Guyana Unit

Even though Guyana is relatively early in the alphabet, somehow it was one of the very last countries we studied. I don’t know quite how that happened, but it did, and then the recipe I made for it had me absolutely convinced it was in a different continent. I was absolutely convinced Guyana was not part of our South America Unit, but thankfully I have now learned better because of our geography lessons. Our Guyana Unit helped me learn just a little bit more about this country.

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Guyana Unit resources

I looked up Guyana to find out some good resources, and the really big thing everyone talks about are the waterfalls.

• 10 Guyana Facts– I loved the waterfall pictures here
• Kid World Travel Guyana– a great source for basic information
• Guyana Facts– I’m only including this because it has some different information from Kid World Travel, but it doesn’t have much to offer
• 36 Facts about Guyana– not a lot of pictures, but there are some great facts and interesting things to learn

But most of our information came from the Geography Now video.

And now I’ll have that playing in the background as I type up the rest of this post. From reading the top comment, do not take the video as the correct way to pronounce the words. Apparently, Barb butchered the location names.

And here is the Flag Friday video too.

Guyana Unit recipe: Goja (Spiced coconut turnover)

Okay, so I started making this recipe, and when I first read it I thought, “Hey this dough is similar to pie dough, and I keep seeing people suggest making pie dough in the food processor. I thought, “Why not? Let’s give it a try.”

This dough is not like pie dough. I also significantly modified the dough because there was no way I could roll out the original dough. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Recipe ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup milk
• 3 cups coconut
• 2 tablespoons minced ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup brown sugar

Making the Goja

The recipe card does not have all of the comments, just to let you know. It has what works when it’s done correctly.

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, and sugar together. I did this in the food processor thinking it was going to be a pie crust dough, it was not.
2. Cut in the butter until fine crumbs form. This went really fast with the food processor. I then poured in the milk, and the original milk-to-flour ratio was way off. It originally only had 2 cups of flour. The dough was so sticky the food processor just shut off. This was when I transferred it to my stand mixer. This is why the recipe card says: If not already in a mixer, transfer to mixer.
3. Slowly pour in the milk as the dough mixes until the dough is smooth. Cover the dough, and let rest for one hour. At this point, I added a third cup of flour because there was no way this dough was ever going to become smooth. I almost wonder what would have happened if I had tried to make it smooth.
4. While the dough is resting mix together the coconut, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, almond extract, vanilla extract, and brown sugar. This is when I discovered we were out of fresh ginger, but thankfully I had some refrigerated minced ginger, which is not quite the same flavor, but worked.
5. Heat the oven to 350 degrees and roll out the dough. Cut out circles about 4 inches across, and place a few tablespoons of the coconut mix in the middle. I used my empanada maker (not the one I have, but this is cool because it has two sizes). I LOVE this thing, it is AMAZING. It makes this whole process so much easier and since I love turnovers, empanadas, dumplings, and the like, it is life-changing.
6. Wet the edges of the turnovers then press with a fork to seal it closed. Place on cooking sheet.
7. Cook in the oven for 15-18 minutes and remove when golden brown.

Spiced Coconut Turnover

Print

These spiced coconut turnovers make a great dessert to share with friends.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Additional Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup milk
• 3 cups coconut
• 2 tablespoons minced ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup brown sugar

Instructions

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, and sugar together.

1. Cut in the butter until fine crumbs form. If not already in a mixer, transfer to mixer.
2. Slowly pour in the milk as the dough mixes until the dough is smooth. Cover the dough, and let rest for one hour.
3. While the dough is resting mix together the coconut, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, almond extract, vanilla extract, and brown sugar.
4. Heat the oven to 350 degrees and roll out the dough. Cut out circles about 4 inches across, and place a few tablespoons of the coconut mix in the middle.
5. Wet the edges of the turnovers then press with a fork to seal it closed. Place on cooking sheet.
6. Cook in oven for 15-18 minutes and remove when golden brown.

Notes

Alternatively, you can cook them in oil on the stovetop. This is the more traditional method, but we did not have the oil necessary to do it when cooking it.

I have a couple of theories for why my dough turned out tough.

First, I might have overworked the dough in the transferring from the food processor to my stand mixer, and in adding in more flour. I know with both bread dough and pie dough that can be a problem.

Next, they never turned particularly golden, so after they were done cooking I left them in the oven as it cooled down. In theory, they might have gotten overcooked then.

I’m not entirely sure, but everyone at our co-op meeting enjoyed them. The Artist who actually makes baked good agreed with my assessment that it didn’t come off quite right.

Guyana Unit notebooking pages

We pulled out our trusty South America notebooking pages and filled them out as we watched the video.

And let’s see what fun facts I wrote down.

• 90% of the people live on the coast
• Guyana has the longest floating bridge
• Unlike all of the other countries in South America, they drive on the left-hand side of the road, their roads also do not connect with much of South America
• Their elders are called aunties and uncles like you see in many Asian countries, I wonder if that’s because they have a significant Indian (from Asia) population

And that’s our Guyana Unit. It was a good bit to learn.

And with that I sign off.

Some more learning fun

I’ll grab some high school posts since we learned about Guyana during their senior year.

• Six! History or pop culture
• Mr. D’s Algebra 1
• Slovakia Unit
• Wordsmith Craftsman
• Good Omens book club

Sorenriise at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons