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