Fusia and Kanijaa's Plump Pancakes

The Science Of Pancakes

Behind the simplicity of everyone's favorite breakfast meal lies an scientific transformation. With the pancakes, the chemical reaction is between a leavening agent, such as, baking soda, baking powder, and a acidic ingredient, buttermilk. Producing the tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide gas. These bubbles form throughout the pancake, and are trapped as the batter solidifies. So, you'll get a light and fluffy pancake and a honeycombed color with tiny air bubbles. The more of these leavening agents you add to a mixture, the more carbon dioxide will be produced, and the more bubbles will form. Once your tiny air bubbles have formed, then comes the Millard Reaction, which gives pancakes their aroma and golden brown color. When you raise the heat on your pancake mix, the amino acids that make up the proteins chemically bond with carbon and oxygen atoms from sugars.

In this experiment, we kept all of our ingredients the same and changed the stirring time each trial to determine the pancake fluffiness. 

Trial One

1. Allow stainless steel pan to heat up.
2. Microwave 2 tbsp. of butter in container for 2 minutes.
3. In separate container: add flour, baking soda and salt.
4. Stir to combine with melted butter for 1-2 minutes.
5. Add 1 tbsp. of butter into pan over medium-high heat.

Trial Two

1. Allow stainless steel pan to heat up.
2. Microwave 2 tbsp.of butter in container for 2 minutes.
3. In separate container: add flour, baking soda and salt.
4. Stir to combine with melted butter for 30-40 seconds.
5. Add 1 tbsp. of butter into pan over medium-high heat.

Trial Three

1. Allow stainless steel pan to heat up.
2. Microwave 2 tbsp. of butter in container for 2 minutes.
3. In a separate container: add flour, baking soda and salt.
4. Stir to combine with melted butter for 15-20 seconds.
5. Add 1 tbsp. of butter into pan over medium-high heat.

Analysis and Conclusion

Our pancakes did not match our hypothesis at all. Instead, we’ve discovered the complete
opposite. The more time we stirred the batter the fluffier the pancake turned out.  
We kept all the ingredients the same each time and the Maillard Reaction gave the
pancakes that golden brown color each time. Our leavening agents baking soda, baking
powder, and buttermilk gave us that nice honeycomb color in the middle with tiny bubbles.