Leavening Agents

Leavening Agents MN Partners: CG ZG AP 5 May 2016

For this project we made three different loafs of bread, each with a different leavening agent to see how the different agent affects the taste, texture, and rise of the bread. A leavening agent is the ingredient used in baked goods that causes it to rise. When a leavening agent, for example yeast, is added to dough the yeast will eat up the sugar and create little pockets of CO2 bubbles, leading to the expanding of the dough. The agents that we are comparing in this experiment are yeast as the control group, and sourdough starter and baking soda for two different ​ experimental groups. Yeast is the control group because we know how that reaction works and it is a biological leavening agent, which is a natural leavening agent though it takes longer to rise. S​ ourdough and baking soda are the ​ experimental groups because they are both chemical leavening agents, meaning that it cannot be found naturally but it have been altered to rise faster. Although sourdough is a chemical leavening agent it has not been subjected to chemicals, but it is a chemical leavening agent because it is grow by the baker and isn’t naturally found. ​ The main objective of this experiment is to find what is the difference between different leavening agents used in bread and what effects do they have on the bread? My hypothesis is, out of the three types of leavening agents, sourdough starter will rise the most because when used in the popovers, there was a significant rise in the dough. Because of time restrictions we were divided into three groups to make the different types of bread, and my group made the sourdough starter bread.

Material List: Sourdough ● 5 cups of flour ● 2 ¼ cups of water ● 1 ¾ teaspoons of salt ● ⅜ cups of starter

Baking Soda ● 3½ cup all­purpose flour ● 1 teaspoon sugar ● 1 teaspoon baking soda ● 1 teaspoon salt ● 1½–2 cups buttermilk

Yeast ● 6/7 Cups Water ● 1 6/7­ 2 1/7 Cups All­Purpose Flour ● 2/7 Tablespoons Salt ● 3/7 Tablespoons Yeast

Procedure: Sourdough 1.

2.

3.

4.

Mix all of the ingredients except salt Knead the dough for 10 minutes Then mix the salt in Let the dough sit for 4­6 hours at room temperature or for 10 hour in the refrigerator depending on how much time you have you ca put it near a heater to rise faster 5. Bake the dough for 40 minutes 6. Wait an hour to let it cool before you cut open the loaf

Yeast 1. Mix salt and water 2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix 3. Let the dough rise for 2 hours 4. Bake for 45 minutes 5. Let the bread sit for a moment and then your done Baking Soda 1. Place all of your dry ingredients in a bowl and then pour the buttermilk into the center.

2. Mix the dough But ​ don’t​ knead 3. Form the dough into a ball shape 4. Place it on a baking sheet and bake it for about 30­40 minutes 5. let the bread cool till it’s at least just warm

Calculations The original recipes that we found were for more than one loaf so we had to calculate how to cut down on the ingredients to make just one loaf. For Sourdough we divided the ingredients by ½. For the yeast we divided the ingredients by 2/7. We kept the baking soda ingredients the same because it was already one loaf.

Yeast 1.

Water­ 3 * 2/7 = ​ 6/7 Cups 2.

All­Purpose Flour­ 6 ½ * 2/7 or 7 ½ * 2/7 = 1 6/7 or 2 1/7 Cups 3.

Salt­ 1 * 2/7 = 2/7 Tablespoons 4.

Yeast­ 1 ½ * 2/7 = 3/7 Tablespoons Baking Soda

(N/A) because the ingredients stayed the same

Sourdough 1. Flour­ 10 * ½ = 5 cups 2. 4 ½ * ½ = 2 ¼ cups 3. 3 ½ * ½ = 1 ¾ teaspoons 4. ¾ * ½ = ⅜ cups

Results and Analysis: Sourdough The sourdough rose from 1.75 inches tall to 2.5 inches after being baked. The sourdough bread was the most evenly cooked and seemed to be the most airy of the three breads. I think this is because the sourdough doesn’t have a live reaction like the others, because it creates the air pockets while the sourdough starter is being grown and not in the bread like the other two.

Baking Soda The Baking soda rose from 2 to tall 5 inches after being baked. This bread also became much darker on the outside, but when we opened up the bread to try it the inside was still a little doughy, and almost under­baked. This bread was also dense, so I think that that was one of the reasons that the inside didn’t get quite as well baked. Although this bread was dense it also rose the most of the three breads. This might have to do with the more acidic pH level of the buttermilk the baking soda reacted to it creating more air pockets.

Yeast The Yeast rose from 0.5 inch tall to 2 inches tall.The yeast bread didn’t rise very much, much of the flour stayed caked on the side, and didn’t darken at all. This bread tasted moist, warm and doughy. I think that the reason that this happened was because it shough have been either cooked longer or wasn’t allowed the proper rise time.

MN (2016) Leavening Agents Rising Chart

Conclusion: After conducting these experiments I have found that my hypothesis was disproven, because the baking soda rose more than both yeast and the sourdough starter. After thinking through these results I found that I could have also have thought of this by comparing the reaction of baking soda and vinegar and how the have a reaction creates lots of CO2 bubble live, and even though I have seen how much the sourdough rises in past experiments the baking soda creates more when mixed with an acid. If I were to do this experiment again then I would try to figure out how to see how the sourdough bread was more airy than the rest.

Although I can’t tell what really caused this, I think that this happened because the sourdough started causes large air pockets, but not many, where as the baking soda creates many small bubbles. It was also difficult to find specific instructions, because the ones that we were given were very unclear. I learned that when baking with sourdough starter there isn’t really a set set of steps to follow, and you need to work with whatever the sourdough you have, as all sourdough is slightly different. I do wish that I had been able to participate in each experiment rather than being divided up into groups, as I wasn’t able to analyse the other types of bread fully without knowing everything that happened.

Sourdough Starter:

Baking Soda:

Yeast: