Whole Wheat Tarts vs Plain Flour Tarts

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Lately, I've been playing around with tarts made out of whole wheat flour instead of regular pastry flour or plain flour for the reasons that it will be healthier choice. As you may or may not know, whole wheat products will provide you with a source of proteins, fibers, vitamins and minerals which are always good for your body. My mom cannot consume too much white flour, so in house, we have mainly whole wheat products when it comes to baked goods such as whole wheat buns and breads. My parents are quite conscious when it comes to eating healthy, and I don't even want to get into the kind of drinks that they blend up every morning for my sister and I to drink. But that aside and back to the point, whole wheat tarts.

There are many doughs out there for tarts and pies and endless recipes to match with it. But as I have learned, the key to a strong tart/pie dough is allow to time for maturity of the dough. This means you must let your dough rest, best overnight, thus giving time for the flour in the dough to absorb any fat or moisture in the recipe. When flour is mixed in liquid, gluten is naturally developed and it helps strength the dough's ability to stretch when rolled. Same goes for tart doughs made with whole wheat flour, and it may take longer periods of resting time compared to pastry flour. This is due to the slower absorption of moisture from the whole wheat flour.
 
Then through a few trials, I found that whole wheat tarts tend to take a longer time to bake, and you couldn't use the same temperature used for regular tarts. The color of the tarts became too dark before it was fully baked. The whole wheat dough itself is much more dense compared to the regular flour tarts, and therefore, the release of moisture through baking took longer, and this cause the oven to steam up, and instead of baking you are now, steaming. So I had to open the oven doors to let out the steam and continue baking. Normally, the best oven for baking tarts are the convection ovens, the ovens with the built in fan to circulate the hot air better. And better this, you can buy yourself a convection oven with a vent function to let out steam when built up in the oven. It will provide your tarts with a nicer color on the crust and also giving you that crispy shell which is always desired.

I prefer to bake my tarts a little longer to evaporate more moisture. I do this because, although the tart shells will be a lot more dry, but when I add in the fillings it will soak up juice and balance out. Also, when living in humid climate, baking your shells a little longer than required will also help prevent your shells from becoming soft too fast due to the moisture in the air. Nobody likes a soggy tart shell.

Mother's day freebies & more

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Aurora from Supercharged Science  is again giving awaya great free gift!

She has one of the top homeschool science curricula out there,and this is a free selection of activities and experimentsfrom her summer e-Camp program.


You're going to get actual sections of e-Camp, complete withall the explanations, step-by-step videos, and lots more.

And yet more... Currclick is giving away several Mother's Day freebies, one of which is my bookMath Mammoth Place Value 2. So, here's your chance to get one of my books completely free.


Enjoy!

Maria

Math Mammoth May sale!

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A traditional sale for the end of the school year... From May 20, 2012, till June 3, get 20% off of all Math Mammoth downloads and CDsat Kagi store.

Use the coupon code MAYSALE.

You can go to MathMammoth.com first, then find the links toKagi's order pages. OR, use these direct links:

• Light Blue series (complete curriculum)
• Blue series
• Golden and Green Series
• Make It Real Learning workbooks
• Bundles (CDs or downloads)

Enjoy!
Maria Miller










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Why am I aligning Math Mammoth to Common Core Standards

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Someone recently was wondering if perhaps aligning Math Mammoth curriculum to Common Core standards wasn't a good idea, or at least wasn't going to help them any, because they have found value in curricula outside of American ones.

So why am I doing that?

I have known of Common Core standards for a few years, but in December 2011 I noticed that nearly all states were or are going to implement them. So, they are in essence providing a framework for a national curriculum in mathematics.

So, I decided to consider them, and to take a closer look at the standards. And I realized that Common Core standards aren't that "bad." They are NOT like most state standards have been, "inch deep and mile wide," with tons of topics per grade.

These are "core" standards, meaning there aren't a huge amount of them per grade. So it's a BIG improvement over many of the states' standards.


I also noticed that some of the "core" standards were already in place in Math Mammoth, such as a focus on single-digit multiplication in third grade, or multi-digit multiplication in 4th, or fractions in 5th.


I liked the fact that the standards explicitly mentioned some mental math!

Also, I am not fundamentally changing the teaching approach or style in Math Mammoth. Aligning to the Common core is more a question of reorganizing topics, moving some topics to a different grade, than anything else.

Yes, I've added a few little things they require such as measuring how much longer one thing is than another, or problems with unknowns shown with shapes, or asking children to divide a shape into quarters.  But it is not affecting the development of major concepts.

At the same time, I have also revised many of the lessons and made them better -- this is happening regardless of the standards. It's just when I see my earlier work, I find ways to improve it.

I hope this helps!

More about Area - free worksheet for grade 3

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Here's a little sample of what is keeping me so busy right now - third grade math, aligning things to the Common Core standards.

This is a complete lesson (4 pages) about area for grade 3 math. It's not the initial lesson - it assumes the student already knows how to find the area of a rectangle. (Sorry - there is no answer key at this time; it hasn't been made yet!)



The lesson (worksheets) is specifically about these two standards:

3.MD

7.c. Use tiling to show in a concrete case that the area of a rectangle with whole-number side lengths a and b + c is the sum of a × b and a × c. Use area models to represent the distributive property in mathematical reasoning.

 d. Recognize area as additive. Find areas of rectilinear figures by decomposing them into non-overlapping rectangles and adding the areas of the non-overlapping parts, applying this technique to solve real world problems.

FEELING GOOD, MY NEW BOOK, and NO-BAKE CHEESECAKE

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I'm back from Memphis and I'm feeleing WHITE, RED, and BLUE!!!! To celebrate I made some cheesecake, again, but this way the quicker, shortcut way.

I usually do everything the traditional way. But since my life became busy and hectic I'm trying to find ways to make delicious dessert recipes easier and quicker to make. Sometimes there is no way you can skip baking, but with cheesecake it simple- the secret is in INSTANT PUDDING MIX! I found this recipe on eHow Food and adjusted it a bit.
Instant pudding mixes come in so many different flavors, so it is easy to to make the perfect cheesecake for every occasion!


No-Bake Cheesecake My Way

Here are some photos on the way to Memphis:


The great Tenneessee River with the sun going down
Clear sky promising all the best
Looks like the doorway to heaven, doesn't it?
And an angel looking over us...  And here are some photos from the way back home:
Great Tenneessee river in the morning
Junk food and green results, yuck!!!
My boy was excited to being chased by "monster" truck
Spring is coloring trees in all beautiful bright colors
And yet another surprise was waiting for me in the mail box! Thank you Elisabeth @Food and Thrift Finds, my book arrived today! I will spend a relaxing aftrnoon reading and browsing the pages and admiring all the wonderful photos:


NO-BAKE CHEESECAKE(for printable recipe click here)

Ingredients:
2 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, soft
3 cups milk
2 small packages vanilla instant pudding18 Graham crackers (approximately 9 oz.)1 stick butter (1/2 cup)2 tbsp sugar
Directions: Preheat oven to 325*F. Cover a 9 by 13'' baking pan with aluminum foil and set aside.In a food processor, pulse graham crackers until finely ground. Melt the butter and mix all together until all crackers are moistened. If you feel that the crackers are too dry, just add 1 or 2 tbsp milk and mix thoroughly. Press into the baking pan and bake for 8 - 10 minutes. Let cool completely. Blend cream cheese with 1 cup milk until smooth. Add 2 cups of milk and both pudding mixes. Beat with electric mixer until the cream cheese mix becomes thick, about 2 - 3 minute. Do not over beat. Pour over graham cracker crust. Chill for one hour covered with plastic foil.Cut into rectangles or squares and serve topped with whipping cream and strawberries or garnish up to your taste! 

WHEN VANILLA MET CHOCOLATE

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How to make sure your cake will be moist? The answer is simple, put instant pudding mix into the batter. Yes, it's that simple! All of you have probably seen the ready cake mix with big print "SUPER MOIST- WITH PUDDING in the MIX". And the most wonderful thing about instant pudding mix is that it comes in so many different flavors. What is also so wonderful about instant pudding mix is that they come in all the beautiful colors of rainbow, too. I chose vanilla and chocolate because they are the most popular in our house. But hey, wouldn't  it be great to make a pistachio and banana cake?


Vanilla Met Chocolate Cake

VANILLA MET CHOCOLATE CAKE
(for printable recipe click here)

Ingredients:
4 eggs
4 dL sugar
6 dL all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
4 tsp vanilla
2 dL milk
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted (you can use olive or vegetable oil)
1 small packet vanilla instant pudding mix
1 small packet chocolate instant pudding mix
1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350*F. Oil and flour dust an angel food cake form.

With an electric mixer, mix eggs and sugar until white and fluffy. Mix flour with baking powder and add the mix to the egg mixture. Add melted butter and fold. Divide the cake batter into two equal portions. Add vanilla instant pudding mix to one part and chocolate instant pudding mix and cocoa powder to the other half.
Pour chocolate batter into angel food cake form first, than carefully spread the vanilla batter over it.

Bake on the middle rack for 40 - 50 minutes. I always check my cake after 30 minutes, so I can cover it with aluminum foil  to prevent over browning.

After the cake is done, let it cool for10 minutes, take it out if the cake form, and let it cool completely on a cookie rack.

Garnish and serve in your preferred way and enjoy with a cup of coffee or tea.