Making giant Twinkies for a grade

Handmade twinkles were up for grabs Wednesday at Owens Community College in Perrysburg Township.

THE BLADE/KATIE RAUSCH
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Handmade twinkles were up for grabs Wednesday at Owens Community College in Perrysburg Township.

Dorito-encrusted chicken nuggets, a large loaf resembling a Twinkie, and goat-cheese, roasted-cherry ice cream are some of the foods Owens Community College second-year culinary arts students created for their National Snack Food Month event today on the Perrysburg Township campus.

Gretchen Fayerweather's class of eight students prepared batches of snacks for the public to enjoy; it was also the students' main class project. Chef Fayerweather said the project gives students a chance to work on planning the event and everything that entails.

"This is for next-level planning and targeting things like creating a menu, decorating, doing the table setup, making a promo release, who's working where," Chef Fayerweather said.

PHOTO GALLERY: National Snack Food Month celebration at Owens

One problem the class had was cancellations, and only having about 30 guests - usually they have 50, said Chef Fayerweather. The students had to cutback on the amount of food that was made and plan accordingly.

The students in the class are Jeremy England of Bowling Green, Jerilyn St. Clair of Swanton, Maria Lay of Toledo, Aaron Kato of Oak Harbor, Alex Smith of Wauseon, Julie Valentine of Toledo, Jordyn Rife of Toledo, and Amber Simmet of Delphos, Ohio. Each student made their favorite snack.

"Some of the foods were a lot of fun," Chef Fayerweather said. Goat-cheese, roasted-cherry ice cream "some of the people thought sounded gross, but it was fantastic and everyone loved it."

The giant dessert designed to resemble a Twinkie was not as easy to create as planned. It took three to four trial runs, Chef Fayerweather said, as students tried to figure out the best way to make a Twinkie-style loaf with a whipped-cream filling.

"I had a great class," Chef Fayerweather said. "It will be disappointing when this class is done next week. We had some great critical thinkers. Some of the more experienced culinary students paired up with less experienced and help them. Peer learning is something I like to see a lot."