Numeracy
Colleen Monaghan
Maths in the home
With ANZAC Day this Saturday, I thought it might be good to share a recipe to make ANZAC biscuits. I love the amount of maths in cooking biscuits like these.
Children of all ages love to help in the kitchen. Cooking with children encourages healthy food habits and valuable life skills, but they learn basic math concepts such as measurements, fractions, and counting. While making a salad, ask your child to count 10 cherry tomatoes. Add 10 pepper slices, olives, or cucumbers. Point out fractions in cooking – ½ cup, ¼ cup, 1 cup. Cut sandwiches, pizza, and cheese slices into fourths, thirds, and halves. If you have a kitchen scale, let your child help you measure dry ingredients.
ANZAC BISCUITS
INGREDIENTS
- 2 CUPS (180G) ROLLED OATS
- 1 CUP (150G) PLAIN (ALL-PURPOSE) FLOUR
- ⅔ CUP (150G) CASTER (SUPERFINE) SUGAR
- ¾ CUP (60G) DESICCATED COCONUT
- ⅓ CUP (115G) GOLDEN SYRUP
- 125G UNSALTED BUTTER
- 1 TEASPOON BICARBONATE OF (BAKING) SODA
- 2 TABLESPOONS HOT WATER
METHOD
- Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F). Place the oats, flour, sugar and coconut in a bowl and mix to combine.
- Place the golden syrup and butter in a saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring, until melted. Combine the bicarbonate of soda with the water and add to the butter mixture. Pour into the oat mixture and mix well to combine.
- Place tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper and flatten to 7cm rounds, allowing room to spread. Bake for 8–10 minutes or until deep golden. Allow to cool on baking trays for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. Makes 35
Questions to ask:
How many different ways could I arrange the biscuits on trays?
If I can fit 12 on each tray how many trays will I need?
If I wanted to share them out equally how many ways could I do it?
If I wanted double the number of biscuits how much of each ingredient?
What if I halved the number made, how much of each ingredient?