help with "cooking chemistry" project

[lidi b]

My 6 year old was given an assignment to come up with a science project where you choose a recipe (with exact measurements, which I took to mean baking, but I'm happy to be dissuaded), make the recipe exactly, then make it again, changing something (adding more of an ingredient, using less or removing an ingredient, adding a different ingredient entirely), guessing what would happen b/c of the change, and seeing if they're right. I want the project to produce an obvious result, and was thinking muffins--some right, some with no baking powder. Anybody have a fun (and easy--remember, he's SIX) idea for a project???

[lidi b]

Thanks, all! Some great "food" for thought. I've got another week to plan, so I may try a few of these!!!!!!

[sarahjay]

I did a project like this with my dad when I was little. We did cupcakes, some with egg, some with doubled egg, some with no leavening, some with no fat, and saw the differences. I still remember that the cupcake with extra egg bounced!

[Emme]

No knead bread... with and without the salt? or more and less yeast?

Or what about a variation on technique - ie make two cakes (easy with stand mixer or electric beaters), in one variation separate the eggs and beat the whites til stiff folding in at the end, the other just use the whole yolks in the standard creaming method. see the difference in texture!

Maybe this is too mundane, or not sciency enough, but...
pancakes? change milk to juice... or omit the liquid

[wyogal]

I think your idea of making muffins with and without the baking powder is good. Yes, there are lots of different types of things one can do with food to create "science experiments," but the description of the project, and your idea of the muffins is a good match for the assignment. Plus, it's something your 6 yr. old has had before.
One doesn't need to be over the top crazy to make this a great learning experience.
KISS.

[malabargold]

French-style bread (no shortening) vs. American home-style bread with milk and butter in dough.
Differences in crumb, crust and keeping qualities

[GraydonCarter]

This is easy: test the Raisin Bran claim that they have more raisins. Buy the Post Raisin Bran and then a store brand, measure out a (small) bowlful of each, and count the raisins. Then taste to see which is better. The fun part is graphing it on a chart to show that the store brand has more raisins.

[sandylc]

There is a recipe for muffins that uses melted ice cream and self-rising flour. You could change it by adding more baking powder and seeing what happens.

[Hank Hanover]

I think I would go with the cookies idea or perhaps cupcakes and varying the amounts of leavener.
If you want to be different (everybody may do leavener), you could go from white sugar to brown sugar or go from butter to shortening. Use butter flavored shortening so the flavor isn't too different.

If you take a cake mix, mix it like the package says. Put half in 1 pan and half in a second pan. Cook the first pan and let the second pan wait until the 1st pan was done baking, there would be a dramatic difference because the gas generated by the leavener would have escaped before baking. You would have a much shallower cake.

I can tell you one my wife found out the hard way. Make 2 pans of cake style brownies. Put 1 pan of brownies in a foodsaver bag and suck it down and seal it. Sucked all the air out of those brownies. She suddenly had fudgy style brownies.

A simpler one would be soft boiled eggs vs hard boiled eggs. You have to change the time exposed to heat. You can take pictures of the results.

[DCLindsey]

You should search this board for all the "failure" threds, I am sure there are some great ones! :)

One very obvious thing would be to make cookies - add chocolate chips to 1 dz, no chips in another, and lots and lots in the third. It sounds really simple but I am not sure how complicated you need to be with 6 year olds...

[chowser]

Along the peanut brittle idea, what about something along those lines with candy/caramel making. Barely cook it and see what you get when it cools. Cook it to soft ball stage (show it by dropping in water) and let it cool. Do its with hard ball stage and repeat. Finally, let it overcook. It would be fun to see them all side by side.

[babette feasts]

If the 6 year old is supposed to help cook the recipe, I'd shy away from molten sugar.

Any cake-like pastry where you can switch the baking powder for baking soda can yield dramatic results. Or make cookies and in the second version use half the flour.

[chowser]

I thought about the possibility of burning but as long as he/she measured it all and helped put it on but just watched until the caramel was dropped into the water, I think it would be safe. I remember being fascinated watching the liquid harden to the soft and hard ball stages, and playing with them then.

[babette feasts]

Too late to edit - one of the big plusses of changing the amount of flour in cookies is that both versions are still edible. Messing around with baking powder and soda levels can end up un-delicious. Half-flour cookies are still yummy, just spread much more and are sweeter and crispier.

[seamunky]

How about No-Knead Bread? Very simple...few ingredients...quick and easy...dramatic difference with and without yeast.

[greygarious]

Braising red cabbage and/or red onions - they will turn blue-gray. Add vinegar and voila! they turn red again.

Freeze chopped bell peppers in various colors - he'll discover that the purple ones turn green. Think I may have heard that the white ones do, too. For sure the red, yellow, and orange retain their color.

Bake cookies from a recipe with no acidic ingredients. Use baking powder in half the recipe, baking soda in the other half. The baking soda ones will be flatter and browner.

[pcdarnell]

That seems pretty advanced for a 6 year old! All I can think of is the old vinegar and baking soda reaction. My kids made volcanos with that mixture and food coloring for years. Not baking, though. My high school chemistry teacher had us make peanut brittle in the lab one time. She used the chemical names for everything except the peanuts. I still remember how cool that was, and it's been close to 40 years!

Since you have to do multiple iterations, fast and cheap would be the way to go, and edible so you don't have to throw away any attempts.

Lemonade? Add some pomegranate juice to one batch, then some blueberry juice to another glass(or other colored liquids) and guess what color it will turn?

[BananaBirkLarsen]

Thinking along the lines of vinegar and baking soda, how about wacky cake? Leaving out either the acid or the soda would give drastically different results.