Chocolate Chip..... Cookies?

 

Hello! Welcome or welcome back to my blog! I'm B.R.!

    Today's blog will be about my Food class. No, it's not a culinary class, it's actually a STEAM class.        One would wonder how or why a STEAM class is titled "Food", I'm here to tell you. During this term, our main units were soil, stove, and seeds. During our first unit, we discussed how soil connects to food. The answer is simple: "food" grows from soil (or at least most does)! By this, I don't mean hamburgers or salads sprout from the ground, but simply that things in a hamburger or salad come from the crops we've planted. We talked about the different chemicals within soil and how it affects (or doesn’t affect) the food we consume. During our “soil” unit, we planted flowers and seeds for our AP (Action Project). We were to pick between three seeds: beans, lettuce, and peas. I chose lettuce due to a lack of room in my “pot”. 

We have also been cooking! For our "stove" unit, my class and I have made bread, brownies, and cookies! When making bread, instead of using baking powder, we had to create our own! My group of 3 (including myself), used baking soda and cream of tartar to make our leavening agent. Once we finish mixing and kneading, it was time to bake! When my groups' bread was done baking, unfortunately, it was undone in the center. My classmates theorized that we may have had too many wet ingredients. After baking for a while longer, we got to taste our creations and they were anything but delicious due to a lack of seasonings. Unfortunately, I was not present when brownies were made, but I did learn a bit more about the idea of ingredient substitution the following school days! More recently, we made cookies! More specifically, my group made Cranberry Marshmallow Granola Cookies! When setting for the ingredients for our cookies a bit of simple math was involved. The recipe we found could make 12-15 cookies, but the provided tray could only hold 6 cookies. We simply took the ingredients from our recipe and divided them in half. Mixing the ingredients were extremely fun. We turned the whole baking experience into a game. There were 3 different groups and we raced each other to see who could make their cookies the fastest. Although my group lost, I must say our cookies were the most unique, and in my opinion, the most delicious. Baking can be fun but when you understand both the math and science behind it, it creates an exciting experience.

    For this AP, we did some more baking. My classmates and I were tasked to bake at home. The catch? We were to find a recipe--any recipe involving baking and make two sets of the food(s)! For one, we were to use the original recipe, but for the second, we were to substitute an original leavening agent (in the recipe) with a different one. For example, eggs substituted by yogurt.

Will's Scientific Method (5 Steps):

Question:

    How will the recipe react to the emulsifier changing? 

Hypothesis:

    My hypothesis is that the emulsified cookie will rise higher and will be much softer.

Material & Procedure:

B.R.'s Materials, 2023

-Flour

-Baking Powder

-Baking Soda

-Brown Sugar

-Sugar

-Eggs

-Butter

-Salt

-Chocolate Chips

I started by gathering all my materials and mixing my dry ingredients, then my wet ingredients, and finally I mixed them all together. because I had to make two separate batches, I split the ingredients in half.

Original vs Emulsified Cookies Baking, 2023

I pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.  I allowed them to bake for about 15 minutes. In between the baking of the cookies, I would poke them with a fork to ensure they were done.

Observation & Data:

"Fully" Baked Cookies, 2023

Independent Variable	Baking	Dependent Var #1: Consistency	Dependent Var #2: Texture	Dependent Var #3: Leavening
Baking Soda & Baking Powder	15 minutes	This cookie was soft and chewier.	This cookie felt softer and smoother all while feeling rough (on the outside).	2 cm
Whipped Egg Whites		This cookie was crunchy but also chewy.	This cookie felt rougher and drier. Although the other cookie became flat and smooth, this cookie seemed to keep it's original form.	5 cm

Results & Further Questions:

My hypothesis was slightly correct. The emulsified cookie rose higher than the original cookie but they were both of similar textures (on the outside at least) but I believe that blame can fall upon me since I am not very good at baking cookies. I also noticed that no matter how long I allowed the cookies to bake in the oven, they still had a softened center. I wonder if I'd used a different emulsifier would the rising of the cookies be any different? Would the texture or consistency be any different or the same? If I had better baking skills would that have contributed to a much broader difference in the cookies' outcome? Or a different recipe?

    I think it is very interesting how ingredients can be substituted by a myriad of things! I feel this could feed deeply into the ideology of the cooking hypothesis--human ancestors used different ingredients, testing the limits or difference in food in order to survive or simply for fun (as present humans do)! This project has put a lot of different things into perspective for me; I'd always known all kinds of things can be related or connect but it's really fun to entertain the idea that everyone knows but not everyone understands: bakers are scientists!

Citations:

tastesbetterfromscratch.com