Reflection.

1. Thoughtfully answer two of the following four reflection questions. All students must answer either question A or B and either question C or D. I am expecting approximately 2 paragraphs per question and that all of your claims will be specific and supported with evidence. The reflections should be carefully proofread for grammar, sentence structure, and writing conventions. 

   1. How does the ingredient you experimented with affect the food’s overall characteristics? Be specific and discuss the chemical structure of the ingredient and the chemical structures of the aspects of the food the chosen ingredient interacted with as part of your answer!

 

The main focus of my project was how butter affects the rest of a dough or more specifically how the melting point of a butter affects it. To gain a thorough understanding of this idea I was required to learn a few concepts first. The main thing that affects a butters melting point is whether the fat chains inside are “kinked” or not, when a fat chain is kinked it means that carbon in its chain is double bonded and there are two fewer hydrogens than there could be this lowers the melting point and changes the way it interacts with other fat molecules. when a fat molecule is kinked it doesn’t bond as well with other fat molecules. When this happens the bonds are easier to break apart and the melting point is lowered. you can have anything from a monounsaturated chain to a polyunsaturated chain, the melting point is higher or lowered in direct relation to the number of unsaturated bonds in your chain. Knowing this I found out that the only thing that really changes is, when more liquid is present gluten forms differently, this sparked yet another delve into the world of food chemistry that resulted in another new understanding. 

 

The amount of liquid in a dough changes the formation of gluten which makes a dough chewie or dense. When butter is introduced into the dough it coats some of the flour this leads to these pockets of flour being protected from moisture by the hydrophobic fat which prevents the formation of gluten. Gluten forms through hydration when gluten forms glutenin and gliadin combine to make gluten. Normally these two proteins don’t interact and harmlessly bounce off each other, however, when these proteins are hydrated they begin to stick to each other gradually building a spongy structure that catches bubbles and keeps a dough together. The lack of gluten makes the cookies melt more in your mouth and less chewy, the fat content of butter varies greatly and affects the consistency of a dough. Margarine is high in fats and coats so much of the flour that the dough is unable to form proper gluten structures and this leads to a cookie that collapses on itself during the cooking process and becomes very dense and flat. On the other hand, when you use an artificial butter (which is usually lower in fats) less of the flour is coated and more gluten is formed making the cookies once again too chewy and dense. So I found out I had to find a butter that had a melting point near to that of real butter.

 

1. . 

2. How successful was your experiment in helping you understand your food and improve its characteristics? What would be next steps if you were to continue research on this topic? In support of your answer you might choose to discuss any of the following or other questions of your own design:

I was very successful in trying to get the results I Wanted through the manipulation of specific variables. My goal was to find out what the best butter substitute was for a chocolate chip cookie. In this experiment I was able to achieve this goal by collecting three different variables and changing my independent variable accordingly. Through this experiment I learned the chemistry behind how fat affects the formation of gluten and by extension how butter does, this allowed me to find the perfect butter to allow my cookies to retain a good texture and density. My three variables were: Circumference, density and height. 

 

For circumference:

when margarine is used the extra fat affects the water and gluten content by forming micelles around the flour and preventing the waters from properly incorporating into the dough. When the cookies are baked the cookie easily begins to melt and the extra water in the dough then boils off leaving a wide, flat, sad, and Burnt cookie almost 9cm larger than its normal cousin. When using artificial butters the opposite happens not enough of the flour is coated and all the water in the dough is used for making gluten, this means that while your cookie is very chewy and holds a good shape only being .7cm larger. Your mouth becomes the Sahara desert when consuming these cookies, so be sure to have milk on hand.

 

For density: 

when you use really fatty or light butters the gluten content of a dough is increased or dressed with the same result. So over my tests I got close to the average density but it’s not exact with that of the animal butter cookies with a difference of .034cm3 for the artificial butter and a difference of .144cm3 for the margarine cookie.

 

For height: 

All of these also had an effect on height however interestingly enough the margarine cookies actually where closer in height to the butter cookie, however I’m not sure why this happened they all appeared to be flatter but where in fact closer then the artificial butter at .01cm shorter vs .135cm shorter this is an intriguing phenomena. However may be completely due to user error and will require further tests. 

 

I had a A very weird result with the height  that I’m guessing was due to my error. If I did this again I would take more care with my measurements and compile my results in context to ensure that they are viable and make sense in terms of what I was trying to achieve. Other than that I wouldn't change anything I yielded very conclusive results that made sense with the chemistry I learned. I also got to eat yummy cookies.