This post is about a project from my food math & science class. We were learning about chemical reactions and leavening agents and in order to prove we learned something about these topics, we were given the task of taking a recipe and changing the leavening agent in it to create a new recipe and to see if we new what we had been learning. The thing I am most proud of in this project is finding a basic cooking ingredient and an acidic cooking ingredient to put inside of our new recipe. I learned a lot on how to convert units of ingredients and also a lot about pH and the different reactions it can cause in object. Keep reading to see my lab report!
Title:
A New Leavening Agent
Justin Martinez
Partners: BKJ, MY, CD
Food Course
May 6, 2013
1. Introduction/Purpose (1 paragraph)
We started off learning about chemical reactions in food. We were taught about leavening agents and how they are caused by reactions of acids and bases. We were then given the task to find a way to substitute a leavening agent in a particular recipe. This lead me to my research question and objective. I decided to choose apple sauce and olive oil because applesauce is acidic and olive oil is basic which allows the leavening reaction to occur due to the swapping of hydrogen ions.
2. Objective/Research Question
What happens when you create a new leavening agent for a previous recipe?
3. Hypothesis
If I make a leavening agent with applesauce and olive oil, it will react because olive oil is a base and apples are acidic.
4. Materials (List all ingredients and tools, including your substitute leavening ingredients)
Apple Sauce (acid)
Olive Oil (Base)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup all purpose flour
7/8 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup of milk
5. Procedure
For Control Group:
-
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
-
Grease and flour a 9×9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
-
In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
-
Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.
-
Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well.
-
Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth.
-
Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
-
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.
For Experimental Group:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Grease and flour a 9×9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.
5. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well.
6. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth.
7. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
8. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.
6. Data (include data obtained for control group and experimental group)
7. Graph
This chart is made to show the differences of height in the cupcakes due to the different amount of acids and bases we put into the cupcakes. The blue one is the first experimental cupcake, the red is the second, orange 3rd, green 4th, purple 5th, and blue is 6th. The pink one is the control group that we were comparing all of the cupcakes to.
8. Calculations/Recipe in Metric
9. Conclusion
From this experiment I learned so much. I learned what a leavening reaction and that was what occurred (and what we hoped would occur) in our cupcakes. Leavening reactions are reactions that cause are to be released inside of cupcakes. Although we had hoped to have this reaction occur in our cupcakes by using Olive Oil and Applesauce, we actually did not end up having any leavening reaction in the cupcakes while baking. I believe that the experiment was a failure yet that from this failure we learned that olive oil and applesauce do not have a leavening reaction. I come to this because our cupcakes did not rise at all and they did not have any air in them. If I were able to make a change in order to make the results of this experiment turn out better, I would search for a replacement of the acidic and basic ingredients.