Zoe's Wonderful Waffles

 For chemistry, I went into a deeper understanding of what goes on in waffles as it was being cook. During the process of researching it, I have found a lot of interesting things that some of the ingredients contribute to the chemical reactions that occur. For my experiment my testable question was "Could baking powder change the appearance of the waffle? Is so, how?"

 Ingredients/Materials

• Baking Powder

• Milk
• Eggs
• Sugar
• Water
• Melted Butter
• A Waffle Iron

• Heat
• Bowl
• A Large Plastic Bowl
• Wooden mixing spoon

The Chemistry of Waffles

Before we can begin to learn any chemical reactions, we have to be aware that the heat plays a big role of causing different chemical reactions, especially being the cause of amino acids to form bonds.

When in contact with heat it starts a chemical reaction called Maillard Reaction is a chemical that is responsible for the browning of the waffle after the process of baking the waffle, it also gives it a bakery kind of smell to it as well, and lastly gives it the taste of something bread like. With the amino acids reacting with sugar, together they create the bread like taste in a waffle.During the reaction many compounds are being created. As they are being created they are being broken down at the same time. It could also create water.

Baking Powder is the cause of the waffle to rise. It is also a pure sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) which is also an alkaline powder. When dissolved into liquid, it is highly reactive, causing it to break down itself into just sodium, water, and carbon dioxide. With the breakdown into carbon dioxide, it causes the waffle to rise.

Sodium Bicarbonate

PROCEDURES:

In this experiment the independent variable was the amount of baking powder added to the waffle mixture. The amount of the other ingredients were kept the same, as well as the time of cooking, preheating the waffle iron, and the time it took to mix the ingredients the order of ingredients added.

1.Preheat the waffle iron before gathering any ingredient

2. In a large bowl add 1 cups of flour, 1 cup baking soda, 2 cups of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of salt into the bowl and start mixing

3. While stirring add a ½ of cup of regular milk, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and ¼ of stick of melted butter and then continue to stir until a smooth cream like texture(which should take about 15 minutes)

4. Once waffle mix is considered done start to glide the waffle iron with a stick of butter and start adding 1 cup full of waffle mix onto the waffle iron for a least 10 minutes

Results

Trial One: One Cup of Baking Soda

During the process of making waffles, the mix was very thin almost in the state of matter being water causing it to be too easy to mix. As the waffle was cooking the top part of the waffle iron barley lifted. The end result of the waffles cooking was a very light yellowish tanish color with the taste that was kind of bitter and it haves a very thin surface layer with the inside being still liquid-solid.

Trial Two: Three Cups of Baking Soda

 
During the second trial of making the waffle, the waffle mixture was slightly harder to mix than the first trial, but this time the mixture was actually the same texture as any other time of making regular waffles regular waffle mix. With this end result it came out a brownish color with the taste of a bread like kind of taste and the surface layer was sort of a thick layer with the inside being fluffy like.

Trial Three: Five Cups of Baking Soda

During the last trial of making the waffle, the mixture was very hard to stir, in a way of being too thick, the mixture was very lumpy by  the time the timer went off, while cooking the waffle the mixture started to overflow onto the waffle iron. After the cooking of the waffle it turned out a tanish color with the taste being undone and raw and the surface was still kind of liquidy, but bready like.

To sum up everything the more you add baking soda the more of the rise you will get, but with a unfinished taste that comes with it. Any lesser amount of 2 cups of baking powder is not enough to give the waffle the brown and delicious taste. With the amount of baking powder in the waffles we can see that the maillard reaction was able to function with the amino acids reacting with one another but due to lack of equal amount of other ingredients it was able to react but so much causing either a overflow of waffle mix to cook or to barely cook at all which explains why the color of both trial 1 and 3 had a unfinished look, which in this case is a yellowish or tanish color. For the taste of the waffle for the most part I would personally conclude that it was a bland but kind of bittery taste. In conclusion having portion of ingredients are extremely important to making waffles. With the equal amount of each ingredient one will not be able to function and play its role in the delightful enjoyment of waffles.