First Experiment
First Experiment 👩🏻🔬
--How does the type of sugar used affect the sponginess of bun?
Before Cooking~
6Ws
1. Who?
1.1.Who participated in the experiment?
I in-charged of the most part of the process. However, to minimize the time error for the fermentation time I asked my grandmother to do some procedures with me. She helped to speed up the experiment and reduce the time error present.
2. Where?
2.1.Where to obtain the ingredients?
I bought all the ingredients in the wet market and the supermarket nearby.
2.2.Where the experiment take place?
The experiment took place at my home’s dining room🏠.
3. When?
3.1.When did the experiment hold?
I did the experiment on the 21 March 2020, from 11:00 to 15:00.
4. What?
4.1.What ingredients did I use?
I used….
4.2.What equipment did I use?
I used….
And also…
5. Why?
5.1.Why do I what to investigate the effect of sugar?
It is because different types of sugar contain different nutritional values. Therefore, I would like to see whether other sugar can replace white sugar or not.
5.2.Why is the height of the bun the dependent variable?
It is because the height of the bun is the easiest quantifier that we can measure. Also, the higher the bun means that the bun raised more. As the more the bun raises shows that the bun is softer. Therefore, I used the height of the bun as the dependent variable.
6. How?
6.1. How to do the experiment?
I followed the same recipe and the same amount of ingredients. Then, I divide the dough into 4 equal portions after mixing the ingredients and add different sugar in it respectively.
6.2. How to measure the result?
I measured the height of the bun and take the average height for the result.
While Cooking~
In this experiment, I am going to test the effect of different sugar on the sponginess of the bun. I am going to use white sugar, honey, coconut sugar, and natural sweetener.
Ingredients:
260 g bread flour
25 g cake flour
5 g instant dry yeast
15 g milk powder
40 g sugar (10 g of each type of sugar)
1/2 tsp salt
100 ml water
80 ml milk
40 g butter 🧈, softened at room temperature
whisked egg, for brushing the dough
Procedures:
1. Mix all ingredients except butter and sugar.
2. Separate the butter into 4 equal portions and mix them in different types of sugar respectively.
3. Separate the dough into 4 equal portions when the ingredients come together.
4. Knead in butter mixture respectively and roll it.
6. Place the dough onto a lightly greased bowl and cover it with plastic wrap.
7. Let the dough proof for about 1 hour until it is doubled in size.
8. Transfer the dough to a clean floured surface and divide it into 8 equal portions.
9. Knead each dough into a ball shape and place them into the tin mold.
10. Cover the tin mold with plastic wrap and let it proof for about 1 hour until it is doubled in size.
11. Lightly brush whisked egg on each dough.
12. Bake in preheated oven for about 25 minutes at 170˚C.
13. Remove the buns from the oven and let it stand for about 3 minutes. Then serve.
After Cooking~
Observation
I have compared the bun’s appearance. Also, I have cut the bun into half and compared their structure.
Natural Sweetener
|
Honey
|
Color: Yellow
Structure: quite dense
|
Color: Lightly brown
Structure: less dense
|
Coconut Sugar
|
White Sugar
|
Color: Darker brown
Structure: less dense
|
Color: Brown
Structure: less dense
|
Measurement
I have measured the height of each bun. The average height of each type of bun is used for the analysis.
| Natural Sweetener |
Honey
| |
Height of the first bun (cm)
|
5
|
5.5
|
Height of the second bun (cm)
|
4.5
|
6
|
Average height (cm)
|
4.75
|
5.75
|
Coconut Sugar
|
White Sugar
| |
Height of the first bun (cm)
|
5.5
|
5.5
|
Height of the second bun (cm)
|
5.8
|
6
|
Average height (cm)
|
5.65
|
5.75
|
The height of the bun is ranked from the highest to the shortest:
Honey bun = White sugar bun > coconut bun > Natural sweetener bun
Tasting
I have asked 4 family members to undergo the blind tasting and asked them to rank the texture of the bun.
For the texture, they have ranked the bun from the softest to the hardest:
Honey bun = White sugar bun = coconut bun > Natural sweetener bun
Data Analysis
The result of the observation, measurement, and testing shows that the texture of the bun made with white sugar, honey, and coconut sugar is nearly the same. This implies that honey and coconut sugar can also provide enough food for the yeast to undergo fermentation. Therefore, the bun can still raise and give a soft texture. While for natural sweetener, as the height of the bread is much shorter than that of the other bun, this might show that natural sweetener failed to act as the food of the yeast. Therefore, the yeast could not have enough energy to undergo fermentation and give the bun a spongy texture.
Sources of error and improvement
While cooking:
1. The amount of ingredients added
For step 4 of the procedures, after mixing the butter with the dough, the buns became very wet. Maybe this is because the butter is melted, or the humidity is high. Due to this, I have added 10g of flour into each dough during step 8. However, errors may exist as some doughs could not accept all the flour. Thus, there may be present of error for the amount of flour added. To minimize the error, extra flour should be added at the beginning of the process.
2. Time for fermentation
For step 4, 8, and 9, I handled the dough one by one. Therefore, the time for the dough to ferment could be slightly different. This might affect the texture of the dough as the dough with longer fermentation time may raise higher. To reduce this error, I should try my best to minimize the processing time by making the process smoother and asking someone to help.
3. Cooking skills
In step 4, I handled some dough using bare hands while some using spatula. Errors may occur, as my hands are warm which might speed up the fermentation process of the dough. To prevent this error, I should only use spatula to mix the ingredients next time.
4. Baking position
In step 12, the heating wire of the oven is fixed, and the heat might be unevenly distributed. Thus, the color of the bun is slightly different. To reduce the error, I should rotate the baking trap at 5 minutes interval during the baking.
After cooking:
1. Measurement
There may be measurement errors. It is because in this experiment, I only take the height of the bun into account. However, during the fermentation process, the doughs didn’t just increase their height but also increased their volume. Therefore, this may lead to inaccuracy in measurement. To reduce this error, I should find some identical mold to place the dough individually. So that during the fermentation process, the mold can keep the surface area of the dough constant and allow the dough to only increasing its height. Thus, this can make the measurement more accurate.
Reference:
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