Baking Chemistry

Baking the perfect chocolate chip cookie has more to do with chemistry than you might think. Like good lab work, baking depends on careful observation and accurate measurements. If something burns or doesn't turn out the way you want, you must use your observations to adjust your cooking experiment for the future. Have you ever wondered why your grandmother's cookies are so good? It has to do with the molecular interactions involved in the baking process and the quantity of each ingredient she places in the dough. Chemistry!

I found a blog entry by a baker and chemist that explains how each ingredient in a chocolate chip cookie reacts under the presence of heat. The sugar used, for example, breaks down into more basic sugars: fructose and glucose. These molecules react with each other to form a polymer chain that causes the dough to harden.  Salt (NaCl) is able to slow the production of gas so the cookies are chewy and not so cake like. Baking Soda, also known as bicarbonate, is used to create CO2 gas, which allows the cookies to rise. The ratio of salt to bicarbonate is important for the right cookie consistency! For more explanation and the chemistry behind making the perfect dessert visit Amanda Romaniello's blog post for Under the Microscope:

http://www.underthemicroscope.com/blog/everyday-science-chocolate-chip-cookies-rely-on-good-chemistry

Below is a Chemist's recipe for chocolate chip cookies!

http://ncwsnc.cheminst.ca/experiments/echocochip.html

Posted by Elizabeth Bailey