The Science Behind Dessert

My favorite part of a four course meal is the dessert. Depending on whose cooking, ever dessert can taste a little different. What component of dessert makes it fluffy, chewy, or crumby? These characteristics are what I want to explore today in the baking of cookies. What makes cookies come out the way they do?

 

Baking of a Cookie

• Conventional ovens allow for evenly baked cookies due to the fans within the oven that circulate the air which then allows the cookies to cook with an even brown color
• Avoid dark baking sheets, which cause more browning than lighter ones, and thin, flimsy cookie sheets
• Insulated sheets help prevent bottom browning
• Heavy sheets can take longer to warm-up and in turn can cause the bottom of the cookie ti darken faster

Chewy Sugar Cookies		Crunchy Sugar Cookies

Shortening vs. Butter

• Shortening is a great emulsifier that helps keep dough aerated
• Shortening has a higher boiling point than butter so it decreases the spreading of the dough during cooking
• Butter taste better than shortening 
• Best to just combine a little shortening with butter

Chewy vs. Crisp

• Chewy cookies contain more moisture than crisp cookies
• Soft cookies = less time baked
• Hard cookies = more time baked
• For soft cookies pull them out of the oven while they are still moist because they will continue to bake on the warm sheet
• Add a tablespoon or so of honey, corn syrup, or molasses to your recipe to keep the cookies from drying out longer because the fructose in these attract moisture

All in all, a great cookie is composed of a shortening/butter mix, a little honey, and baked for a short period of time on an insulated cookie sheet.

Sunscreen or Naw?

As summer continues to approach I feel the weather getting warmer and I notice myself wearing sunglasses more often. This summer may prove to be one of the hottest documented in  a long time. I am praying that my summer is full of outdoor swimming and hiking, but one thing that I must keep in mind is to protect my skin. Skincancer.org states that "skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. More than 3.5 million skin cancers in over two million people are diagnosed annually." Even though the odds of me getting skin cancer decrease because I am African American, I still want to make sure that I protect my skin this summer. I will be investing in Proactiv Daily Protection Plus Sunscreen SPF 15 or 30 due to my acne/oily prone skin and her is why...

 

Here are some reasons why we should wear sunscreen:

1. The ozone layer is depleting and your body needs shielding from harmful rays.
2. Skin cancer rates are on the rise and sunscreen has been proven to decrease the development of skin cancer.
3. It helps to prevent facial brown spots and skin discolorations.
4. It also helps to reduce the appearance of facial red veins and blotchiness.
5. It slows down the development of wrinkled, premature aging skin.

The different types of sunscreen include:

• Gel sunscreen
• Cream sunscreen
• Sunscreen lotions
• Sunscreen wipe
• Spray sunscreen
• Colored sunscreen
• Powder sunscreen 

Sensitive skin should wear:

• Paba free sunscreen - most sunscreens are now PABA-free
• oil-free sunscreen -
• hypoallergenic, fragrance free sunscreen, chemical free sunscreen
• mineral based sunscreen - the minerals titanium dioxide and zinc oxide sit on the skin instead of being absorbed into it

Acne prone skin should wear:

• Light, oil free lotions will not clog pores
• With chemical sunscreens avobenzone and oxybenzone
• Non-comedogenic (meaning it won't clog pores) and is fragrance-free

 Oily skin should wear:

• Mineral oil-free sunscreen
• Non-comedogenic sunscreen
• Sunscreens that are oil free are usually water or gel based

What's In My Food?!?!

Being a freshman in college I always try to watch what I eat in order to avoid the dreadful "Freshman Fifteen." More frequently I catch myself reading the ingredients in the food I eat. Have you ever just read the ingredients at the bottom of the nutrition table and have wondered, "what the heck is this word I can't even pronounce," or "what is the difference between red dye #1 and red dye #40?" Today I want to unmask some of the common ingredients that are hidden in the food we love. 



Citric Acid: Most Common Preservative

• organic acid found in fruits
• lime, lemons and grapefruits
• makes it harder for bacteria and mold to survive and reproduce
• doesn't cause side effect as is USFDA approved

High Fructose Corn-Syrup: Most Common Sweeter

• process involves changing simple sugar glucose to another sugar fructose
• process is cheap 
• can also act as a preservative
• linked to obesity

 Caramel Color: Most Color Additive 

• yellow no. 5, yellow no .6, red no. 40
•  red n. 40 most used
• produced from the over heating of food-grade carbohydrates

 Salt: Most Common Flavor or Spice

• sodium chloride
• linked to high blood pressure

Monosodium Glutamate: Most Common Flavor Enhancer

• MSG has no distinct taste itself
• sodium salt of the amino acid glutamic acid
• unsafe at large consumptions found by FDA investigation

Niacin: Most Common Nutrient

• helps hold nutrients lost during food manufacturing 
• vitamin B3
• water-soluble and passed through body by urine

Soybean Oil: Most Common Oil or Fat

• contains unsaturated fatty acids

Xanthan Gum: Most Common Thickener

• produced by bacterium  Xanthomonas campestris
• thickening agent
• helps the viscosity of mixture 
• creates a smooth texture

 

Chemical Monsters!

As society continues to make advancements in chemical developments, it appears that our environment is at major risk. History has shown that men are creating large problem for the environment and the creatures that live in it(including us humans). Today I want to review my top 3 worst man-created disasters in history.

GOLF WAR OIL SPILL
In the midst of war damage was brought upon the environment and its wildlife.

•  January 23rd, 1991
• Iraq invasion of Kuwait 
• Iraqi Soldiers split oil clouds into the Persian Gulf 
• 600+ oil wells blew up and burned for 7 months
• Large effect on wildlife and ecological balance
• 6 million barrels of oil spilled

BHOPAL (MADHYA PRADESH) TRAGEDY
This tragedy is know as he world's worst industrial chemical disaster.

• Pesticide (methyl isocyanate (MIC)) plant leak due to overheating
• Plant built by Union Carbide Cooperation
• Release of heavy gases and other poisonous toxins
• 20,000+ deaths including permanent disabilities and illness
• Symptoms included blindness, kidney failure and liver damage
• Union Carbide, paid 470 million dollars to India government in 1989

 WORLD WARD II (HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI)
Though one of the most triumphant moments for the United States, the bombing of Hiroshima was one of the worst moments in history for both mankind and the environment.

• Atomic bomb dropped
• August 6, 1945 on Hiroshima, Japan
• First 2-4 months of the bombings effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima
• August 9, 1945 on Nagasaki, Japan
• First 2-4 months of the bombings effects killed 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki
•  Roughly 50% of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day

Chemical Engineering Outlook

As a current freshman at the University of Arkansas majoring in chemical engineering, I am constantly asked why I chose chemical engineering and what specifically I want to do within the field. This question has been asked by scholarship committees, academic advisers, and even future employers. As I become a sophomore in the fall and attend the fall career fair I want to be totally knowledgeable about my career field. The blog today is going to review important chemical engineering statistics and leading company reviews.

CAREER FAIR AMAZEMENT!


 Recently, I attended the National Society of Black Engineers(NSBE) national convention in Nashville Tennessee. There was over 300 companies there to recruit. I was so overwhelmed and didn't know which companies were great employers for chemical engineers. Based on the data collected at http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Chemical_Engineer/Salary there are a few companies that pay well over the national average for chemical engineering, most having to do with petroleum. The top companies include: Shell Oil, Exxonmobil, and Dow Chemicals. So based off this data I am going to shape my resume around the preferences of these companies.

CHEMICAL DEMAND

A college students worst nightmare is to graduate with a degree that will not give the great pay or benefits, thankfully based off current statistics chemical engineers are in high demand. As shown by the graphs below: