Valentine’s Day Recipes for the Classroom
Valentine’s Day and other holidays are fun in Culinary Arts and Foods classes because the planning is a lot easier and the kids are engaged! We have done 4 different treats throughout the years, and here they are.
1- Chocolate Covered Strawberries– We use chocolate disks that we can buy in bulk and have the students melt milk, white, and strawberry. The white is nice because you can add a little food dye to the chocolate to make pink or other colors. Cups are good to use for the strawberries and we usually put skewers in the bottom of them to make strawberry pops (and it’s easier to dip). We give the kids sprinkles, coconut, shaved chocolate and whatever else we have around to decorate the strawberries.
We lay out parchment paper and have the students decorate as soon as the strawberries are on the pan and before the chocolate hardens.
2- Mini Cupcakes– depending on the ability level of your class you can either use a boxed cake mix or make them from scratch. We make them from scratch as it is a great review for kitchen measuring. If you use box cake it can also be a basic measuring review as well as “mise en place”, of course! We make a buttercream frosting and use food coloring to dye it pink. Sprinkles, coconut, and other candies can be used for these as well and they can also be a fun way to review plating!
3- Chocolate Covered Pretzels– while you still have the chocolate and toppings, you can have the students make chocolate covered pretzel rods! A shallow pan works best for rolling the pretzels in chocolate in our experience. You can put them in baggies as gifts too or to sell in your cafe if you have one. If you are having a Valentine’s Day party with your students, this could be a fun snack to serve as well.
4- Rice Krispie Hearts– Rice Krispie treats are pretty simple and if you shape them into hearts they become a fun Valentine’s Day treat! We use any leftover chocolate to dip one side of the hearts and decorate with sprinkles. It makes them look prettier and gives the kids a chance to decorate them.
If you are teaching remotely or want to cover some more ground during the February holiday, teaching about chocolate is another great lesson idea. How it’s made, the different types, the history of chocolate, and more! We have a lesson all about chocolate here with questions in Google!
Before you have your students make chocolate-covered treats, use this free worksheet with them to introduce melting chocolate and essential steps.
Chocolate Lesson Ideas
- Teach a Lesson on How Chocolate is Made– We have a lesson plan that includes the history of chocolate as well as guided notes and questions that serve as a great introduction to chocolate and can last up to 2 class periods.
We try to teach lessons with slideshows, notes, and questions before food labs because, first, it takes up a bit of extra time and second it gives students background knowledge and builds reading comprehension…talk about cross-curricular planning! Hint, this is also a great way to start an observation lesson for administration. Check out more of our lessons!
- Chocolate Taste Test– this is fun for the kids because they get to test out different types of chocolate and even different brands depending on your budget. This pack of Dove chocolate has milk and dark chocolate small squares that you can cut up. We have a resource for this activity in our TPT store.
Here is a great video on how chocolate is made from the bean to the bar.
Valentine’s Day Worksheets for High School and Middle School
It can be tough to find Valentine’s Day worksheets for secondary students. We have a history of the holiday worksheet that includes the marketing history and food history of V-Day. This could work for foods classes as well as business classes.
The month of February is also football month! If you are looking for game day snack ideas or Super Bowl foods ideas, check out our blog post about game day snacks for students.
