Question/Problem :
How effective are leavening agents when compared to one another? Hypothesis: I believe that the sourdough starter will be more effective than the other leavening materials due to its natural yeast.
Material List: Sourdough: ● ● ● ● ●
¾ starter 3 ½ tablespoon salt 4 cups water Wheat 10 cups flour
Yeast: ● ● ● ●
3 cups lukewarm water 7 ½ cups flour 1 tablespoon salt 1 ½ tablespoon yeast
Chemical: ● ● ● ● ●
3 ½ cups flour 1 tablespoon sugar 1 tablespoon baking soda 1 tablespoon salt 1 ½ cups buttermilk
Procedures:
Yeast Bread 1. Place all ingredients within a bowl and begin mixing 2. Allow the dough to rise by covering it and allowing it to refrigerate for up to seven days 3. Place more flour on the dough then take ¼ to ⅓ of the dough 4. Readjust the dough into a ball and let it set
5.
Place the dough on a piece of parchment that is slightly greased
6. Let the dough rise at room temperature 7.
Cut the bread into 3 pieces
8. Bake the bread up to 30 min 9. Take the bread out
Sourdough 1. Feed starter everyday for about a week 2. Knead the dough to circular shape 3. Ferment dough and mix it in with the rest of the ingredients 4. Divide the loaves and place them in the oven 5. Heat oven to 250 degrees and let it bake for 2 hours 6. Take out the oven and enjoy
Chemical Leavening Agent Bread 1. Place all dry ingredients such as flour in the bowl, then place dough inside 2. Claw at the top of the dough softly with a fork 3. Roll the dough into a ball and place it on tray 4. Heat oven 5. Place dough into oven and let it bake at 400450 degrees
Control Group: Commercial Yeast Bread Ingredient
Calculations
Revised Amount
3 Cups Water
3/1 x 2/7
3 2/7
6.57.5 Cups AllPurpose Flour
13/7 x 2/7
2 1/7
1 Tablespoon Salt
1/1 x 2/7
1 2/7
1.5 Tablespoons Yeast
3/7 x 2/7
5/7
Experimental Group: Sourdough Starter Ingredient
Calculations
Revised Amount
3 ½ cup of all purpose flour
None
3 ½ cup of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
None
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
None
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking None soda
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ 2 cups of buttermilk
1 ½ 2 cups of buttermilk
None
Experimental group 2: Sourdough Ingredient
Calculations
Revised Amount
10 cups flour
10/2
5 cups of flour
4 cups water
4/2
2 cups of water
35 teaspoons of salt
3.5/2
1 ¾ teaspoon salt
¾ starter
3/4/2
⅜ Cups of starter
Variable
Control Group
Experiment al Group 1
Experimental Group 2
Flour type
Bread flour
Bread flour
Bread flour
Dough rise time
2 hours
15 min
2 hours
Oven temperature
450
450 first 15 min 400 for 20 min
400450
Bake time
35 min
2030 min
4060 min
Dough amount 331.25 grams
331.25
331.25
Other
The taste was salty but sweet
The taste was salty and the smallest bit sour
The taste was slightly sweet
Pictures
Yeast Bread
Sourdough Bread
Baking Soda
Analysis: For my analysis I received enough data to have finally come to a conclusion. But before I speak of my conclusion I will talk about the process that I had to go through in order to understand the experiment as well as my hypothesis. Originally the chemical bread group or baking soda bread’s dough was 2 inches tall before we placed it in the oven, then after it was taken out of the oven the size had increased to 5 inches. Now for The control group or yeast bread dough it was originally 0.5 inches but when put into the oven and allowed to set the size had increased to 2 inches. And lastly the sourdough group, the dough Now the reasons as to why the bread rose to these sizes was due to the amount of sugars inside the dough or in the case of the chemical bread the size of the reaction. Depending on the amount of sugar that is available within the dough yeast will feed on it and either give off small amounts of carbon dioxide or large amounts which in turn allows the bread to rise. Now I had originally believed that due to the sourdough starter having natural forms of both sugar and yeast it might have provided more than the other doughs. I was incorrect about my hypothesis, it turns out that the baking soda had more of a reaction than any of the other dough with the yeast and sugar. Now each piece of bread had its own taste that was unique, the starter tasted slightly sour but salty, the chemical tasted sweet, and the yeast had a combination of sweet and salty. I also have included a graph above that explains the size change between the bread, the other graphs explain the ingredients and measurements included to make the bread.
Conclusion : My hypothesis when compared to the results was incorrect, the sourdough
starter’s natural yeast did not make the bread rise any higher than I originally believed. That being said in my opinion the sourdough starter had the best taste out of all the batches of bread.