The Crust is the Limit: Bread Blog
Introduction
In the beginning, we had 3 members and then lost one due to sickness, but we had to keep going and make our amazing bread. The group started on Wednesday with a lab to observe the amount of CO2 bubbles are present using certain types of water solutions and yeast. In our lab, we had the most CO2 production with just plain water so that is what we decided to used in our recipe. Although the tube with 1% sucrose made the most bubbles it didn’t fill up the balloon quite as much as the tube with no sucrose. Then in the planning stages of the recipe, we did a little research and looked at multiple different recipes from other blogs and baker websites. We found the most common ingredients were flour, sugar, oil, yeast, water, and a pinch of salt, so that is what we used. 
Why those ingredients?
Baggie (1)
We used the baggie as a mixing ground for all of our ingredients for our dough.
Yeast(¼ tsp)My group used ¼ tsp. Yeast cells grow on simple sugars. As the sugars are broken down, carbon dioxide and alcohol are released into the bread dough, making it rise.
Flour(½ cup)- Brings the structure in the baking bread, also when mixed with other ingredients it produces gluten.
Sugar(¼ tablespoon)- Sugar is broken down by the yeast and this creates a gas which makes the bread rise. Not to mention it gives it a very sweet taste.
Salt (a pinch)- Used as a supplement for flavor. Salt helps to tighten the gluten structure and lock in the dough.
Water (120 Degrees)- The water must be at this temperature to activate the yeast, if it is too hot it may kill the yeast.
Oil (¼ tablespoon)- Oil has a very big role in the texture when oil is added it disables the dough from being too elastic
What is cellular respiration? Why was it not important?
Cellular respiration is processes that take place in the cells of organisms (plants) to convert biochemical energy from nutrients into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is then used to power the cell's activities. This process happens in the mitochondria of the cells. Cellular respiration occurs in every living organism and the equation for cellular respiration is Glucose+Oxygen→Carbon Dioxide+Water+ATP. Cellular respiration is not important because in order to make bread the yeast uses alcoholic respiration to create carbon dioxide and alcohol.
Where do plants fall into this process?
Before flour became its powdered form we get the grocery store it had to start somewhere. It started out as wheat in a field with the hot sun beating down on it and going through a process called photosynthesis. In the process, glucose and oxygen were made from carbon dioxide (that came from humans breathing it out) and water (which came from rain or sprinklers). Although the flour no longer goes through photosynthesis, when it was turned into the powdered form 10% of the glucose is left and passed into the bread.
Anaerobic Respiration VS Aerobic Respiration
There are two types of respiration and those are aerobic, which requires oxygen, and anaerobic, which does not require oxygen. Within anaerobic respiration, there is alcoholic fermentation for plants and lactic acid fermentation for animals and humans. The common cells used to produce Alcohol are yeast. Yeast does not require oxygen or CO2 for respiration or photosynthesis. Yeast breaks down sugar to use for respiration, which produces their energy. Fermentation is the breakdown of a simple, or complex carbohydrate to produce energy and alcohol. This is needed in the break to create CO2 bubbles to make the bread rise and create alcohol to make the bread taste like bread. Lactic acid fermentation happens in our muscle cells when we are exercising feverishly and it makes the muscles very sore. Lactic acid is produced when the muscle tissues release energy for muscle contraction with anaerobic respiration, which is when no oxygen is involved in the release of energy to the muscle cells. 
How is the CO2 cycle involved?
All living things need carbon. The carbon cycle is where plants take in CO2 from the atmosphere, then animals eat the plants to get CO2, and then the animals breathe out CO2 back into the atmosphere, and plants take in CO2 from the animals. Bread making falls into the carbon cycle by the flour in the bread. The flour was once wheat and that wheat made glucose and CO2 and when it was made into the powdered form of flour about 10% of the glucose and CO2 was transferred to us humans by eating the bread with the flour in it. Then we breathed out the CO2 which was put in the atmosphere and taken in by more wheat to start the process all over again.
Design Rationale for the Recipe and Reflection
We created the recipe we did because it seemed like the best recipe combination with the items we were given and brought in. We added about a fourth of what regular loaf recipes would call for since we were only making like a small muffin or ¼ of a normal loaf size. We say that the recipe was pretty successful but it was a little bit dry. It might have been a little bit better if it was fresh out of the oven and maybe had some kind of butter spread on it. But overall it tasted like a basic and plain piece of bread. The bread had many bubbles, it was thick, and was very flaky. The bread was also somewhat dense which could have been a result of adding too much oil. Adding the oil was a good addition in terms of keeping some moisture in the bread but adding too much made the bread dense. We did research on ingredients like sugar which makes the dough rise and feeds the yeast through anaerobic alcoholic fermentation or oil which keeps moisture in the bread. We look at other bread recipes that were found on other blogs and compared them to the procedures that Ms. Lawrence gave us. As we compared simple bread recipes to the one Ms. Lawrence started us with we realized that flour, yeast, and water were all the same key ingredients in each recipe. So we used those key ingredients as well as oil, salt, and sugar.
Recipe:
Ingredients-
½ Cups of flour
½ Tablespoon of yeast
¼ Tablespoon of sugar
4 Tablespoons of water
1 bag
Procedure
In the bag add ½ tablespoons of yeast, ¼ cup of flour, and ¼ tablespoons of sugar into one bag and shake the bag until everything is thoroughly mixed up.
Heat 4 tablespoons of water to 120 degrees Fahrenheit
Add the 4 tablespoons of water to the bag and stir to combine
Let the mixture set for 10 minutes to activation the yeast
Mix the remaining 1/4 cup of flour into the bag and then take the dough out of the bag
Knead the dough for 1 minute and then roll the dough into a ball
Place the dough ball under the heat lamp and allowed to rise for 30 minutes
- Then bake in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit
