Wednesday, March 18, 2020
The Chemistry of Baking Cookies
The Chemistry of Baking Cookies Baking cookies seems simple, especially if you cook pre-made cookie dough, but its really a set of chemical reactions. If your cookies never turn out perfect, understanding their chemistry may help improve your technique. Follow this classic chocolate chip cookie recipe and learn about the ingredients and the reactions that occur throughout the mixing and baking process. Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe 3/4 cup granulated sugar (sucrose, C12H22O11)3/4 cup brown sugar (caramelized sucrose)1 cup unsalted butter (a fat)1 large egg (consists of water, protein, fat, emulsifier, and albumin)1 teaspoon vanilla extract (for flavor)2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour (contains gluten)1 teaspoon baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO3, which is a weak base)1/2 teaspoon salt (NaCl)2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips Youll get the best results if you use room temperature eggs and butter. This helps the ingredients mix into the recipe more evenly and means your cookie dough will be room temperature and not cool when you put the cookies in the oven. The fat in the recipe affects the texture of the cookies and browns them, which influences flavor as well as color. Substituting a different fat in place of butter affects the flavor of the cookies and also the texture since other fats (lard, vegetable oil, margarine, etc.) have a different melting point from butter. If you use salted butter, its usually best to reduce the amount of added salt.Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Its important to preheat the oven because if you put the cookies in the oven and the temperature is too low, the dough can spread rather than firm up. This affects the thickness of the cookie, its texture, and how evenly it browns.Mix together the sugar, brown sugar, butter, vanilla, and eggs. Mostly, this is to blend the in gredients so the composition of the cookies will be uniform. For the most part, no chemical reaction occurs at this point. Mixing the sugars with the eggs dissolves some of the sugar in the water from the eggs, so the crystals wont be as large in the cookies. Brown sugar adds caramelized sugar flavor to the cookies. While it doesnt matter what color of eggs you use (white or brown), the size matters, just like measuring all of the other ingredients! If you substitute an egg from a different bird than a chicken, the recipe will work, but the flavor will be different. You dont want to over-mix the ingredients because beating eggs for too long affects the protein molecules in the egg white. Real vanilla and imitation vanilla (vanillin) contain the same flavor molecule, but real vanilla extract has a more complex flavor because of other molecules from the plant. Mix in the flour (a little at a time), baking soda, and salt. You can sift the ingredients together to make sure they are evenly distributed, but sprinkling the salt and baking soda onto the mixture works too. The flour contains gluten, the protein that holds the cookies together, makes them a bit chewy and gives them their substance. Cake flour, bread flour, and self-rising flour could be substituted for all-purpose flour in a pinch, but arent ideal. The cake flour might produce fragile cookies with a finer crumb; the bread flour contains more gluten and could make the cookies tough or too chewy, and the self-rising flour already contains leavening agents that would make the cookies rise. The baking soda is the ingredient that makes cookies rise. The salt is a flavoring, but also controls the rising of the cookies.Stir in the chocolate chips. This last to ensure the other ingredients are properly mixed and to avoid smashing the chips. The chocolate chips are flavoring. Dont like semi-sweet? Switch it out! Drop rounded teaspoons of the dough about two inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. The size of the cookies matters! If you make the cookies too big or put them too close together, the interior of the cookie isnt dont by the time the bottom and edges brown. If the cookies are too small, they may not brown enough by the time the middle is done, giving you rock-hard cookies. Theres no need to grease the cookie sheet. While a light spritz of non-stick spray might not hurt, greasing the pan adds fat to the cookies and affects how they brown and their texture.Bake the cookies 8 to 10 minutes or until they are light golden brown. Which rack you put the cookies on depends on your oven. Usually, the center rack is fine, but if your cookies tend to get too dark on the bottom, try moving them up one rack. The heating element in a conventional oven is on the bottom. The Baking Process If the ingredients are high quality, measured carefully, and mixed as they should be, chemical magic happens in the oven to make great cookies. Heating sodium bicarbonate causes it to decompose into water and carbon dioxide: 2NaHCO3 → Na2CO3 H2O CO2 Carbon dioxide gas and water vapor form the bubbles which make cookies rise. Rising doesnt just make cookies taller. It also opens up space to keep the cookie from becoming too dense. Salt slows down the decomposition of baking soda, so the bubbles dont get too big. This could lead to weak cookies or to cookies that fall flat when they come out of the oven. The heat works on the butter, egg yolk, and flour to change the shape of the molecules. The gluten in the flour forms a polymer mesh that works with the albumin protein from the egg white and the emulsifier lecithin from the egg yolk to form the dough and support the bubbles. Heat breaks the sucrose into the simple sugars glucose and fructose, giving each cookie a shiny, light brown crust. When you take the cookies out of the oven, the hot water gases in the cookie contract. The chemical changes that occurred during baking help the cookie keep its shape. This is why undercooked cookies (or other baked goods) fall in the center. After Baking If the cookies arent devoured immediately, the chemistry doesnt end with baking. The humidity of the surroundings affects cookies after they have cooled. If the air is very dry, moisture from the cookies escapes, making them hard. In a humid environment, cookies can absorb water vapor, making them soft. After cookies have completely cooled, they can be placed into a cookie jar or other container to keep them fresh and delicious.
Sunday, March 1, 2020
The French Expression VoilÃÂ
The French Expression Voil Pronunciation: [vwa la] Register: normal Even though voil is just one word, it has so many possible meanings- most of which require multiple words in the English equivalents- that weve decided to treat it as an expression. The first thing to know about voil is that its spelled voil. Please note that the grave accent on the a is obligatory. (See common misspellings at the end of this article.) Secondly, voil, which is a contraction of vois l (literally, see there), has varied uses and meanings, which are hard to define precisely, so weve provided numerous examples to help make the distinctions clear. Here, There Voil can be a presentative which introduces a visible noun or group of nouns and can mean any of the following: here is, here are, there is, there are. Technically, voil only refers to things that are farther away (there is/are), while voici is used for close things (here is/are), but in reality voil tends to be used for all of the above, except when a distinction between two objects is required.   Voil la voiture que je veux acheter.    Here / There is the car I want to buy.   Me voil !    Here I am!   Le voil !    Here it / he is! There it / he is!   Voici mon livre et voil le tien.    Heres my book and theres yours. This, That When followed by an interrogative adverb or indefinite relative pronoun, voil means this/that is:   Voil oà ¹ il habite maintenant.    This is where he lives now.   Voil pourquoi je suis parti.    Thats why I left / That is the reason (why) I left.   Voil ce que nous devons faire.    This is what we have to do.   Voil ce quils mont dit.    Thats what they told me. Filler Voil is commonly used as a sort of summing up expression at the end of a statement. This is usually just a filler and doesnt have a simple English equivalent. In some cases, you could say you know, OK, or there you have it, but in general we just leave it out of the English translation.   Nous avons dà ©cidà © dacheter une nouvelle voiture et de donner lancienne notre fils, voil.    We decided to buy a new car and give the old one to our son.   On va commencer avec ma prà ©sentation, suivie dune visite du jardin et puis le dà ©jeuner, voil.    Were going to start with my presentation, followed by a visit to the garden and then lunch. How Long Voil can be an informal replacement for depuis or il y a when talking about how long something has been going on or how long ago something happened.   Voil 20 minutes que je suis ici.    Ive been here for 20 minutes.   Nous avons mangà © voil trois heures.    We ate three hours ago. That's Right Voil can be used to agree with what someone just said, along the lines of thats right or thats it exactly. (Synonym: en effet)   - Alors, si jai bien compris, vous voulez acheter sept cartes postales mais seulement quatre timbres.    - Voil.   - So if Ive understood correctly, you want to buy seven postcards but only four stamps.    - Thats right. Now You've Done It Et voil is commonly used, especially when talking to children, after youve warned them about something and they do it anyway, causing the very problem you tried to prevent. Not quite as mocking as I told you so, but along those lines: I warned you, you should have listened, etc.    Non, arrà ªte, cest trop lourd pour toi, tu vas le faire tomber... et voil.    No, stop, thats too heavy for you, youre going to drop it... and you did / I warned you. Spelling Notes Voil is sometimes used in English, and for this reason, its often written voila. This is acceptable in English, which tends to lose accents on words borrowed from other languages, but its not acceptable in French. There are several other common misspellings: Voil has the wrong accent. The only letter that ever has an acute accent in French is e, as in à ©tà © (summer).Viola is a word, though not a French one: a viola is a musical instrument slightly larger than a violin; the French translation is alto.Vwala is an Anglicized spelling of voil.Walla? Not even close. Please, use voil.
Friday, February 14, 2020
Proposal Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1
Proposal - Term Paper Example Need for Healthcare Coverage Congratulations on the adoption of a comprehensive Employee Assistance Program for your organization. Employee Assistance Programs are quite popular and are the need of the hour, as the cost of medical coverage is becoming increasingly out of reach for the majority of Americans- especially among the middle class, the poorer classes and the homeless sections of society. Many of us have been the victims of the last financial crisis, losing homes, cars, jobs and even the chance to lead a proper lifestyle. All in all, the need for proper and complete healthcare coverage cannot be denied in today’s workplace. Healthy employees are the boon of any workplace; they can function at the peak of their performance and make a great difference to productivity and the bottom line. At the other end of the spectrum, how many of us have been affected by bouts of ill health that keep us from performing at our best on any given workday. Even the common cold or a naggi ng headache or worst of all an excruciating toothache or earache can make us take the day off and stay at home in pain and discomfort. So clearly, healthcare coverage has many benefits not only for the employees but also for the organization. Key Elements of the Employee Assistance Program It is worthwhile to remember a fundamental truth: an employee can only be said to be functioning at his full capacity if he is in sound health physically, mentally and psychologically. The stress of modern city and corporate life has undoubtedly left its mark on us all, and the pressure of working in a corporate setup often complicates matters especially if there is a lot of competition. Employees have been known to do everything from an excess of apple polishing to working beyond normal limits to gain the support of their bosses. Unfortunately some even take drugs and opiates to enhance productivity, which is unethical and can have disastrous consequences for the health of these employees, as wel l as the reputation of the organization in the long run. Consider what can happen if a disgruntled employee decided to get trigger happy in the office to vent out his anger of not being promoted, or being overlooked in terms of certain perks. This would amount to a public relations disaster and must be avoided. Knowing this, Aetna Insurance has provided for rehabilitation and care in the event of even such an instance of drug abuse. Sometimes drug taking for recreational use can turn into an addiction like smoking and alcoholism. Drug taking has even ruined the careers of such celebrities like Lindsay Lohan and Robert Downey Jr. So let Aetna help you to avoid any drug related mishap or control its repercussions by virtue of access to our 24 hour clinics that have been established in every major American city as well as our online support facility that never stops, any time of the day or night. History of the Company Aetna Insurance Company has been providing healthcare to Americans like you and me for over 150 years and running. The company was started way back in 1853 in Hartford, Connecticut (www.aetna.com) and is today one of the nation's leading providers of health care including pharmacy, dental, disability insurance, group life and employee benefits. The company has a variety of plans and programs to fit your pocket and specific coverage needs. There are also a variety of plans for small, medium and large scale organizations with differing levels of
Saturday, February 1, 2020
What are the most significant factors affecting Foreign Direct Essay
What are the most significant factors affecting Foreign Direct Investment in China - Essay Example China has been a major FDI attraction since it experimented in 1980 and opened up to foreign investment is a few coastal cities and specialized industry parks and economic zones. Since the initial admittance of the first foreign enterprise into China in the early 1980s, the accumulated FDI inflows have reached and outstanding $ 1160.11Billion as of December 2011 . In the early 1992 when Deng was touring in the southern region of china, the quantity of FDI inflows made China become the world’s largest recipient of FDI among the developing nations and the second largest worldwide with the United States taking the lead although China was the leading recipient of FDI worldwide in the year 2002. This move has increased China’s overall economic reforms thus making China more integrated into the world economy which continues to promote the confidence of more foreign investors to attract even more FDI inflows towards China. As the reforms and changes of China’s economic structure have been induced by the large amounts of FDI inflows the evidence is exhibited by the significant changes of comparative advantage in it trade which is continuously increasing in terms of technology intensive, labour intensive and capital intensive productions. As a result, the factor bequest of China has even much stronger complementariness with the world meaning that even more factors influencing FDI in china are increasingly immerging and growing stronger over time (Sheng-xian and Hua 2012). China’s rise into its current position was mainly driven by the foreign direct investors who flocked into the country when it adopted the openness policy to allow FDI inflows into the country and has continued to grow due to its efforts in promoting FDI inflows (Sheng-xian and Hua 2012). This paper covers the most significant factors influencing FDI inflows into China while answering the questions why
Friday, January 24, 2020
Analysis of Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson :: Because Could Stop Death Dickinson Essays
Analysis of "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson      The poets of the nineteenth century wrote on a variety of topics. One often used topic is that of death. The theme of death has been approached in many different ways. Emily Dickinson is one of the numerous poets who uses death as the subject of several of her poems. In her poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," death is portrayed as a gentleman who comes to give the speaker a ride to eternity. Throughout the poem, Dickinson develops her unusual interpretation of death and, by doing so, composes a poem full of imagery that is both unique and thought provoking. Through Dickinson's precise style of writing, effective use of literary elements, and vivid imagery, she creates a poem that can be interpreted in many different ways.      The precise form that Dickinson uses throughout "Because" helps convey her message to the reader. The poem is written in five quatrains. The way in which each stanza is written in a quatrain gives the poem unity and makes it easy to read. "I Could Not Stop for Death" gives the reader a feeling of forward movement through the second and third quatrain. For example, in line 5, Dickinson begins death's journey with a slow, forward movement, which can be seen as she writes, "We slowly drove-He knew no haste." The third quatrain seems to speed up as the trinity of death, immortality, and the speaker pass the children playing, the fields of grain, and the setting sun one after another. The poem seems to get faster and faster as life goes through its course. In lines 17 and 18, however, the poem seems to slow down as Dickinson writes, "We paused before a House that seemed / A Swelling of the Ground-." The reader is given a feeling of life slowly ending. Another way in which Dickinson uses the form of the poem to convey a message to the reader occurs on line four as she writes, "And Immortality." Eunice Glenn believes that the word "Immortality" is given a line by itself to show its importance (qtd. in Davis 107). Perhaps the most notable way in which Dickinson uses form is when she ends the poem with a dash. Judith Farr believes that the dash seems to indicate that the poem is never ending, just as eternity is never ending (331). In conclusion, Dickinson's form helps the reader begin to comprehend the poem.      Figurative language is one of the literary elements that Dickinson uses to help convey hidden messages to the reader.
Thursday, January 16, 2020
Travel Broadens the Mind
Travel broadens the mind Traveling broadens our minds in different ways. I had visited a different country for the first time when I was 8. My father lives in Norway with his American wife. I had already tasted the other side of life. I am only 15 and I know life is in front of me, but from my experience I know that traveling does change your point of view. How do you know? You might find yourself by traveling. Traveling does broaden our mind. We meet new people with new ideas .We find different architecture and religions. Other differences are the languages . The unknown languages are being a wall between us and the world. A wall that we break little by little every day being here in English class. Like we already said that travel broadens our mind. When we see how the other people survive we start thinking about our lives . We associate everything with our way of living . We started judging them for some things and being jealous for others.Every time when I travel I find something new, something different. But one thing will always be the same: when you travel you realize what are the most important things in your life. You start appreciating the little things in the big world. You discover that being rich is not to have money, cars or houses but to have friends and family to appreciate you. Whenever I get back from Norway, I am thinking differently. I see the bad and the good side of my country.I begin associating everything around me with the way they live in Norway. Travel broadens the mind, it shows us what are we missing and the important things in life. It does not really matter were you live or what launguage you are speaking, we are all people. We all have brains and bodys. We all have good and bad moments in our lives. Until you see something and get to know it better you can not judge it. Traveling broadens my mind. What about you? †¦
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
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