SALISBURY — A familiar sweet treat, chocolate chip cookies, were on the menu at the children’s baking class held Saturday morning at Yadkin Path Montessori School on Bringle Ferry Road.

Four families, Phor and Toya Brown and Chody Harris, Aubrielle and Carli Meade, Nora and Stephen O’Flynn O’Brien and Boomer, Lilah and Elizabeth Plumley, joined instructor Rebecca Pendergrass Smith for the opportunity to learn a new recipe along with receiving helpful tips and techniques for baking, in a fun, relaxed atmosphere.

Pendergrass Smith earned her culinary degree at Livingstone College and has taught food and nutrition at North Rowan High School and served as a chef for many years. She noted she has now ventured out on her own and is an entrepreneur, running both a cake baking and cleaning business.

She shared that she still loves to teach, and when this opportunity came up, she absolutely wanted to participate.

Upon arrival, the children were given an apron to use for the class if they didn’t have one of their own, and when everyone had found a spot at one of the tables set up with the necessary baking utensils, Pendergrass Smith instructed them of her biggest rule that she has in the kitchen, washing our hands.

She asked them if they knew why they started with this step to which the answer of germs was provided. They dispersed to wash hands so, as Pendergrass Smith said, they could “make some safe food.”

Making sure the food was all right for anyone that might have allergies, she told them her plan for the day included a gluten- and dairy-free version of an old favorite and offered instructions with the children and parents who attended and assisted as needed.

Noting the various items on each table, she told them there are five parts of a recipe, servings, materials, ingredients, oven temperature and yield, and after going over their supplies and recipe instructions, she proceeded to give each group their ingredients giving them time to either cream, whisk, crack eggs and incorporate flour as instructed.

When the last ingredients were shared and the cookie dough was smooth and creamy, it was time to place it in the refrigerator, allowing some time for the children to go run around for a little while and enjoy the outdoors.

After washing hands once again and returning to their stations, it was time to scoop out the dough and place them on their individual baking sheets. Some sampling took place throughout the process of preparation before they were placed in the ovens.

Pendergrass Smith kept a close eye on the cookies as the children enjoyed some additional free time, but it wasn’t long until the call for cookies coming out brought them all running.

While usually teaching teens in a classroom setting, she noted she had a really good time working with the children.

“These kids are excited, they’re inquisitive, they’re very curious, they’re what do we do next. I don’t think I’ve had this much fun with little kids in a long time,” she shared. “Their different personalities and their eagerness to want to get through it and see the fruits of their labor. I’m so excited for this. I can’t wait to taste their cookies.”

The children were enthusiastic about baking and stirring and helping and tasting and each said they enjoyed baking at home as well. Aubrielle noted she likes to help bake cupcakes. Cookies were what Boomer and Lilah said they enjoyed baking, while Nora shared it was ice cream for her. Phor enjoys both baking and cooking, his mom noted, “anything with eggs, which he likes to crack and whip up,” she added, as well as helping prepare his own fruit and “anything that he can mix and put in himself.”

When the class was over and the cookies were cooling, the children shared that they had fun. Lilah said her favorite part of the day was, “all of it” while Aubrielle noted she liked the “mixing up ingredients and putting them in the oven,” and Phor’s mom said with a big smile, that his favorite part was probably the eating.

The reasons for what brought the families to the class ranged from looking for something fun to do on a Saturday to wanting to learn to bake and loving new recipes and helping their child to have the experience and becoming more interactive.

And just like the favorite parts of the class as well as the reason for attending differed from child to child, so did their cookies to which Pendergrass Smith told them their cookies “will all look different and your cookies are special and unique to you just like you are to the world.”

When asked what she thought draws people to take cooking classes, she noted how they are a life skill and “everybody needs to know how to cook,” she said. As for baking, she noted, “baking isn’t a necessity, but it’s always fun to do.”