Well friends, we’ve come to the end of a yeast-filled summer. It has been three months full of kneading, waiting, baking, blogging, and enjoying the knowledge that bread can bring us. I’m not just talking about the various conclusions that I’ve been able to draw from my experiments. I’m also referring to the apparent simplicity […]

The post Bread Science Summer Summary appeared first on Upperclass Monroe Scholars Summer Research Projects.

Look, I promise this is the last time this summer that I will be posting about bread and how cool it is. If the posts have been too much I am sorry. On the other hand, if you’ve been enjoying reading about my floured adventure then this is a bittersweet (or maybe…sour) moment. I know […]

The post The Effect of Sponge Age on Sourdough Characteristics (Update #10) appeared first on Upperclass Monroe Scholars Summer Research Projects.

Hello people! Earlier in the summer I attempted an experiment to improve upon the basic yeasted sandwich loaf by using different flours to see if they had an effect on height, texture, and the overall viability of a loaf for its desired purpose. In this past experiment, which was based on a recipe that assumed the […]

The post A Gluten-Free Extravaganza! (Update #9) appeared first on Upperclass Monroe Scholars Summer Research Projects.

Yesterday’s bake was a quasi-experiment. It was combination of scientific method and curiosity that yielded tasty results. I whipped up 30 naan breads and filled four of my five trials with a different vegetable combination. The control trial had no filling. Now, reading this you might be thinking, “Jonny, why did you spend four hours yesterday […]

The post The Mystery of Naan (Update #8) appeared first on Upperclass Monroe Scholars Summer Research Projects.

Yesterday’s bake was over in a flash! After spending entire days on the 6 classic yeasted breads that I baked before this 7th experiment, I was shocked to be pretty much done with my Irish Soda Breads after just two and a half hours. The reason for this time reduction was not due to any sort […]

The post The Effect of Kneading Time on Irish Soda Bread Structure (Update #7) appeared first on Upperclass Monroe Scholars Summer Research Projects.

Look, I’m going to level with you. This experiment did not yield the quantitative data typical of a food science project. Instead, my main goal during this bake was to see if using different varieties of potatoes in a classic yeasted loaf would change any/all of the qualitative aspects of the bread itself. I used russet […]

The post The Effect of Using Different Types of Potatoes on Irish Freckle Bread Quality (Update #6) appeared first on Upperclass Monroe Scholars Summer Research Projects.

Hello all! This week’s first bake was the classic sandwich loaf! The sandwich loaf is a surprisingly time-consuming creation that doesn’t get made in the home very much anymore due to the proliferation of store-bought breads that fill millions of lunchboxes around the nation every single day. One of the quickest and most scrumptious meals […]

The post The Effect of Various Flours on the Classic Sandwich Loaf (Update #4) appeared first on Upperclass Monroe Scholars Summer Research Projects.

Pumpernickel is a dark, molasses-based loaf that retains a note of sweetness without compromising the deep flavor of other supporting ingredients (unsweetened chocolate, cornmeal, caraway seeds, and mashed potatoes). The relatively bizarre mixture of ingredients that go into making a stellar pumpernickel are manipulated by first mixing most of them together under low heat on […]

The post The Effect of Flour Ratios on Pumpernickel Air Pockets (Update #3) appeared first on Upperclass Monroe Scholars Summer Research Projects.

Yesterday I finished up baking my 12 loaves of challah and took measurements for each trial. Over a period of 6 hours I prepared 6 different batches of dough (one extra because I forgot to vary anything in the second batch that I prepared – so, hey, extra control data and extra yummy bread) which […]

The post The Effect of Egg Treatment on Challah Density (Update #2) appeared first on Upperclass Monroe Scholars Summer Research Projects.

The baker in me has been on a golden-crusted rollercoaster of emotions for the past three days. Promising myself that I would start my bread science research project after my sister moved to Paris, I felt a sense of both eagerness and loneliness as I returned home from the airport as the only child in the house. Then […]

The post Pitas and Pocket Size (Update #1) appeared first on Upperclass Monroe Scholars Summer Research Projects.