Science Experiments With Baking Cookies

There are lots of science experiments with baking cookies.

Whether you are making cookies from scratch or slicing them off a roll from the refrigerated section of the market, science plays a major part how the cookie bakes. There is science behind how the cookie rises, how it browns, how quickly it cooks and how it tastes. Every ingredient in the recipe serves a purpose, as does the temperature, and even the sheet you use to bake the cookies. Altering just one of these factors changes how the cookies turn out. Besides, it is a fun science experiment with, typically, enjoyable results. Does this Spark an idea?

Print this article

Ingredients
- Changing the ingredients is one of the easiest cookie science experiments. Experiment by making a recipe as written then producing one or more batches that have different ingredients or use a different proportion of ingredients. For instance, you could vary the amount of baking soda you use or try a batch made with wheat flour instead of white flour. However, it is best to vary just one ingredient per batch so you can measure its effects; were you to change two or more ingredients, you would not be able to tell which change caused the difference. Look at how the color, height or spread (how wide the cookies get after baking) varies between batches.
Preparation
- When experimenting with baking cookies, you could look at how preparation affects the finished cookie. For instance, Maury Rubin, who owns City Bakery in New York City, says that letting the dough rest 36 hours produces the best flavor. You could try letting your cookie dough rest for a day or two before baking it to see if that changes the flavor, the appearance or the consistency of the baked cookies.
Baking
- Cookie science experiments can also extend to how you bake the cookies. Part of cookie science is how heat affects the ingredients, both the heat of the oven and the way that heat conducts through cookie sheets. For your cookie experiment, you could test different cookie sheets, like non-stick and stainless steel, to see which material produces the best results, or change the temperature to see how that affects the cookies.
Taste Testing
- You can do science experiments with baking cookies and measure the finished cookie, looking at how tall it is, how much the batter spread in baking or the color of the cookies, but you can also measure taste preferences. After you have baked two or more different batches, you can blindfold participants and ask which one they liked better. You could group results by gender, age, where they live or another variable you choose, like favorite type of music.