. Too much in pan (eggs are larger these days...70 years later)
1/4 t. cream of tartar
1 c. white sugar

Beat whites until fluffy, add cream of tartar, beat until stiff. Gradually beat in 1 c. white sugar. Spread in well greased and floured 10" pie plate (deep). Bake 1 hour at 275°. Let meringue cool in oven. While baking make the filling:

Filling:
4 egg yolks
1 tsp. grated lemon rind
½ c. white sugar
3 T. lemon juice
Beat egg yolks until thick, add sugar, lemon juice and rind and mix well. Cook in double boiler until thick. Cool. Add butter
Whip 1/2 pt. whipping cream. Spread 1/3 of cream over cool meringue, cover with lemon filling and top with remaining whipped cream. Chill 24 hours.


Do not run the meringue high up the sides of the pan.
Use 8" pan and 3-whites meringue.
 
oh, the inverse of a typical meringue pie! I could probably go for that.

During the class session, I set out Biscoff cookies plus the just demo'd & still warm curd and ask the students to sample it while I was setting up for the candied walnuts demo.

When the walnut demo was completed (3 minutes tops!) I brought out the shortbread base (8x12) I had made, covered it with chilled lemon curd and topped that with a mixture of sweetened cream cheese, lemon curd (previously made at home) and whipped heavy cream. It went over well as a dessert you could pull together from components made earlier. For an even easier dessert, I showed a lemon half that I had scooped out the membranes and leveled the bottom, told the class they could fill that with a scoop of lemon gelato and top it off with the curd.
 
I have a load of
marilynfl said:
oh, the inverse of a typical meringue pie! I could probably go for that.

During the class session, I set out Biscoff cookies plus the just demo'd & still warm curd and ask the students to sample it while I was setting up for the candied walnuts demo.

When the walnut demo was completed (3 minutes tops!) I brought out the shortbread base (8x12) I had made, covered it with chilled lemon curd and topped that with a mixture of sweetened cream cheese, lemon curd (previously made at home) and whipped heavy cream. It went over well as a dessert you could pull together from components made earlier. For an even easier dessert, I showed a lemon half that I had scooped out the membranes and leveled the bottom, told the class they could fill that with a scoop of lemon gelato and top it off with the curd.
Click to expand...
but no pastry and with whipped cream on top. It is so light, one would think there were no calories. In fact, I do think there are none.
 
I have a load of frozen egg whites and have been thinking about easy desserts for dinner with friends. I was just going to do fruit and whipped cream assemblies, maybe involving a little gelatin. But I then found this by Nigela Lawson. To me, it is something new. Adding cornstarch to meringues for interior fluffiness, and rosewater for flavour. And she uses wine vinegar.

Rose and Pepper Pavlova with Passionfruit and Strawberries
 
oh! I did not know you could freeze the whites too! I do it all the time with yolks and now have a boat-load of whites since I made two test batches before the class (to confirm stovetop timing) plus the class eggs to separate.

Thanks, marg!
 
I did a teens Italian cooking class and one lady booked all her bazillion kids and then we had a waiting list. The morning of the class, the lady calls the library and asks if it is ok to bring her not-yet teen and her son that was home that weekend from college. The "other kids" couldn't make it she said. She she brought herself and those two leaving empty seats (seriously, she had booked like 5 spaces so I mean WTF, 7 kids? Anyway, she, not the young son or the college student, kept mouthing off saying that the fest tomato sauce with homemade pasta I was making wasn't real Italian. Even though I had been making that sauce for over 20 years, when the culinary program I was in hosted the Italian pastry team for the World Pastry Championship, the chefs wanted to cook for us and they used my share box from the farmers market and made that exact sauce. Nana nana boo boo! Her younger son volunteered and once up there wouldn't leave and let anyone else come up and help. I wanted all the kids to get a chance to roll and cut pasta. After she and her gang left, all the teens that had been so quiet got very talkative and started coming up and making pasta and parents were coming in because their kids weren't coming out. But they really put a damper on the class for all the others.

I talked to the librarians and they said that maybe next time, we should put at least a minimal fee that had to be paid at the time of booking to hopefully prevent things like this from happening again. I haven't done a class since because it was a lot of work, I did it for free even though the library offered to pay me for my ingredients and such. Lugging in all the equipment was the real pain. I did classes at the church I was going to and at another partner church and one of the community centers where we had kitchens to work in and it was so much easier especially the community center and one church that had kitchens set up that were perfect for cooking classes. The library only had a tiny breakroom with a microwave so it's just not easy to do there.
 
oh missy...that sounds way too familiar. My sympathies.

I was using a "mobile kitchen" at the library with the angled mirror above and two burners. I kept asking "are you guys seeing this?" because I'm used to showing friends how to make stuff right at my kitchen counter.

One burner didn't work and neither showed any indicator of the temperature range. I had lugged in TWO stoves myself (butane single burner and induction) plus all the ingredients, dishes, bowls and utensils. Plus I paid for everything since I wasn't sure how this would go and didn't want the library to fork out money for it.
 
Thanks, monj, but since I inadvertently volunteered to ALSO do a cookie workshop with a SECOND handicapped adult center, I'm going to buy holiday kits I've seen at Walmart where they provide 16 cookies (4 different ones), icing and some fru-fru toppings. Based on my years of GBH builds, I have a LOT of excess fru-fru stuff to bring to both facilities.

And depending on timing, I'm considering baking cookies where I can write the name of each attendee. I'm just not sure what kind of support I will have for these two facilities.
 
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