Making the Best Bread

Day 1 - Entry 1 - Doing the Research - March 7th, 2017 - 11:41 AM

We’ve begun research on our mission to create the best bread recipe we can by experimentation.  We have discussed what we will do and have created a recipe we hope will be successful.  Tonight Jack will be testing our recipe as Riley and I are busy.  

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Day 1 - Entry 2 - March 7th, 2017 - 6:34 PM

Jack had been busy working on the bread and has created multiple tests where he tried to see different results when he changed the recipes.  He concluded that brown sugar was the best tasting, as it was the sweetest, and decided the bread was good with garlic and butter.  He shared amazing photos of the bread he created.

(The dough was rising)

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(“tastes like a pretzel”)

(his hands got messy)

UPDATE: In the meantime (while we wait for tomorrow to come around) I’m going to explain the process the yeast goes through.  As you may know, humans use cellular respiration to break down glucose into ATP, which followed the equation “C6H12O6 (glucose) + 6O2 (oxygen) Yields ATP (energy) + 6H2O (Water) + 6CO2 (the carbon dioxide you breathe out).

Unfortunately, yeast cells cannot use this process because oxygen is needed to start the process (which takes place in the mitochondria of the cells).  Because of this, yeast does not need cellular respiration.  Plants produce glucose and therefore and a major part of cellular respiration, because they pack the energy into the food.  Yeast still want to break down the plant's energy from glucose, and use anaerobic respiration, which is a type without oxygen present.  They go through Alcoholic Fermentation, which is why the yeast needs sugar and water.  The water activates the yeast and it breaks down the glucose which causes the byproducts of Alcoholic Fermentation to be produces, CO2 and Alcohol.  The CO2 builds air pockets and causes the years to rise, which is how we get our beloved risen bread we can place into the oven.

I’m kind of tired right now so I’ll catch you guys later when we continue the bread making.

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Day 1 - Entry 3 - Our Plan - March 7th, 2017 11:56 PM

We've concluded on a good recipe and finalized our plans for tomorrow.  Below I’ll tell you our planned procedure and our recipe, and then Riley will take over and explain the rationale for each ingredient and its amount.

Procedure:

• We’ll start by combining all the dry ingredients (Brown Sugar, Baking Powder Yeast, Salt, and half of the Flour)

• Then we measure out and heat up our water to 125 degrees fahrenheit.

• If the water was too hot we let it cool.

• Mix in the water and once the dough has combined, remove from bag.

• Add the other half of the flour and knead the dough together.

• Use your hands to form a ball

• Place the ball under a heat lamp to rise for 30 minutes

• Bake the dough.

Recipe:

3 2/3 TBSP Water - Water is used to activate the yeast in our mixture and hydrates dry ingredients.

1 ¼ TSP Brown Sugar - Brown sugar is used a substitute for sugar, which sweetens the bread, and allows the bread to brown as it is cooking.

¾ TSP Yeast - Yeast is used to make the bread rise through the process of alcoholic fermentation. This makes the yeast release CO2, and causes air pockets to form in the dough.

½ CUP Flour - Flour is added to add structure to the bread, and help give it substance and form, plus a pleasant chewy texture.

⅙ TSP Salt - Salt is used to control the actions of the yeast, not to mention adding flavor. We used this amount so that the salt flavor was accentuated, while still being subtle.

1/12 TSP Baking Powder - Baking Powder is used to help along the process of alcoholic fermentation in the mixture. It helps the bread rise when water and heat are added.

Day 2 - Entry 1 - Making the Bread - March 8th, 2017 - 11:54 AM

We have begun the process of making the bread in class, and are measuring the flour or, after getting the perfect amount and referring to the recipe we are measuring out the yeast.  After measuring it out and adding the yeast to the bag of flour, we got our bags of brown sugar and salt, and added the appropriate amounts to our main dry mixture.  We are now beginning to mix all out dry ingredients together using the bag to mix it all into one consistency.

After getting the dry mixture done, we are measuring out 3 and a third TBSP of water and adding it into the bag.  We got water from the sink into measuring devices.  After microwaving the water, we realized we had heated it up to 220 degrees, which is about 100 degrees too hot for the yeast and could kill it in seconds,  We decided to wait for the water to cool down before adding it to the bag.  We are currently waiting.

Our Procedure:

We started by combining 1 ¼ teaspoons of brown Sugar, ¾ of a teaspoon of yeast, half cup of flour, ⅙ of a teaspoon of salt, and 1/12 of a teaspoon (or just a pinch) of baking powder into a Ziploc bag.  We mixed together our dry mixture.

Then we heated 3 and a third tablespoons of water in a small paper cup using a microwave.

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(making the mixture)

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(The water was too hot and could kill the yeast)

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Day 2 - Entry 2 - Combining Wet and Dry - March 8th, 2017 12:01 AM

The water had finally cooled down to a good temperature of 125 degrees (Fahrenheit) to allow the yeast to go through alcoholic fermentation.  We will be watching the respiration occur and hopefully will see C02 production as the dough rises and becomes bread ready to bake.

Jack is now mixing together the wet and dry ingredients, and the dough is not shaping up.  After reaching out for help, we realized that the procedure we used was not in line with the one given to us, as Jack forgot to add half the flour, let it set, and add the other half later.  We added another half teaspoon of water in hopes that the dry mixture starts to form a dough.  Let’s hope all turns out well.

Our Procedure:

We started by waiting for the water in the cup to cool down.

Then, once the water reached 125 degrees Fahrenheit, we poured the cup of water into our dry mixture bag.  We then proceeded to knead at the bag until the water and dry mixture combined into a sticky ball.

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(Adding the water)

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(Jack mixing in the bag)

(setting up and using his workspace)

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Day 2 - Entry 3 - Success from Failure - March 8th, 2017 12:05 PM

We emptied the bag of cough onto wax paper and Jack is getting wrist deep and messy in the dough.  He’s currently kneading, forming it into making the perfect ball of dough, and it as lots of flour is visible.  While kneading it, we silently our concerned our bread might not turn out well.  We are planning on putting the ball under a heat lamp to see the fermentation of the yeast.

UPDATE: It worked, and Jack is now holding his masterpiece ball of dough, as you can see in the attached pictures.

Our Procedure:

We continued to mix the bag until we dumped it out onto wax paper, and Jack kneaded the dough by hand until it turned into a solid ball ready to be put under the heat lamp.

UPDATE 2: As I wait, I’m going to continue talking about the yeast rising.  As I told you earlier, year uses anaerobic respiration, which does not require oxygen.  The reason you breathe in oxygen (as you hopefully know) is because your body breaks down its energy using aerobic respiration, which needs oxygen.  This is the comparison between humans and yeast.  It’s important to know about anaerobic and aerobic respiration while making yeast so that way you can put your yeast in a good environment to convert energy in.  Anyway, I’m going to go watch my bread, talk to you later!

Day 2 - Entry 4 - The Rising and Fermentation - February 8th, 2017 12:25 PM

It’s ALIVE! The process of fermentation had finally begun as our bread, although a bit dry, is rising well and looks just like a fresh loaf of bread (although a bit small).  Tomorrow when we make our final product, we’re going to add more water because our bread is too dry and doesn't feel very doughy (instead of being sticky, it’s the same texture as bread).

Our Procedure:

We placed our dough under the heat lamp and waited 30 minutes for the dough to rise.

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(our dough under the heat lamp!)

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(we’d say we did pretty good)

(sad to throw it out)

Day 3 - Entry 1 - The Final Product (in the Works) - February 9th, 2017 11:39 AM

Hey Guys! Today we’re making our final product to eat and I’m super excited to see how it turns out.  We hope we've learned from yesterday and are planning on adding a bit more water.  Because the way we added the flour worked out, and we know it works, we will continue to add all the flour at once.  We have made some minor changes today though, and will be adding a bit of garlic powder to make the bread taste nicer.  Catch you all when we finish making the dough.

UPDATE: We are combining the water now, but first have to wait for it to settle to 125 degrees, we'll update the blog when we do that!

Procedure:

We combined the following:

1 ¼ TSP Brown Sugar

¾ TSP Yeast

½ CUP Flour

⅙ TSP Salt

1/12 TSP Baking Powder

And a desirable amount of Garlic Powder (we added a teaspoon)

Then we finished off by adding the 3 and a third tablespoons of water.

(our yeast)

(measuring out water)

(heated in a microwave)

(The workspace and me on the blog of course)

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Day 3 - Entry 2 - The Final Product (Almost Done) - February 9th, 2017 11:49 AM

We just finished making the perfect ball and used a stick of softened butter like chopstick, and after rubbing it and coating the balls with the butter we sprinkled it with soft flakes of garlic powder.  Hopefully all goes well and this process makes it taste good without affecting the rising!

Procedure:

After adding the 125 degree water, we formed a nice ball and rubbed some butter on it.  

We then sprinkled Garlic Powder onto the dough and placed it under a heat lamp

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(A nice ball)

(Me [fayaz] hard at work on the blog)

(under the lamp with garlic flake details)

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Day 3 - Entry 3 - The Final Product (is Rising) - February 9th, 2017 12:20 PM

I'm currently just waiting for the bread to rise, and I’m scrolling through the blog to see if I can enlighten you anymore about anything.  I just found that I never explained the carbon cycle being part of bread making, so I’ll hopefully educate you on that now.

So as you know from what I said earlier, anaerobic respiration, although not requiring O2, does produce CO2 (Alcoholic Fermentation in specific).  When the CO2 is produced, the dough rises, and we get our famous rising dough.  As you can probably guess, the CO2 production plays a part in the carbon cycle because, as you would've never guessed, Carbon Dioxide contains carbon.  When you consume the bread, you consume the carbon, and it eventually gets released back into the carbon cycle.   We’ll now go and check the bread, and after our last entry and reflection, Jack will summarize all the science I’ve laid out over the past few days.

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Day 3 - Entry 4 - The Final Product (Is gonna be Baked) - February 9th, 2017 12:34 PM

The dough finally finished rising.  Below will be some pictures of the finished product.

We decided to add some more garlic as the flavor didn’t come out to well from the smell, and we applied a fresh coat of butter.

We’ll now be placing our creation in the oven, but we don’t have an oven with us so someone will be doing that for us.  We’ll have to wait till tomorrow to see and taste our product.  I can’t wait!

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Reflection

In the end our recipe turned out well but right now I’m going off of the bread under the heat lamp, and not the baked version yet.  After smelling the delicious dough, we realized we hadn't added enough garlic, so put some more butter and garlic on top.  We would recommend adding 2 teaspoons rather than 1.

Here are the reflections after the bread was baked;

Jack's Thoughts:

I think our Bread was pretty successful. It was a bit dense but we did good on choosing the ingredients and substituting what we did. I researched our recipe on my own time and found that it worked good and would taste good in class. I would give the taste of the bread a 9/10, it tastes like a soft pretzel but we would need to add a condiment of some sort to make it less bland. I think our bread also turned out very visually appealing and also tasted pretty good. We were successful because we each too different roles in design, typing, and research and our work paid off.  Now I’ll let Riley explain his thoughts about the bread.

Our recipe was very successful, considering that it was delicious. It tasted roughly like a soft pretzel, with a hint a garlic flavor, much like a garlic knot. Since Jack experimented making the bread on his own (outside of class), it gave us time to work on perfecting our recipe, and do more research into what the ingredients did. We chose to use brown sugar instead of normal sugar, which helped sweeten the bread, while giving it a good color. Another ingredient we added was garlic powder, to accentuate the “garlic knot” flavor. Now Fayaz is gonna tell you guys his description of our product.

After making the bread and testing how it turned out, we concluded that we had succeeded in making a great bread.  While it may have not been the best bread recipe, it was great for beginners with no previous knowledge of making bread.  We researched the reason each ingredient was added and created a great proportion that turned out wonderfully.  We chose good ingredients as not only did the brown sugar create a good flavor, it also added  soft and breakable texture that normal sugar couldn't achieve.  Our bread was not rubbery, but soft and delicate.  It was a bit firm, but in a good way because it held together well while also being able to be bitten really easily.  I definitely would use this recipe again, but may increase the yeast amount a bit to create  fluffier result.  I also believe our product would have been a lot better with some more garlic powder, as the flavor wasn't fully distributed (although it tasted great on the top, and like a pretzel in the core). Our success has led me to understand the process of bread making, the science behind it, and how delicious bread can be.

 Thanks for reading and we'll update with new baked photos tonight!

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Jack's Summary:

We wanted to figure out the best way to use science to create the best bread. In doing this we took a base recipe and added a few ingredients such as brown sugar and baking soda for their benefit to the bread. We tried making the bread on 3 different occasions which helped us so we could know what to make better each time. We changed the water amounts mostly but this helped our bread Benefit a lot. I'd say trial and error helped us a lot but the biggest help was our knowledge in the scientific aspect of how each individual piece of the recipe helped the bread rise, taste, and more. We did good on this project, as we used the science well and also made sure that it would taste pretty good too.