Cinnamon Sugar Bread by Isobel, Emma, and Julia

 

Please enjoy this quick and easy cinnamon sugar bread recipe! With just 6 ingredients it’s easy to do and will definitely satisfy your tastebuds!  Our group’s goal was to look at all of the different scientific aspects that play a part in the making of bread. First of, there are a few things that you need to know.The formula for cellular respiration is C6H12O6 + 6O2 → 6CO2 + 6H2O + ATPCellular respiration occurs in the mitochondria of the cellCellular respiration in humans is aerobic respirationIn yeast cells alcoholic fermentation occurs, a form of anaerobic respiration Anaerobic respiration is highly important in the making of bread. Every baker knows to use yeast if you want your bread to rise. This is actually because of anaerobic respiration! Cellular respiration is not present because you want the environment with no oxygen allow the carbon dioxide to form The yeast creates those nice little air pockets in the bread that we love. It makes the bread rise, fluffy, and not quite as dense. The air pockets are a result of a process called alcoholic fermentation. Alcoholic fermentation is a type of anaerobic respiration. Alcoholic fermentation occurs in both yeast and plant cells. It produces both alcohol and carbon dioxide. If you get really specific you see that the air pockets are because of the carbon dioxide that is created through this fermentation. Alcoholic fermentation also occurs in plants which means it occurs in the wheat of the flour used in bread. Wheat is a grain, a plant. The same process of creating carbon dioxide is in play here. Without cellular respiration, and thus alcoholic fermentation,  your bread wouldn’t rise and it would be much denser than it with cellular respiration.  Now, there is one more big scientific aspect that fits into bread making. More, how alcoholic fermentation fits into carbon cycle. Firstly, the carbon cycle is the cycle of carbon throughout the atmosphere, plants, and animals. Plants create oxygen and glucose through photosynthesis. Animals breath in the oxygen and break down the glucose, and then they breathe out carbon dioxide. Plants then take in that carbon dioxide so they can go through photosynthesis. The carbon in dead organisms is broken down by decomposers. Alcoholic fermentation fits into this as plants are one of the organisms that go through this fermentation process. The wheat in the bread would fit into the carbon cycle as a plant that goes through photosynthesis, requiring carbon dioxide and creating oxygen. A way to look into this even more is to look at the ratio of certain ingredients of the recipe to others. This is also a good basis of how to create other recipes! Some of these ratios are as follows,Sugar:flour is 1:48Salt:flour is 1:96Sugar:yeast is 2:1Dry:wet is 1:2.9Our recipe was edited because you always have to take into account trial and error. At first we added too much water and too much water will cause your dough to be incredibly sticky and wet, it will not form a solid ball like it should. We added sugar because sugar activates yeast and it doesn’t exactly hurt the taste either. The flour help with the forming of the dough as well as the gluten strands. The gluten strands helps provide structure that allows those airy pockets to form in the bread. The yeast was for the sole purpose of producing carbon dioxide through alcoholic fermentation. The addition of both salt and cinnamon sugar was for flavor. Now that you know more about the process of making bread you can try this recipe to watch it all happen! You definitely won’t be disappointed!  Recipe½ cup of flour3.5 tablespoons of water¼ tsp of yeast½  tsp of sugar2 tablespoons of cinnamon sugarPinch of salt Directions: In a ziploc bag add ¼ cup of flour Heat 3.5tbsp of water in the microwave for one minute, or until the water is 120-130 degrees F Mix .5tsp of sugar into the water until the sugar dissolvesAdd the sugar water to the flour in the ziploc bag and mix until combinedLet your mixture sit for 10 minutesMix the remaining ¼ cup of flour, 1 tbsp of cinnamon sugar, and a pinch of salt to your mixtureTake the dough out of the bag and knead it on a piece of wax paper or a clean counter top for one minuteSprinkle the remaining 1 tbsp of cinnamon sugar onto the bread and roll it into the shape of a spherePlace the dough under a heat lamp and let it rise for 30 minutesBake your bread at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until golden brown on the outside11.Enjoy! Reflecting on this project our bread was dense, it didn’t rise at all, and there were no air bubbles. While it didn’t rise, it was very moist. Moisture was leaking out of the bottom. The consistency of the bread was more like a muffin or coffee cake, and it was mealy. Although the bread tasted good, the texture wasn’t up to par. In our research for br as recipes, none of them included the optional ingredients we chose to use. This may have effected how the bread rose when it baked. Looking back, we used too much water and we should have kneaded the dough more. We should have added more yeast as well to help with the rising of the bread.