Frying and Drying, aka Holy Cannoli

Okay, so apologies for those of you who have come to expect long and wonderful posts on a regular basis. I have now started law school, and between classes and activities I'm lucky if I remember to shower everyday (you think I'm kidding, I'm not). And it is about to get worse. We are headed into double Torts Fridays, a series of Fridays where we have five straight classes and no time for lunch. To soften the blow I am baking for the section, or in this case frying. And that got me thinking about frying. You put a wet dough in a pan of wet oil and you end up with something crispy. Does that confuse anyone else? Well I have found the answer, and guess what, it's in chemistry. Who knew, right?

So, different liquids boil at different temperatures. Alcohol boils at one of the lowest, water is kind of in the upper middle, oil is one of the highest. When you fry something you start by heating up the oil until it is hotter than the boiling point of water and alcohol. Next you put the dough in the hot oil. The liquid in the dough, either the alcohol or the water heats up to its boiling point very very quickly (the boiling point is the point at which a liquid becomes a gas) so quickly in fact that the oil doesn't have time to diffuse into the dough. For more about diffusion see Outstanding Osmosis. Instead the steam and evaporated alcohol quickly escapes from the dough. The flour and other dry ingredients dry out. If you pull them out before the oil can seep in and then put them on paper towels to absorb the extra oil they stay dry and crispy. Mystery solved.

If you haven't figured out by now I have a small obsession with Italian desserts. And when it comes to frying I love making cannoli. It's a labor of love, but these are so totally worth the effort that goes into them. The flavors mix and meld to make something so amazing, so much more than all of the individual parts. A couple of hints, you really should use cannoli forms, they make a huge difference, you can substitute white vinegar with white wine vinegar with no really change, and finally these are the best if you make the dough and the filling a day ahead then fry the day of.

Holy Cannoli

Cannoli Shells

Ingredients

2 cups flour

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon cocoa

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

1/2 cup plus a little Marsala wine

1 egg white

Oil for frying

Combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in oil, vinegar, and enough wine to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth and well blended. Shape into a ball. Chill for at least 2 hours. Roll dough out until super thin (~1/16" to 1/8"). Cut out 3 1/2" circles. Roll into a paper thin oval. Roll dough around cannoli form. Dab a little egg white to seal. Heat oil (at least 3") to 375 degrees (or until a little dough becomes dark brown after 3 min). Fry the shells until golden (1-2 min). Remove from the form immediately and cool on paper towels. Fill immediately before serving. (I dipped the ends of the shell in chocolate before filling)

Cannoli Filling

Ingredients

2 lbs marscapone cheese

1 2/3 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 Tablespoons finely chopped chocolate

zest of one orange

1 teaspoon vanilla

Blend the cheese until creamy. Beat in sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and blend until smooth. Stir in chocolate and zest. Chill until firm. Use a pastry bag to fill the shells.

Cool Colligative Properties, Really Really Cool

So, as I mentioned before there are a lot of things I love about August. There is one thing I don't, the heat. When the thermometer gets above about 95 degrees I start melting like dropped ice cream in Phoenix in July (okay if I'm being honest its more like 90, okay 85). It's not pretty. But it can be counteracted by none other than ice cream. A delectable treat with almost mystic origins, especially when you make it yourself. How does a little ice and a little salt make it cold enough to freeze milk, sugar, and other really good stuff?

When liquid is cold enough the molecules stop moving around as much and it becomes a solid. It happens at a very exact temperature for each pure substance. The freezing temperature can be manipulated by adding something to it to create a solution. The change is known as a colligative property. When an impurity is added to a pure substance it starts to get in the way. It breaks up the bonds that creates a solid, making it harder and harder for it to freeze. Like when you are at a concert and that annoying guy at the bar is standing between you and the people you came with. This is know as freezing point depression (in a related process, when a liquid is near the boiling point the impurities cause less molecule of the pure substance to be near the surface, meaning less can escape into the gas phase making it harder to boil, this is known as boiling point elevation). When you add salt to ice the salt begins to mix in and lowering the freezing point. The ice melts. But melting requires energy, a lot of energy. When you insulate the ice from the outside it starts to take that energy from the inside container (see Marvelous Mixtures Part 4 for info on heat transfer, temperature, and energy). The inside mixture gets colder and colder and colder until it freezes. The constant stirring keeps everything inside soft, instead of a hard crystal like ice, and makes sure that the freezing occurs at an even rate. After a long time of stealing energy and stirring, tah-dah!, a delectable summer treat of ice cream, sorbet, or, my favorite, gelato!

So, I mentioned in an earlier post that I have a favorite way to eat my sweet summer peaches. The suspense is over, here is the answer. I like my peaches sliced in half with a 1/2 Tablespoon(ish) of butter, a Tablespoon(ish) of brown sugar, and a big marshmallow where the pit use to be. Wrap the whole thing in a greased piece of tin foil and throw it on a hot grill until everything is gooey and melted. Then serve it up with this cinnamon gelato. This particular gelato is very lightly flavored so if you want a little more cinnamon flavor I would add some extra ground cinnamon when you are letting everything seep.

Cinnamon Gelato

Ingredients

2 cups whole milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

4 cinnamon sticks

5 egg yolks

2/3 cup light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine the milk, cream, and cinnamon sticks in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook for several minutes, until the mixture starts to bubble around the edges. Cover, remove from heat and let set for 30 minutes. Discard cinnamon sticks. Beat yolks, brown sugar, vanilla and salt at medium speed until the mixture is thick and pale (the spatula should scoop up long ribbons that do not instantly dissolve back into the mixture). Add milk, return to sauce pan and cook over medium heat until custard thickens slightly (stir constantly). Strain through a fine mesh strainer to remove all the lumps. Chill for 4 hours - 1 day. Use an ice cream machine to freeze.

Exceptional Expanding Gases, aka Awesome Amaretti Cake

Hello fellow internet cooks/scientists, sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything. Things have been crazy here, because... I've moved to new digs in Minneapolis. In fact today is the first time in a few weeks that I have had groceries and used an oven. And how did I start? I made an Italian birthday cake. Appropriate since my birthday is this week.

European cakes, especially Italian cakes, don't use chemical leavening agents (baking soda, baking powder, etc.) to create expanding gases. Instead they use the gases that is already there to raise their cakes. How this works is that egg whites are whipped. As the get stirred up the proteins get further and further apart creating little pockets of trapped atmospheric gases. Eventually the mixture becomes a stiffened protein network with air pockets. Something that we call a meringue. This is then carefully folded (so that the air isn't released) into a cake batter and baked. Most gases follow the ideal gas law (see Preservation Part II). So, because the gases, for the most part can't escape, as the temperature goes up the pressure increases, pushing on the liquidy cake batter harder and harder, until it expands. This creates more volume for the gases to occupy, and the cake to rise.

This cake, like most European cakes is rich and dense, and served without frosting (as a side note my cake was denser than most, I only used 2 eggs, I don't know why so don't ask). The cookies are key because they give it a characteristic sweet almond flavor. I got my tin of cookies online, but you can also find them in Italian groceries and some specialty stores. I highly recommend serving it with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or cherries. You can find the original recipe here: http://www.ciaoitalia.com/Recipes.aspx?id=1072

Torta di Amaretti e Cioccolato

Ingredients

2 sticks butter

1 cup sugar

5 eggs

10 pairs amaretti cookies

1/2 cup flour

2 oz semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour the sides and bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan. Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixture. Separate the eggs and beat the yolks one at a time into the batter. Save the whites. Process the cookies and flour in a blender until powdery. Add the pieces of chocolate and process until finely chopped and mix in to the batter. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Stir 3-4 Tablespoons of the egg whites into the cake batter to loosen the batter up. Then carefully fold in the remaining egg whites. Pour into the prepared pan and smooth until even. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry (~1 hour)*. Remove the cake from the pan and enjoy.

*be sure to put a baking sheet under the pan to keep the drippings from smoking up your kitchen (like I did mine).

Perfectly Practiced Preservation Part III, Scrumptious Spiced Vanilla Peach Jam

It is getting to be my favorite time of year, peach season. Peach season reminds me of the warm ripe days of summer, lightning bugs, lakes, and my birthday, mmmm. I tell you later about my absolute favorite way to eat peaches, when the are really really ripe. For now I'm talking about jam. Again I know, but it's my blog and I love homemade jam. What can I say?

So what makes soupy fruit soup become gel like jam? There isn't any cornstarch or gelatin, but there is something else, pectin. Pectin is a naturally occurring heteropolysaccharide found in the cell walls of non-woody dry land plants (as opposed to water plants). It's a long word, so I'll break it down. Saccharide = sugar. Sugars a usually chains (like beads on a string) but sometimes they become rings instead. Poly = many. When a lot of these rings get together they make a chain of rings called a polysaccharide. Hetero = different. So a heteropolysaccharide is a long chain of different sugar rings. Citrus fruits, like lemons have lots of pectin.

When the a jam mixture starts to cool down the water and the sugar get together leaving the pectin all alone. The pectin the groups together and bonds to itself creating our favorite colloid, the gel. Word to the wise, do not reduce sugar in any jam recipes or you will end up with soup instead of jam.

This jam recipe combines my new love for homemade jams, my old love of vanilla, and my summer love of peaches. It's a lot of love, and this jam is so totally worth it.

Spicy Vanilla-Peach Jam

Ingredients

5 cups peeled, pitted, and coarsely chopped fresh peaches

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

9 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 vanilla beans

1 pouch (3 oz) liquid fruit pectin

Process the peaches in a blender until finely chopped. In a large heavy stockpot, combine peaches and lemon juice. Stir in sugar and cinnamon until well blended. Split vanilla beans and scrap seeds into peach mixture Add vanilla beans. Stirring constantly, cook over low heat 4 minutes. Increase heat to high and bring mixture to a rolling boil. Stir in liquid pectin. Stirring constantly, bring to a rolling boil again and boil 1 minute. Remove from heat; skim off foam. Remove vanilla beans. Can using the jar directions (~10 half pints). After cans are sealed place in a pot with enough water to cover the lids about 1/4 inch. Boil for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool.

Marvelous Mixtures Part 4, Plain Old Popcorn

So this entry is a tribute to one of my very good friends (shout out Kara) who had a very interesting experience trying to make popcorn without an air popper or a microwave. It is also one in a series of posts about how to eat foods without artificial preservatives (see jam and hamburger helper). My goal for this summer is to cut my artificial preservatives down to an absolute minimum. And that makes snack food a little tricky. But, popcorn from something other than a bag is actually pretty good and low calorie, so it has become a staple in my snack food diet, and a mystery. How does popcorn work?

Popcorn is a seed. There are three main things in a popcorn kernel, the shell, the starches inside (to feed an eventual popcorn plant), and some water. Before you heat it everything is contained inside the hard shell. But, as you heat the kernels the water turns to steam (a gas) and the volume remains constant while the temperature increases, increasing the pressure (remember P*V=n*R*T?). Eventually the pressure is just too much for the little shell and BOOM, it pops open like a balloon with too much air in it. The starches stretch out and form a solid network through covalent bonds, trapping air as it goes (see cornstarch crystal). When air is dissolved in a solid it is a colloid known as solid foam, like styrofoam.

Because of how it works popcorn will not pop if 1) the popcorn doesn't get hot enough (which is why you cook it in hot oil), 2) the popcorn dries out, or 3) if the popcorn shell has a crack or hole in it that releases the steam, lowering the pressure.

A microwave works by sending out a frequency in the electromagnetic spectrum (like the light we see, the UV rays that hurt our skin, or the radio waves that make beautiful music). The frequency it uses is a very special one that makes the bonds in water jiggle and dance (resonance). Temperature is a measure of how fast the molecules are moving, so as they dance more, the temperature goes up and eventually the dance so far away from each other the create steam, increased pressure, and eventually a popcorn explosion.

If you don't have a microwave you have to use a lower tech version to make the water dance, heat transfer. As molecules from something warmer, like hot oil, hit slower moving molecules from something colder, like the water in the popcorn, a little bit of the speed is transfered. Making the hot thing colder and the cold thing hotter until they are the same temperature. It's like when you play pool. When one pool ball hits another the first one slows down and the second one starts moving or speeds up. Molecules act the same way.

This is not really a recipe, but directions for how to make popcorn yourself without any special gadgets. Enjoy!

Popcorn

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons oil

1/4 cup unpopped popcorn kernels

Toppings of your choice

Place oil in a sauce pan with a single kernel of popcorn. Heat on medium until the kernel pops. Add remaining popcorn kernels and cover with a lid. Heat, shaking frequently, until the popping slows to 2-3 seconds between each pop. Remove from heat, cover in toppings and enjoy.

Perfectly Practiced Preservation Part II, aka Radical Raspberry Jam

So far this summer I have been hanging out with some very awesome Young-at-Heart Americans and they are starting to rub off on me. Not only am I making my own dress, wearing cat-eye glasses, and helping out in the church office, today I made my own jam.

Jams are a great way to naturally preserve fruit past its prime. Microorganisms (mold, bacteria, etc.), once again, are the reason that fruit spoil. They eat away at the fruit and cause rotting and mold, yuck. I talked earlier about freezing and refrigeration as one way to slow down the organisms. You can also just kill them off. When you make jam you boil the fruit and the high temperatures make all the microorganisms croak. Vacuum sealing the jars keep new ones from getting in and the jam stays fresh.

Because you want goo, natural breakdown because of fats and enzymes is not a problem. But, you do have to worry about oxidation. When you cut a piece of fruit the cells along the cut line break open, releasing an enzyme (tyrosinase) that reacts with oxygen in the atmosphere and the ferrous phenols in the fruit to create a new brown chemical that is a cousin to the very famous iron oxide (aka rust). Rust is created the same way, when iron reacts with oxygen. To prevent the browning of fruit you use vacuum sealing to remove the oxygen.

So, how do you vacuum seal? Pressure is a measure of how often molecules hit a surface. When everything is open the pressure will equalize throughout a gas. Most gases follow the ideal gas law which states that pressure*volume = the number of molecules*the gas constant*temperature (PV=nRT). When you heat a jar and the gas inside of it without a lid on the pressure is the same as the air around, but the temperature is higher. When you put an airtight lid on the volume and the number of molecules can't change. So, as the jar, the jam, and the air inside cool down the pressure decreases and the air outside starts pushing really hard to try and get in. Eventually the outside pressure is so much greater that the little pop dot on the jar gets pushed in and the jar is "vacuum sealed". If you've ever wondered why the pop dot is there, that one reason. The other really important reason is, if there are still organisms in the jar they will start eating the jam and will give of gases as waste (like yeast) which eventually will pop the dot back up, indicating that the jam is spoiled. So, never use a jam with a popped up dot.

While the science behind jam can be confusing and complicated, the act of making jam is surprisingly easy. There are rarely more than 3 or 4 ingredients and the steps are fairly straight forward. One major hint, use really good fresh ripe fruit. My mom and I went an bought fresh raspberries at the farmers market and it was perfect. This jam is a little sweet, a little tart, and very very good. Good luck and enjoy.*

Raspberry Jam

Ingredients

4 pints fresh raspberries

5 cups sugar

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

5 half pint Ball or Kerr jars with lids and rims

Wash and lightly dry the raspberries. Place in a large stock pot or dutch oven and crush (I used a potato masher). Mix in the sugar and lemon juice and quickly bring to a boil. Boil, stirring frequently for 25 minutes. Remove from heat and skim off foam. Ladle hot jam into hot jars leave about a 1/4 inch between the lid and the jam. Seal using the jar's instructions (they will go something like this, boil jar and rims, place jar rims and lids in hot water, pour in jam, wipe rim clean with a damp cloth, center lid, add rim and tighten). Let cool and enjoy.

*Good news, the uploader thingy is working again. Better news I have an awesome new digital manual camera to take my pictures with, yay!

Perfectly Practiced Preservation, aka Homemade Hamburger Helper

So, I had a friend of mine ask a question about phyllo dough, why does it have to be frozen? And I started looking around for the answer. For those of you who don't know what phyllo dough is it is a dough of turkish origin, made of flour, water, oil, and either raki or white vinegar which is then rolled out until it is paper thin. It's name means leaf in greek. It is layered to make a whole slew of foods from baklava to spanakopita and is often filled with nuts, cheese or vegetables to make appetizers. It is extremely difficult to make (there are stories about whole dinning room tables full of rolled out dough), but you can buy it frozen at some supermarkets. There are a couple of reasons why it is frozen, first is to make sure that the super thin layers can withstand shipping. When a liquid dips below a certain temperature (freezing point) the molecules slow down and start sticking together to make a solid. Solids are less likely to move around in shipping, so the layers are less likely to tear. The more important reason for freezing phyllo dough is to keep it from spoiling.

Freezing and refrigeration are two natural forms of food preservation (others include drying, heat, salting, and vacuum). How freezing and refrigeration work is that all organisms, including bacteria and mold (which cause spoiling by eating the food), tend to work best at warmer temperatures. Think of a bacterium like you. When it's a nice warm spring day you are really really ready to move. You walk, skip, jump, work in the yard, whatever. But when it starts to get cold, like a Minnesota morning in ... well, October - March, you are pretty much just going to sit inside and stay warm. Bacteria and mold are the same way. If you get them cold enough they start eating slower and slower, making your food last longer. Hence freezing food to keep it fresh.

Sometimes, however, freezing isn't enough. This is where humans stepped in and invented these chemicals called ... dum, dum, dum... artificial preservatives. These chemicals work in one of three ways. 1) they create a really bad environment for bacteria to grow in. 2) The slow the oxidation of fats and lipids (aka they keep fat from breaking down into goo) or 3) They stop enzymes (natural proteins that speed up stuff like the break down of cells) from working as quickly. It all seems great, but in a large enough quantity they are really bad for the body because they disrupt the body's natural balance and can kill cells that are important for regulating the body. They can also cause tumors and cancer. Yuck.

So, in honor of avoiding these nasty little chemicals, and for nostalgia, I made Hamburger Helper not from the box (actually I was going to make an asparagus phyllo dough appetizer, but apparently phyllo dough hasn't made it to Minnesota yet, and as adventurous a baker as I am, I'm not about to attempt making this one on my own). I am happy to say it was as good as the original, not much harder, and even passed the test of a kid who's favorite food is none other than Hamburger Helper out of the box. The original recipe is from John Mastro (http://www.johnmastro.net/2009/09/cheeseburger-macaroni/), I made a couple of small tweaks, and it's better for you than the box, so eat up!

Homemade Hamburger Helper

Ingredients

1 lb lean ground beef

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 cup ketchup

2 3/4 cup water

1/2 lb any shaped pasta (I used penne)

2 1/2 - 3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

In a large skillet with a lid, brown the hamburger and drain. Stir in the black pepper and the onion powder. Add the ketchup. Pour in the water and pasta. Bring to a boil, stirring everything together. Reduce heat to medium and cover. Simmer until the water is absorbed and the pasta is tender (~15 min if you are using penne pasta). Remove from the heat, stir in the cheese until it is all melted and even through out. Enjoy!!

(I hope to get pictures into this post eventually, but the uploader thingy is acting up, so soon)

Marvelous Mixtures Part 3, Wonderful Whipped Cream (and the stuff that goes under it)

So, I know it has been a long time since you've heard from me, and even longer since you eaten with me. Sorry about that. Graduation is hard work. Traveling across 10 states to get home is even harder. Word to the wise. Visit Nashville, it's HEAVEN. Oh, and drink the sweet tea.

So far when it comes to mixtures we've talked about sol and gel. To recap: three phases (solid, liquid, and gas), they can mix together. Sometimes the mix really really well and make a colloid. One of these colloids is created when a gas is dissolved in a liquid, it is called a foam. Not to be confused with styrofoam of course. Whipped cream is an excellent example. As you whip heavy cream two things happen. 1) air bubbles get trapped inside and 2) the proteins and fat in the cream create a network of bonds that keeps them there. Simple enough.

I have suddenly found myself transported back a few weeks produce-wise. Here in Minnesota the farmer's markets are just starting to open up. Which of course means berry season. Unfortuanately it is still a little early for blackberries in this part of the country, so thank GOD for California. This blackberry cobbler recipe is from Pioneer Woman (thepioneerwoman.com/cooking) and it is amazing. The homemade sweeten whipped cream is a must (though the store bought stuff will work too if you are in a crunch). If you can't find fresh berries where you are from, frozen works too. Try other flavors (raspberry, cherry), let your imagination run wild.

Blackberry Cobbler w/ Homemade Whipped Cream

Cobbler

Ingredients

1/4 pound (1 stick) butter, melted

1 1/4 cups plus 2 Tablespoons sugar (divided)

1 cup flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

2 cups blackberries (preferably fresh, but frozen will work)

Preheat the over to 350 degrees. Grease a 3-quart baking dish with butter. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk 1 cup of sugar with the dry ingredients and milk. Whisk in the melted butter. Rinse the blackberries and pat them dry. Pour the batter into the baking dish. Sprinkle the blackberries evenly over the top of the batter. Sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar over the blackberries. Bake for 50 minutes. Sprinkle the last 2 tablespoons of sugar over the cobbler and bake for 10 more minutes or until golden brown and bubbly. Serve with homemade whipped cream.

Whipped Cream

Ingredients

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Whip the cream until almost stiff. Add sugar and vanilla, and whip until cream holds stiff peaks.

College Confessions from a Chemist's Kitchen

For those of you who don't know, I am graduating from college today with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. I am so very thankful to everyone who helped me get this far. Thanks to the Sunday Dinner group for keeping me sane and my kitchen busy. To my parents who supported me every step of the way, even when the steps led me half way across the country. To all of my professors for expanding my mind. And to those at the 11 am mass for expanding my soul. But most of all I would like to thank my research advisor Professor Timothy Warren. You opened my mind to new possibilities, you helped me find a place in a world I never thought I would fit into, and you taught me more in a year and a half than I could have ever imagined. Thank you.

And now that I have that off my chest, I have a couple of confessions, now that my diploma no longer hangs in the balance. It was me. Sophomore year, Henle Village, no fewer than three fire alarms. It was me, sorry. My kitchen skills have gotten better since then, not that the smoke detector goes off any less often.

It was me. All those missing samples in the glove box that turned up later in a broken vial grave yard. It was me, sorry. I am a klutz in the normal world, put me in space aged super thick gloves with a limited range of motion and we were all asking for trouble.

And finally, it was me. Remember that time in Orgo lab? The last experiment of the year and the fire alarm went off right at the critical moment in a timed experiment. The entire Basic Science Building had to evacuate. You all complained as we stood on the esplanade waiting for the all clear. Of course you do. My experiment was smoking, I had slammed down the fume hood window. It was me, sorry. I haven't caused an evacuation since, not that my lab mantra has changed. "At least I didn't blow anything up. At least I didn't blow anything up. At least I didn't blow anything up."

So for these, and any other sins I may have forgotten, I beg your forgiveness. But, at least I didn't blow anything up.

Photography Final

So, at the very beginning I talked about how this all started as a photography project that snowballed into an even bigger project. I also said I still hadn't finished my final portfolio. Well, here it is in all its black and white glory. The goal of this project was to show, in a single set of images, that the Chemistry lab isn't all that different from your average kitchen, and I think it turned out pretty well. Enjoy!

Yummy Yeast, aka Fabulous Finnish Cardamom Bread

So, as I am sure you've figured out, bits and pieces of my real life tend to bleed into this blog. My most recent trip into the heart of the Nation's Capitol lead me to the Library of Congress. I've lived in DC for four years now and never seen the pretty public part of the building. And here's what got me, there is science everywhere. The world's largest library LOVES science. There is a pillar representing it in the main reading room. Every major western power is attributed with adding something to Western Culture. America got science. There is ceiling fresco devoted to the eight major sciences that existed in the mid 19th Century (chemistry, physics, astronomy, mathematics, and more that I can't really remember right now, sorry). And, here's the coolest part there are putti (little Italian babies) on the main staircase. Each one has a profession, and the cook and the chemist are right next to each other. Yay, chemistry and cooking!

Cook

Chemist

So, on to our usual fare. Today's topic is yeast, yet again. Before we dive in I highly recommend that you read the last post to get the original skinny on these very cool microorganisms.

When you use yeast as a leavening agent in bread (the thing that makes dough or batter rise) you allow the yeast to expel CO2 as waste. The CO2 creates growing pockets of gas making the dough get bigger and bigger (and the ethanol that is also expelled makes it tastier and tastier). Yeast eats sugars and starches so the addition of potatoes, eggs, or sugar speeds up the rising process. Salt, hot water, and fats (butter, etc.) slow down the rising process. Easy enough. So, why should you let bread rise in a warm place? Think of yeast like a human being. When it is cold out, we all get sluggish, tired. We don't move a lot. As the temps get warmer we start to become more active, until at some point it becomes too hot and we stop working again. Yeast is the same way, too cold and it doesn't want to eat, too hot and it dies (like when you bake your bread). The other thing you have to worry about is the life span of yeast. When you aren't using a starter it is very difficult for the yeast to reproduce, so as time goes on the yeast begins to die off. If you let the dough rise too long in the first steps of a bread, it may not rise again because the yeast is dead. So, keep an eye on the dough.

I am a big fan of baking my own bread. I don't really know why, but it has something to do with the smell of fresh baked bread coming out of the oven. I made this slightly sweet bread as a special treat at Easter because, well, I love the flavor of cardamom and I had nothing better to do. I got the recipe from the Carmel Cookie (http://thecaramelcookie.blogspot.com/2010/02/finnish-cardamom-bread.html) and made a couple of small changes. First I increased the amount of cardamom, this is very lightly flavored. If you want a stronger cardamom flavor I would recommend adding a full teaspoon, because even doubling the amount to 1/2 teaspoon wasn't quite enough to really showcase the flavor. And second, I added a lemon butter glaze that just makes this bread. So here it is, my special treat.

Finnish Cardamom Bread with Lemon Glaze

Bread

Ingredients

1 Tablespoon dry activated yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1/2 cup + 1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 cup skim milk

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 t salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

4 1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup butter

1 beaten egg (for brushing)

granulated sugar (for sprinkling)

Mix yeast, warm water, and 1/2 teaspoon sugar until yeast dissolves. Set aside. Heat milk in a saucepan over low heat until small bubbles appear along the edges. Cool slightly. Add beaten eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, salt, cardamom, and 3 cups flour. Beat well. Add butter, beat well, Add yeast mixture. Add remaining flour in three additions. Mix well. Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic (~10 min). Place dough in an oiled bowl. Cover and let double (~1 hour). Punch down and let rise again until doubled (~45 min). Divide the dough in half. From each half, roll three ropes 12-18 inches. Braid the ropes into two loaves. Place on a greased baking sheet. Let rise until doubled (~1 hour). Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush loaves with the beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar. Bake 25 minutes, or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Lemon Glaze

Ingredients

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup butter

1-2 Tablespoons lemon juice

Melt the butter. Add vanilla. Whisk in powdered sugar. Add enough lemon juice to achieve desired consistency. For the bread it should be liquid enough to pour, but stiff enough to stick to the loaves. It took me about 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice to achieve the right consistency. Generously pour over the loaves. This glaze recipe is enough to glaze both loaves of bread.

Fun Fungi, aka Prosciutto Pizza with Pizzaz

I love making pizza. It is so easy to make from scratch and the combinations are endless, so you can always use up whatever is in your refrigerator. The key to a good pizza is in the crust. And the key to a good crust is in the yeast.

Yeast is a single celled fungus that has been used for thousands of years as a leavening and fermenting agent. It feeds off of sugars and creates carbon dioxide and alcohol as waste. When you let bread dough rise the waste builds up creating more and more alcohol. Which gives it that very unique bread taste. The longer the bread is allowed to rise the more flavorful it becomes. But, the yeast produces less and less carbon dioxide, so after you punch it down the bread may not rise all the way again (more about yeast as a leavening agent later). It is a bit of a trade off in bread making so watch that dough! Pizza dough, on the other hand, doesn't really need to rise all that much. The flavor is all that matters, so you can just let it set for days in your refrigerator and let the yeast just do it's thing.

Yeast is very important in biochemistry and biology. Because it is a simple single celled organism it is very easy to study how proteins and enzymes work, and is a model for the study of larger organisms.

This is my favorite pizza. It is the perfect combination of salty and sweet and it just makes me happy. I got the recipe from the Pioneer Woman (if you haven't checked her out you need to, she is a down home kitchen goddess, http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking) and she has never steered me wrong. Other fabulous combinations I've tried are roasted tomato and eggplant, BBQ chicken, and tomato basil, but you can let your imagination run wild. This crust lends itself to anything and everything.

Caramelized Onion and Prosciutto Pizza

Pizza Crust

Ingredients

1 teaspoon instant or dry active yeast

1-1/2 cups warm water

4 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 olive oil

Sprinkle yeast over 1-1/2 cups warm water. Let stand for a few minutes.Combine the flour and salt. Drizzle in olive oil and mix well. Pour in water/yeast mixture and mix until a soft dough forms. Coat a separate bowl with olive oil. Place dough in and roll to coat (this keeps the dough from sticking to anything and from drying out). Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 24-48 hours.* Makes 2 crusts. Drizzle a baking sheet with olive oil. Take half the dough and stretch as thinly as possible onto the baking sheet.

*The other option is to let the dough rise in a warm place for a couple of hours and after it's allowed to rise either using immediately or placing in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Pizza Toppings/Assembly

Ingredients

1 pizza crust

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 lb prosciutto

Mozzarella Cheese

Parmesan Cheese

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Add brown sugar and stir to dissolve. Add onion and cook until very soft and browned. Slice mozzarella and place on pizza crust. Add caramelized onions. Add prosciutto. Grate parmesan cheese all over. Bake 15-17 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Enjoy!!!

The Department of Mad Scientists

So, this is a little off topic, I know. There isn't an ingredient pictured above. There isn't a recipe posted below. But there is a science lesson to be learned. I just finished reading a book called The Department of Mad Scientists by Michael Belfiore. It is a peak inside the understated and top secret world of DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration). I was first introduced into the world of DARPA while I was working on Capitol Hill and it is probably the coolest thing ever. It is a branch of the defense department that funds the research necessary to get pure science (lab and university stuff) into applied science (3M and your store shelf). This is the most expensive step in the innovation process and is known as the Valley of Death. Very few new technologies are able to overcome this gap. No one works for DARPA for more than a few years by design, but they have come up with some of the coolest stuff from the rocket that got us to the moon, to artificial hands that work like the real thing, to the internet, to a computer that learns what you want instead of you learning how to use it. It might be the most important government department you've never heard of and it proves how important science and technology really are to our everyday lives. Check it out and be amazed!

Marvelous Mixtures Part 2, Perfect Panna Cotta

So, this weekend my kitchen was a little crazy. I had a bunch of friends over for homemade pizza, cannoli, and panna cotta. And it got me to thinking about one of the biggest mysteries in cooking, gelatin. I mean really. What phase of matter is Jell-O? And what makes it work?

To answer the first question, substances come in three phases of matter, solid, liquid, and gas. Solids are substances that are a set shape and volume because the molecules move so slowly that they kind of bond with each other. Liquids are moving slow enough that they hold each other together at a set volume, but can move around each other pretty freely, so they take the shape of what ever container they are in. Gases are moving so fast that they don't hang out together at all, they take both the size and they shape of their container. Sometimes these phase of matter mix together (see Part 1). Jell-O is a liquid dissolved in a solid, aka a gel. Simple enough right?

So, what makes Jell-O work differently than your shave gel? Gelatin is made of collagen, a protein in animals that connects bones and muscle fibers in the body (it is what makes meat tough). We buy this collagen in powder form. When the the gelatin powder is heated with a solution, like sugar water, it mixes in with the liquid to make a sol. When it cools it creates a crystal structure (see Cornstarch Crystal Conundrum) that has holes big enough to to be filled with really yummy liquid, and it becomes a gel. When it heats back up, the crystal structure falls apart again and the liquid seeps out. And that in a nut shell is Jell-O.

My take on Jell-O today is a little less American and a little more Italian. Panna Cotta is a tradition Italian dessert that uses milk and gelatin to created a creamy, dreamy, jiggly, plate of deliciousness. It is really easy to make and perfect if you are having a dinner party, because you can make it days ahead and just pull it out when dessert rolls around. I know it was a hit with my friends this weekend, and a lot less labor intensive than my little cannoli experiment. I got this recipe from the blog Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy (http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/2010/03/16/dominator-honey-vanilla-bean-panna-cotta-and-why-i-love-facebook/) and made a few changes to the topping recipe. This is my version.

Perfect Panna Cotta (this made 10 small servings, easy)

Ingredients, Panna Cotta

1 cup whole milk

1 Tablespoon gelatin

3 cups heavy cream

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup sugar

1 vanilla bean

pinch of salt

Place the milk in a small saucepan and sprinkle gelatin over it. Let stand 5 minutes. Split the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds with the point of a sharp knife. Put the saucepan over medium heat and stir until the gelatin is just dissolved (do not boil). Add cream, honey, sugar, vanilla bean and seeds, and salt. Stir until the sugar and honey dissolve (5-7 minutes). Turn off the heat and let steep 15-20 minutes. Remove the vanilla bean pod. Pour the mixture into lightly greased molds, small jars, or glasses. Chill for at least two hours before topping.

Ingredients, Topping

8 oz strawberries

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

2 Tablespoons cold water

1/2 package gelatin

Blend the strawberries and sugar together until smooth. Heat mixture in a saucepan until it begins to bubble. Stir in the lemon juice and remove from the heat.* Place water in a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin on top. Let sit for 5 minutes. Add fruit mixture and stir to dissolve. Let cool slightly. Pour over panna cotta and chill until set.

*The other alternative is just to stop here and pour the liquid sauce over the panna cotta just before serving, like I did in the picture.

Outstanding Osmosis, aka Gorgeous Gnocchi

Concentration is how much stuff is in one location. High concentration, lots of stuff. Low concentration, not a lot of stuff. When a substance can move freely it will move around until the concentration is equal all over (equilibrium). Gases, liquids, and solutions do this, which is why something cooking in your kitchen can smell wonderful in your living room. When there is a barrier, sometimes only very small molecules can make it across. When the molecule that makes it across is water it is called osmosis.

This is how boiling pasta works. You put something with out water into water and osmosis makes the pasta fill with water. Heat makes the molecules beat the surface of the pasta more often filling the dry pasta with water faster.

This is my twist on pasta, potato gnocchi. I was introduced to it this year and have fallen it love. It is lighter and fluffier than any other pasta and really simple to make yourself. It is for these reasons I contend that happiness is fresh made gnocchi on a rainy day (like today!). This recipe is from my mother's cooking class.

Potato Gnocchi

Ingredients

2 large Russet potatoes

1 large egg, beaten

1 Tablespoon butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

pinch nutmeg

1+ cup flour

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Pierce each potato several times with a fork. Bake directly on oven rack for 1 hour. As soon as the potatoes are cool enough to handle, scrape the pulp into a medium bowl and mash with a fork. Blend in butter. Mix in egg until smooth. Stir in salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Work in about half of the flour with your hands until the dough becomes thick. Knead in the remaining flour and perhaps some extra until the dough is firm and no longer sticky. Divide the dough into quarters. Roll into a rope ~24" long, cut the dough into pieces about 1/2" wide. Press onto and roll across the tongs of a fork. In a large pot of boiling water (1 gallon/1 lb pasta, 2 Tablespoons salt/gallon), cook gnocchi until it floats. Drain completely, and toss with sauce and serve immediately.

Cancer Fighting Antioxidants aka Superhero Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Cancer sucks, simple enough. This is a very important time of year for cancer for a couple of reasons. First the sun is coming out (sunscreen anyone) and second tonight is Georgetown University's Relay for Life. So here is my chemistry kitchen tribute to fighting cancer. This science comes from the most cited article in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (Wang, H.; Cao, G.; Prior, R.L. "Total Antioxidant Capacity of Fruits." J. Agric. Food Chem. 1996, 44, 701-705.).

DNA is the stuff that determines our physical properties down to the cellular level. Every cell (except red blood cells) contain identical DNA that can replicate itself perfectly, for the most part. Cancer happens when something happens that changes the DNA and when it replicates (mutation). When the DNA replicates uncontrollably we get tumors. When the replication spreads, we get cancer. Any number of things can mutate DNA including chemicals and sunlight.

Electrons in a molecule are happiest paired. Oxidizing free radicals are chemicals that have unpaired electrons that remove electrons from atoms, especially oxygen, to make a pair. The atom then is forced to create different bonds to compensate for the lost electrons. DNA contains a lot of oxygen that can be affected by these free radicals. And when the free radicals react with DNA they can cause serious mutations. Antioxidants provide a different place to remove electrons from, keeping the free radicals from damaging the DNA. In the correct concentrations they can help prevent a number of diseases including cancer.

Drs. Wang, Coa, and Prior looked into which everyday foods have the most of these superhero chemicals. They tried strawberries, oranges, apples, grapefruit, plums, red grapes, white grapes, kiwi, bananas, tomatoes, pears, and honey dew along with orange juice, grapefruit juice, tomato juice, grape juice, and apple juice. Their conclusion, strawberries have the highest concentration of antioxidants by weight, and grape juice has the highest by volume of the juices.

So, one of the nice things about this time of year is that produce is starting to appear in grocery stores everywhere. Making it really easy to find all those cancer fighting antioxidants. And since strawberries are on the top of the good doctors' list, here is my take, strawberry rhubarb pie. The original recipe is from Bon Appetit (April 1997), I found the recipe on Smitten Kitchen (http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/05/strawberry-rhubarb-pie/) and made one major change. I replaced the lattice top with a crumb top. As one of my chemistry buddies said, "A lattice top looks pretty, but a crumb top tastes better." This is one of my dad's favorite pies, but as he says it isn't Strawberry Rhubarb Pie without vanilla ice cream, so be sure to serve it A'la Mode.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients

Crust

1-1/2 cups flour

1-1/4 teaspoons sugar

1/4 teaspoons salt

1/3 cup vegetable shortening

5 Tablespoons butter

up to 5 Tablespoons ice water

Filling

3/4 lb chopped rhubarb

16 oz strawberries, hulled and halved

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspon salt

Crumb Topping

1 cup rolled oats

6 Tablespoons flour

1/2 cups brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

8 Tablespoons butter

Combine flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in shortening and butter until a coarse meal forms. Add water 1 Tablespoon at a time, until the mixture forms moist clumps. Form into a ball and flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.

In a separate bowl mix together all of the filling ingredients.

In a separate bowl combine the oats, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Blend the butter into the dry ingredients using your fingers until the mixture resembles course crumbs.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place the pie crust disk on a lightly floured surface. Roll out to a size sufficient to line a 9 or 10 inch pie pan. Line the pie pan with the crust, flute the edges. Pour in the pie filling. Sprinkle the crumb mixture over the top and bake for 20 min. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees and bake until golden brown and bubbly in the middle (25-75 minutes). Don't be afraid to over cook this one, the longer it is in the oven the thicker your filling will end up.*

*Some hints about pie: Fluting the pie keeps the pie crust from shrinking out of the pie pan. After the first 20 minutes, you may want to cover the pie with tin foil to keep the crust and topping from burning while the filling cooks. And be sure to put an old baking sheet on the rack below the pie to keep the drippings from hitting the burner and causing a smoke storm in your kitchen.

Being Exact, The Expert Effect

If you want to know the time, you check a clock. If you want to know where Angola is you ask the atlas. If you want to know how to spell disestablishmentarianism you discuss it with the dictionary. And if you want to know how chemistry works you consult any number of texts including the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (kind of a chemist's dictionary), textbooks, or scientific journals. To get my facts straight I have been using a pile of textbooks (see above) that I have collected throughout my studies.

They are great for long standing facts, but to get the most up to date information chemists turn to peer reviewed journals. These are essentially magazines where chemists specifically, and scientists in general, publish their most recent research. This is where the science headlines come from. The journals can be very broad like the Journal of the American Chemical Society (loving referred to as JACS). Or they can be very specific like the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, which is also published by the American Chemical Society. To be published by one of these journals is a big deal for a chemist. It is proof that what you are doing is relevant, important, and correct. And for many being published that first time marks the transition between being a chemistry student and being a chemist.

From time to time I'll be turning to the front pages of these journals for inspiration. So be prepared, at times we are going to be on the cutting edge. And as always, I'll be figuring it out right along with you.

Cornstarch Crystal Conundrum aka Perfect Pudding

Cornstarch is very important to any cook or baker who has ever tried to thicken a filling or a sauce. It is effective and highly water soluble, so the resulting product doesn't look milky or cloudy like sauces thickened with roux can. It is a starch, which is a very long carbohydrate. Carbohydrates, after a long and extensive and way too complicated chemical reaction, are what provide energy for our bodies. Starches are produced by plants as a way to store the carbohydrates. Cornstarch is, believe it or not, a starch produced by corn.

Atoms consist of a nucleus (protons and neutrons) and an electron cloud. The number of protons in a nucleus determines what type of atoms they are. There are lots of ways that atoms interact with each other. When they get close enough that they share their electrons they are bonded and they become a molecule. These molecules in turn can react with each other and create much weaker bonds called intermolecular bonds. The strongest intermolecular bond is the hydrogen bond. When a hydrogen is bonded it loses it's electrons. Some atoms, like oxygen (and nitrogen), keep their electrons. So when a lot of molecules get together, the hydrogens and oxygens (or nitrogens) will try to pack close. Pure starches bond really closely to each other through these hydrogen bonds and the resulting groups are called crystals.

So what happens when you throw some of this starch in a pot with water and heat? The heat makes the molecules dance (more heat = more energy, more energy = more dancing), the faster they dance further they get away from each other. When they get far enough away the crystals break and the water rushes in and takes up the hydrogen bonding spots. The water get pulled in very tightly making it harder and harder for the water to move around, thickening the mixture.

Pudding is one of the many excellent foods that uses this reaction to its advantage. The other day I found myself craving something sweet. And pudding, homemade from scratch pudding, was what fit the bill. Or more accurately, what fit the current state of my pantry. Actually that isn't really true. I had to make some modifications to make this recipe work, and boy were they delicious. I was out of white sugar, so I used brown sugar instead. The original called for finely chopped bittersweet chocolate, all I had was chocolate chips. And like every other recipe I make I added a little extra vanilla. The original is by Martha Stewart. This is my version.

Comfort Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients

6 Tablespoons brown sugar

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

1-1/2 Tablespoons cocoa powder

pinch salt

1-1/4 cup heavy cream

1-1/4 cup milk

1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips

1-1/2 Tablespoons butter

In a medium saucepan, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, cocoa, and salt. In a small bowl combine the cream with the milk and vanilla. Whisk some of the cream mixture into the dry ingredients until cornstarch is completely dissolved. Whisk in remaining cream mixture until smooth.

Place saucepan over medium heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture comes to a boil and thickens (this will happen at about the same time so keep an eye on it). Remove from heat and add chocolate chips, whisking until chocolate is melted. Whisk in butter until melted.

Using a ladle, pour pudding into six dessert cups. Refrigerate until set, about 1 hour.