Audience: Middle School Students
The butter has reached perfect room temperature, and is ready to be mixed with other wet ingredients. Photo by Brooke Lark from Unsplash.
Flour is sifted into a mixing bowl, dusting the countertops white. Aprons are stained with eggs and milk, hair tied up and brow furrowed as batter is leavened into cupcake liners. Into the oven they go, sloshing in their half-filled cups. Forty minutes later the room is fragrant with the warm scent of sugar and butter, the aroma of cake so tangible you could nearly bite it. Pulling the pans out of the oven, the cupcakes are vastly different from the thin, pale batter that entered. Soft pastries, golden-edged and soft emerge, as if by magic, transformed by the heat of the oven. This process is as delicious as it is delicate: from the measurements of the ingredients to the amount of time it takes to bake, every element of the recipe culminates in a careful science.
First off, the ingredients are vital to the texture, taste, and appearance of the finished product. Flour is usually a main component of numerous recipes, providing structure for breads, crusts, and cakes. Flour contains proteins, and liquids act as a catalyst for gluten formation, which is necessary for the shape of baked desserts. Most recipes also call for eggs, which are a binding agent, called emulsifiers. Emulsifiers break down the ingredients, allowing them to interact and mix easily with one another. They ensure a stable and structured batter, also moistening the baked goods. Almost every baking recipe calls for butter, and other than its beautifully rich flavor, it has another purpose. Butter and oil create tenderness in cakes and flaky crusts in pies. Furthermore, the golden edges of a cake don’t simply just appear; although considered as only a sweetener, sugar is the cause of this perfect rim.
Ingredients are crucial to the end result of the baked item, but the process is just as important. How you mix the ingredients, the order in which you mix them, and the temperature of each item all contribute to the perfect baked good. Usually when baking cakes, wet and dry ingredients are mixed separately before being combined at the end. This ensures that everything is evenly mixed when distributing spices and leavening agents throughout the flour. If the dry ingredients were added directly to the wet ingredients, it would create clumpiness in the batter. In terms of temperature, there’s a reason that the temperature of butter is always extremely specific. Many have tried, in the rush of throwing together a recipe, only to be stopped when a recipe calls for room temperature butter. This specification is not merely an annoyance, but because room temperature butter is best for holding air in the baked good. If the butter is too melted, it creates a tougher dough, with higher gluten formation. The goal is a light, fluffy cake or pastry, in which using room temperature butter is imperative.
After ingredients are combined and batter is poured into cake pans, you pop it into the pre-heated oven. Now, how does the heat transform your dessert? The first sign that the batter is beginning to bake is the rising that occurs, as the trapped gas bubbles within the dough expand. In the warmth of the oven, the fats within the batter melt, the sugar caramelizes, and the leavening agents react with one another as water evaporates.
Baking is the perfect bonding activity that can easily be done with friends and family. While it may just seem like a fun way to kill time, there are so many layers to the seemingly easy creation of a delicious dessert. While it might not take a scientist to bake a batch of tasty cupcakes, it’s always good to understand the purposes of your actions when following a recipe. Who knows, with this newfound knowledge of baking, you may be able to ditch the old recipes and make your own.
Bibliography:
Arias, Tessa. “Baking Science: Our How-to Guides to Perfect Baking.” Handle the Heat, 14 Nov. 2023, handletheheat.com/baking-science/.
Larsen, Linda. “Learn the Science behind These Ingredients and Become a Better Baker.” The Spruce Eats, The Spruce Eats, 8 Nov. 2019, www.thespruceeats.com/baking-ingredient-science-481226.
Physics World. “Ready, Set, Bake.” Physics World, 23 Nov. 2023, physicsworld.com/a/ready-set-bake/.
Comments