Experiment 7: Cranberry Apple Crisp

Figure 1. Apple Cranberry Crisp

Introduction

Ahh...Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving can mean different things to different people.  For some, its a highly anticipated chance to make up lost time with family and friends.  For others, it's about the opportunity to stuff oneself silly with turkey, stuffing, and cranberries.  Lastly, it can serve as a much-needed break from work or school.

For us, it's all three.  Therefore to combine all three of these elements, on one of our days off, we took a recipe born out of a family tradition, and made food.

Here's how we ranked this dish:

Figure 2. Our NFPA Ratings for cranberry apple crisp.

Prep Time: 40 minutes.  While the dish is simple and mixing everything doesn't take very long, it's important to remember to leave enough time to dice five large apples. This will take a few minutes, especially if you make this by yourself.

Difficulty: 2. Cranberry Apple Crisp.  Banana Bread.  Same thing...in a way.

Course: This is undoubtedly a dessert.  It's not even one of those desserts that can double as a breakfast item.  It's too tart.  It doesn't make a great midnight snack or lunch for the same reason.  This is a true dessert.

Figure 3. Granny Smith Apples!

Materials
Apple & Cranberry Mix
1) Granny Smith Apples - 5
2) Ocean Spray Whole Cranberry Sauce - 16 oz. can.  2 - 12 oz. cans. (Yes, we know 12+12≠16.)
3) Sugar - 0.25 cups
4) Flour - 2 tablespoons

Dry Mix Toppings
1) Oatmeal (quick cook or regular) - 1 cup
2) Brown Sugar - 0.5 cups
3) Chopped Walnuts - 0.25 cups
4) Flour - 0.33 cups
5) Cinnamon - 1 teaspoon
6) Butter (melted) - 0.25 cups

Procedure
1) Dice the apples into 1cm pieces.  Mix the cranberries with the apples.  Put the mix into a greased Pyrex dish, 8x8 inches or 9x13 inches.
2) Mix all the dry ingredients.  Spread the dry mix over the top of the apple-cranberry mix.
3) Bake at 375 ºF for 30 to 40 minutes.

Figure 4. Mixture of dry ingredients (left), and mixture of apples and
cranberries (right).

Results
Ingredients for this recipe were purchased at Joe Caputo's, Aldi, and a few other grocery stores. Typically, gala apples are grown in both the US and the UK.  We figure that our apples were grown in the US and then delivered to the grocery store.  However, if they had been UK gala apples, they would have British accents! to be imported by the US, sniffed by the beagles in customs, and eventually sent to the grocery stores.

The result...Not bad!  In fact, we'd say this one was pretty tasty!  The Cranberry Apple Crisp may have been overshadowed by the reprisal of our PCRs and the five pies that were present until eaten, but it held its own admirably on the dessert table.

Discussion
7,000 different varieties of apples are grown around the world, including 2,500 in the US alone (University of Illinois, 2012).  However, we as humans didn't develop all of these varieties on our own.  Unlike bananas and some other fruits, apples are capable of sexual reproduction, which means that each fruit is genetically distinct from its parents, and conversely, none of the fruits produced from one parent is the same.  Over several generations, different traits start to appear, and due to a process called genetic drift, these traits become more and more distinct with each mating cycle.  As a result, you get a whole bunch of different apples with different qualities - different colors, flavors, shapes, etc.  When people started to notice that they liked certain traits, they started selecting for the apples that carried them by continuing to breed them only with each other.

The recipe called for granny smith apples, usually the most tart variety that you'd find at your grocery store.  Instead, we used gala apples.  Gala apples are less tart and more sweet than granny smith apples, which perhaps helped balance out the tartness of the cranberries.

Suggestions for improvement:

1) To be blunt, the crisp fell apart on us whenever we tried to cut a piece.  Not that that's a bad thing.  We're sure that was supposed to happen.  However, we feel that we shouldn't have to put forth that much effort to eat dessert, especially after a big meal.  What to do, then?  After some research, we have concluded that the best additive for this job is probably cornstarch.  A few tablespoons of cornstarch with thicken the jellied cranberries, which will stabilize it.  In addition, unlike flour, cornstarch will maintain the jelly's translucency.  Overall, the addition of cornstarch will make this dessert easier to serve, easier to eat, and will maintain its aesthetic.


2) Apple Cranberry Crisp would taste better with a scoop of cinnamon ice cream on top.  That's a fact.  A few days after making and eating this recipe, we were informed that it is actually best served hot with whipped cream on top.  That sounds great too!

Future Directions

Deep-dish pizza is still on hold, but we're getting there!  Same idea with the spice tuna sushi and everything else we sometimes list in this section.

References

1) Sandman, C and Simmons, J.  November long, long ago.  "Cranberry Apple Crisp".  I'm Writing My Own Cookbook.  p. 57.  

2) University of Illinois Extension. 2012. "Apple Facts". Apples and More.

Experiment 6: Banana Bread

Figure 1. Banana Bread

Introduction
What happens when you buy too many bananas, and realize you can't eat all of them before they spoil? You could either invite friends over to eat them, make smoothies, or bake banana bread.  We chose banana bread.

This recipe may seem simple, and to us, slightly below our skill level (look at us, a month of cooking, and we have a skill level now!), but this happened on a Wednesday...so give us a break.  Don't worry, we've packed the Discussion with a bunch of juicy banana science to keep your mind occupied for a while.

Our NFPA ratings:

Figure 2. Our NFPA ratings for banana bread.

Prep time:  Technically, it takes several days for the bananas to become overripe once you buy them.  So, the total recipe takes a few days.  Though, if you started counting after those days, then this recipe would take about 1.75 hours.  Not too bad.

Difficulty: This isn't difficult.  You literally just mix everything and then cook it.  For us, it was a solid 2 (1 is cereal).  Just don't forget to add any of the ingredients.

Course: Banana bread is technically a dessert, though many people also enjoy it as a breakfast food.  It's more of a snack food, but doesn't seem classifiable as a midnight snack.

Materials
1) Sugar - 1.25 cups
2) Butter or margarine - .5 cup, softened
3) Very ripe bananas - 1.5 cups (3-4 medium)
4) Buttermilk - .5 cup
5) Vanilla - 1 tsp
6) All-purpose flour - 2.5 cups
7) Baking soda - 1 tsp
8) Salt - 1 tsp
9) Chopped nuts - 1 cup (optional)

Figure 4. Mixing Ingredients

Figure 3. Adding Sugar

Procedure
1) Position oven rack to low position so that the top of the baking pans will be at the center of the oven.  Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease the bottom of one 9x5x3 loaf pan.

2) Mix the sugar and butter in a large bowl (Figure 3).  Stir in eggs until well blended.  Add bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla.  Beat until smooth.  Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt until it is all moistened (Figure 4).  Pour the mixture into a pan.

3)  Bake 1-1.25 hours, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes.  Remove from pan and cool completely, about 2 hours, before slicing.  Slice.  Wrap tightly and store at room temp up to 4 days, or refrigerate for up to 10 days.

Figure 5. Sliced Banana Bread

Results
It seems like Betty Crocker's recipes never fail.  This one was pretty tasty!  All of our taste testers enjoyed the final product (n = 11).  It wasn't nearly as special as our Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls, but it was good.  Banana bread really can't go wrong unless it's dry, and ours wasn't dry at all.

We used regular ol' 2% milk instead of buttermilk, but it didn't seem to matter.  We also didn't include nuts due to a slight miscommunication.

The recipe calls for an obscene amount of cooling.  Pshh...  We didn't wait, and we didn't run into any problems.  Dig right in if you feel like it.

Discussion
Banana bread is best when baked with overripe bananas.  Bananas get sweeter and carry more flavor as they ripen, and it doesn't hurt to infuse the most concentrated banana flavor you can get into your banana bread.  Bananas get sweeter as they ripen because the starches in them get broken down into simple sugars (Macleod and Glassman 2012).  As discussed in our Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls post (see Discussion), our taste buds are insensitive to starches, but once you break them down into single units of glucose (monomers), they bind to the receptors on our tongue and are perceived as sweet.

Figure 6. Chiquita Banana Plant in Costa Rica (Simmons 2005)

Did you just look over at your newly purchased bunch of bananas and sigh when you realized they're still green?  Don't despair!  There's a way to expedite the ripening process.  Lots of fruits emit ethylene gas, which speeds up the enzymes that cause ripening.  Ethylene is what browns the insides of apples if you leave them out for too long.  Ethylene is so potent that it can transfer from one fruit to another.  Therefore, all you have to do is stick your bananas in an airtight bag to suffocate them in their own ethylene.  To speed things up even further, you can put an apple in the bag with it.  The apple will still be fresh enough to eat after your bananas are ripe.

Figure 7. Chiquita Banana Plant in Costa Rica 

(Simmons 2005)

If you want to slow ripening, apply the opposite concepts.  Hang your bananas or keep them in a wire basket.  This will let their ethylene escape.

How did those bananas get from the tropical climate needed for growing to the temperate environment of your local grocery store?

Many bananas are grown in Central America and shipped, while they're still green, around the world.  Bananas must be sent to their destinations before ripening so that they will still be fresh upon arrival.  At the Chiquita Banana plant in Costa Rica, bananas are grown on the plantation, washed, and later sorted by quality (Fig. 6, Fig. 7).  Next, they are packed to be mailed.  The distributors can control how ripe bananas will be when they reach grocery stores by controlling how much air, and therefore ethylene, reaches them.  Bananas are kept in airtight vaults, where their exposure to natural ripening agents can be tightly regulated, so they can reach grocery shelves healthy and green.

Future Directions
Ideas on the table are: Deep-dish pizza, fried rice, spicy tuna sushi, and latkes.

References
1) MacLeod, T and Glassman, K.  July 2012.  "Do Brown Bananas Have More Sugar?"  Access Hollywood: Healthy Hollywood.
2) Simmons, D.  Sept. 2011.  "Belize & Costa Rica 2005 - (Part II: Costa Rica)"  Dana Goes to Madrid!
3) Upton, C.  Februrary 2010. "How to Accelerate and Slow Banana Ripening" Broken Secrets.

Experiment 5: Salmon Sushi

Figure 1. Salmon Sushi.

Introduction
Sushi came up in conversation as a potential cooking challenge well before this blog came to be.  It's different, it's relatively exotic, and it's absolutely delicious.  Making sushi involves a process that is unlike anything one would encounter by sticking to typical American cuisine.  Or Italian, or Mexican, or anything else that one's mind easily turns to as a dinner option.  It utilizes only fresh ingredients.  There are no fillers.  Each ingredient serves a specific function without reducing quality or nutrition, and each provides a fresh taste that contributes to the complex flavor of sushi.

Tell your taste buds to get ready for a boost.

Our NFPA ratings:

Prep time: Simmering, slicing, arranging, rolling.  It will take you about an hour 20 if everything goes as planned.  Salmon takes about 20 minutes to cook, but you can do that while the rice is simmering.  Neither should be hot, so leaving them to the end won't do you much good.

Difficulty: We will give this one a solid 6.  Most of those points go to laying out and rolling up the nori with everything in it.  Take your time and roll evenly so that nothing falls out the sides of the roll.

Course: Since sushi is a cold dish, it can serve as of a flavorsome dinner as easily as it can be eaten straight out of the fridge for a next-day lunch.  Or a midnight snack, if your stomach asks for it.  Be careful, though: avocado browns easily, and rice dries out, if the sushi is not wrapped adequately.

Figure 2.  Sticky Rice.  Mmm.....Amylopectin!

Materials

1) Sushi rice - 2 cups
2) Rice wine vinegar - 6 tablespoons
3) Nori (dry seaweed) - 6 sheets
4) Avocado - 1 peeled, pitted, and sliced
5) Cucumber - 1 peeled and sliced
6) Smoked Salmon - 8 ounces, cut into long strips
7) Wasabi paste - 2 tablespoons

8) Bamboo mat

Procedure

1) If you want to use a rice cooker: soak the rice for four hours.  Drain it and cook it in the rice cooker with 2 cups of water.  If you don't want to spend your whole day making rice, just follow the instructions on the bag.  It will most likely involve 20-30 minutes of simmering.

Figure 3. Unlike what's shown here, cutting thin strips

might be best.

2) Immediately after the rice is cooked, mix in the rice wine vinegar.  Spread the rice on a plate until it is completely cool.

3) Place one sheet of nori on a bamboo mat.  Press a thin layer of cool rice on the nori.  Leave 1/2 inch on the top and bottom edges of the nori uncovered (necessary for rolling).  Dot some wasabi on the rice.  Arrange the cucumber, avocado, and smoked salmon on the rice (Figure 4).  Position them about 1 inch away from the bottom of the nori.

5) Slightly wet the top edge of the nori.  Tightly roll from the bottom to the top edge with help from the bamboo mat.  Cut the roll into roughly 8 equal pieces.

Figure 4. a) Lay a sheet of nori flat on rolling device of choice. b) Lay a thin layer of rice on the sheet, leaving a 0.5 inches on both ends. c) Place the ingredients across the width of the sheet (top to bottom: avocado, salmon, cucumber).

Results

Instead of using smoked salmon, we bought fresh salmon and cooked it ourselves.  Why?  To be honest, notice of the word "smoked" did not occur until the typing of the ingredient list for this article.  Who reads directions anyways?  Besides, using fresh salmon is is the more traditional course of action.  However, we decided to cook it so as to avoid potential food poisoning.  All we did was put a thin layer of oil in a frying pan and cook it on both sides for 5-10 minutes each.  Nothing fancy.  We even left the skin on (neither of us are experts with a filet knife, so, again for safety, we decided not to experiment).  You can season it if you want (although not recommended for sushi).  Tip: adding salt before cooking it will cause the fish to dry out, so don't do it.  Using smoked salmon sounds like a good idea, now that it's been realized that the recipe originally called for it.  It probably would have added a bit more flavor.

Figure 5. A freshly rolled roll, before cutting.  So that's 

why they call them rolls.

Despite using wrongly-prepared fish and poorly cut avocado, the sushi not only came out looking amazing, but it tasted fresh and flavorful.  Honestly, we were pretty impressed.  Although we were uncertain about the purpose of the rice wine vinegar, we found that it gave the rice a tang that reminded us of what sushi should taste like, assuring us that we were on the right track.

One important point to mention is that we did not use special bamboo mats to roll the sushi.  Although slightly less efficient, it is completely possible to roll sushi without them.  Maybe the key is having four hands to roll each piece.  It's up to you to figure out how you are going to find four hands.  Perhaps we shouldn't admit that we used a piece of computer paper in place of a bamboo mat.  We are students, and we cook like students.  That includes not buying bamboo mats.

While we deviated greatly from the protocol that was laid out for us, we were reminded that we shouldn't be afraid to change recipes a little, as this may lead to new ideas.  As Isaac Asimov said, "the most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka' but 'that's funny...'"  Or in our case, "The recipe says what?  Too late."

Discussion
Rice is perhaps the most important part of sushi because it holds everything together.  Sticky rice

Figure 6. Chemical structure of a) amylose, an unbranched
starch, and b) amylopectin, a branched starch.  

holds the nori in its rolled conformation, not the other way around.  So what makes this rice stickier than other rice?  Most rices are made of two types of starch: amylose and amylopectin (Levan 2011).  Both of these starches are composed of chains of glucose, but amylose is a straight chain, while amylopectin has a bunch of branches that occur at alpha-1,6-glycosidic bonds (Fig. 6).  Amylopectin is therefore more soluble in water because it has more spots where enzymes can bind and break it down (Green et al. 1975).  Sticky rice is composed mainly of amylopectin, so when you boil water, heating the sticky rice, the amylopectin breaks down and becomes sticky (Levan 2011).



Future Directions
Coming next: Banana Bread!

Additionally, we still have about 4 lbs. of sticky rice left.  So, there might be more sushi in the not-so-distant future.  In other realms of food, we were thinking about making a Lou Malnati's-inspired deep dish pizza.  You better start salivating now.

Figure 7. Dinner time!

Figure 8. Sushi and Pumpkin Cake Pop Timeline

References
1) Levan J.  Aug 2011.  "What Makes Sticky Rice Sticky?"  foodrepublic.com.
2) Green MM, Blankenhorn G, Hart H. 1975. "Which Starch Fraction is Water-Soluble, amylose or amylopectin?" http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ed052p729
3) Wilson, R. Aug 2011. "Saving Calories - Why this doesn't Work." Nutritional Biochemistry.

Experiment 4: Pumpkin Cake Pops

Figure 1.  You have to taste it to believe it.

Introduction
What do you do with half a can of pumpkin purée?  After making Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls, we had half a can left, and spent about a week trying to figure out what to do with it.  Pumpkin muffins?  Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies?  Pumpkin bread?  Pumpkin pie?  Sure they all sound good, but we wanted to do something different.  With the help of a friend, we realized we could throw together a simple and sugary recipe for pumpkin cake pops by combining a few other recipes (Eissa 2012).

Cake pops are a great dessert option because they're small.  In other words, they naturally lend themselves to a serving size.  You can have a few sweet bites without feeling like you ate an entire cake.  Be warned though: these are so delicious that you might eat many of them in one sitting, thus negating this idea.  But at least you'll enjoy your dessert!

Explanation of our rankings (Fig. 2)

Prep Time: To be fair, half of the time this recipe requires is the time to cook the pumpkin bread.  You don't actually have two entire hours of work, but you do need to reserve a two-hour time frame.

Figure 2.  Our NFPA-PCP Ranking

Difficulty: This recipe deserved a middle-range ranking for difficulty because although it is not complicated to assemble, it has sub-recipes that you need to keep track of and time.  You have to remember to make the frosting while the cake is cooking, and later you have to remember to prepare the cinnamon-sugar mix.  It's not difficult, but it requires some attention.  Perhaps making a timeline (Fig. 8) can help.

Course: We've said it before, is there a wrong time to eat sugar?  Obviously not. Still, these would be best as a dessert unless you're a student and tend to eat things like this for a meal.  In that case, we've listed these as a midnight snack for the late-night studiers.

Materials

Figure 3.  Mixing everything (See Procedure)

1) Pumpkin puree - 1 can
2) Sugar - 1.67 cups (1 and 2/3)
3) Vegetable Oil - 0.67 cups (2/3)
4) Vanilla Extract - 2 teaspoons
5) Eggs - 4
6) Flour - 3 cups
7) Coarsely chopped nuts - 0.5 cups
8) Raisins - 0.5 cups
9) Baking soda - 2 teaspoons
10) Salt - 1 teaspoon
11) Ground cinnamon - 1 teaspoon
12) Baking powder - 0.5 teaspoons
13) Ground cloves - 0.5 teaspoons

Procedure

Figure 4.  Pumpkin bread.  Mmm...but wait, we're not done!

Pumpkin Bread
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease or butter a baking pan.  They suggested a few pan dimensions, but we just used whatever we had, and it was fine.
2) Stir all of those ingredients (yes, everything) together in a mixing bowl.  Mix and pour the mixture into your pan.
3) Bake for different amounts of time depending on your pan dimensions.  We used a pie tin and baked the bread for 50 minutes. Just test it with a fork or toothpick to see if it's done.
4) Let the bread cool enough so it doesn't hurt your hands to touch.

Frosting
1. Mix all the frosting ingredients together until it looks like frosting.

Cake Pop Dough

Figure 5.  Cake Pops (not falafel) pre-dusting.

1) Remove two slices of pumpkin bread.  Set aside for tasting!

2) Dump the rest of the pumpkin bread into a mixing bowl and cut it into very small pieces.
3) Scoop the frosting onto the pumpkin bread pieces.  Mix the frosting into the bread with your hands.
4) With your hands, form the cake pop dough into balls with a diameter of about 3 cm.
5) Put some cinnamon and some white sugar into a bowl.  Roll each pumpkin cake pop (one at a time) in the cinnamon-sugar bowl, and make sure you coat the whole surface.  Stop: It's time to do a taste test!
6) Pack up some pumpkin cake pops and stroll over to your neurofiesta!  
 

Results
Sugar!  Whoa!  Serious amounts of sugar!  It's okay though because this recipe is delicious. Of the 6 people who tried these, all six liked them.  Success!

Figure 6.  One finished pumpkin cake pop in a bowl of

cinnamon and sugar.

As usual, we changed our ingredient list a bit.  All ingredients were purchased at Treasure Island (Where else would we go?).  We left out some ingredients (raisins, chopped nuts, and cloves) because we either didn't like them or didn't feel like buying them.  For the pumpkin bread, we halved each ingredient because we only had half of a can of pumpkin puree.  The only ingredient of which we accidentally included the full amount was vanilla, but it didn't seem to matter.

One thing we were concerned about was the pumpkin bread:frosting ratio.  We didn't know how much frosting we would need, so we simply made the same amount as we used for the PCRs last week.
 

Discussion
If you don't want all of that sugar, the pumpkin bread itself should be enough to satisfy your craving for a fanciful dessert.  However, to be honest, adding that extra dollop of frosting is really the way to go.  Don't panic when the frosty orbs of pumpkin bread and glaze come out looking like falafel.  They will taste like best doughnut holes you ever had, with a consistency that is worthy of adjectives that do not yet exist.  Gooey and squishy do not come close to accurately describing the nature of these amazing treats.

Figure 7. D-Glucose.  The corners, except for the

oxygen on the top right, are carbon atoms

Perhaps the reason these PCPs are so purely wonderful is that they are truly meant to fill the insides of a layered, more textured dessert.  We took a shortcut and made the inside of the fruit while avoiding the peel.  In general, cake pops are covered in a hardened chocolate/candy coating, but we just made the soft inside.  You can also go the chocolate-nut route, à la frozen bananas. 

Have you ever wondered what the a molecule of glucose looks like?  Check it out!  Most sugars (e.g. lactose [found in milk], fructose [found in fruits and vegetables], and ribose [found in your DNA]) look like this, except they all have a different arrangement of OH's, and some are shaped like pentagons instead of hexagons.

Most cells store the glucose you consume until it's needed for conversion into usable energy through glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, and/or oxidative phosphorylation.  However, neurons cannot store glucose, therefore they need a constant supply of it from the blood stream. Not only does glucose supply energy to your neurons, but it also enhances memory storage.  In other words, this is brain food!  Ok, so maybe that's an oversimplification.  But still, these PCPs are too delicious to pass up.

Future Directions
Coming Next: Salmon Sushi (We needed to make something with a bit less sugar.  Try our dessert recipes; you'll understand.)
 

Figure 8. Cooking timeline.

References
1) Crocker, B. 2012. "Pumpkin Bread." bettycrocker.com.
2) Eissa, T. 2012.  Advice on combining pumpkin bread and frosting.
2) Perelman, D. 2012. "Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls." smittenkitchen.com (for the frosting).