chemistry of food and cooking.
reflection.
How does the ingredient you experimented with affect the food’s overall characteristics?
For my experiment, I focused on moisture and density of blueberry muffins. There were three different milks for each three batches of muffin mix. The research beforehand shows that milk is a strengthener and toughener in the world of baking. The groups of fat in each different kind of milk react to the other ingredients by making bonds that hold in moisture. When milk is infused during the baking process it creates the dense and strong muffin like form, hints as to why it is classified as a strengthener.
When beginning my research I had no idea how to find the triglycerides (fat groups) of cashew, chocolate, and evaporated milk. Without officially finding the direct resource and information towards those three milks was not entirely an effective way to research, but gathering the information on pure cow milk (which is all I came across online) gave me some starting points for understanding the chemical aspect of baking. When the cashew milk went into the blueberry muffin mix already with a smoother, liquid consistency (compared to other milks) gave me more of realization as to how the batter is mixed to begin with, which ended up contributing to the density of the muffins. Then the batter which was thick/more dense and the batter that was less thick and more on the fluffy but not too fluffy side effected the final appearance. Appearance also was a factor in using different milks. Cashew milk looked the fluffiest, chocolate milk didn't do the best at rising and evaporated milk looked like a glazed finish was over the muffins.
When beginning my research I had no idea how to find the triglycerides (fat groups) of cashew, chocolate, and evaporated milk. Without officially finding the direct resource and information towards those three milks was not entirely an effective way to research, but gathering the information on pure cow milk (which is all I came across online) gave me some starting points for understanding the chemical aspect of baking. When the cashew milk went into the blueberry muffin mix already with a smoother, liquid consistency (compared to other milks) gave me more of realization as to how the batter is mixed to begin with, which ended up contributing to the density of the muffins. Then the batter which was thick/more dense and the batter that was less thick and more on the fluffy but not too fluffy side effected the final appearance. Appearance also was a factor in using different milks. Cashew milk looked the fluffiest, chocolate milk didn't do the best at rising and evaporated milk looked like a glazed finish was over the muffins.