Science Fari Final Report for Oven Baked Ice Cream

Science Fair 2012 By Anna Neuber Question If I put ice cream to bake in an oven, will the egg white and sugar mixture insulate it well enough so it won’t melt? Hypothesis If I put the ice cream into the egg white mixture and heat it up in the oven at 260 °, it will not melt because of the insulation. Variables Independent Variables The independent variables are those that are changed throughout the experiment. In my experiment I am going to change the amount of egg white mixture on the ice cream (in my first experiment I put very little and the experiment didn’t work out).I will also be changing the type of ice cream. This will not affect the experiment but it will change the taste. Dependent Variable The dependent variable is the one that is measured during the experiment. I will be measuring/observing the texture and outcome of the ice cream after it has been baked in the oven. Controlled Variables The controlled variables are the ones that you try to keep constant throughout your experiment so that they don’t affect your experiment. I will be keeping the temperature of the oven the same and the type of cookie that I place the ice cream on.Background Research Ice cream usually melts when exposed to heat. This is an observable physical change. But could there be a way to keep it in tact without letting it melt? In fact, there is a way! Americans eat this as a treat and call it â€Å"Baked Alaska†. In effect it is ice cream covered in an egg white mixture put into an oven. Why doesn’t it melt? The egg whites mixture acts as an insulator and keeps the ice cream cool. The air bubbles slow down the penetration of heat from the outside. Once baked, the dessert is hot on the outside and freezing on the inside.If I put the bowl of ice cream into the egg white mixture and then on the cookie and put it into the oven at 260 degrees Celsius, will it melt or will it stay intact because of the insulation? Oven baked ice cream isnâ€℠¢t an experiment like mixing metals with acids. It’s actually a dessert. The name it was given is â€Å"Baked Alaska†. The name â€Å"Baked Alaska† comes from Delmonico's Restaurant in New York City in 1876, and was created in honor of the newly acquired territory of Alaska. It is basically hard ice cream on a bed of sponge cake.The process is simple; this ‘cake' is kept in the freezer until serving time, when it is placed in a very hot oven, just long enough to brown the meringue. Baked Alaska and similar desserts use the insulating properties of the trapped air in the cellular structure of the foams (the meringue and sponge cake) which keeps the heat from reaching the ice cream. Early versions of this dessert consisted of ice cream covered in a very hot pastry crust. (Ehler, 1990-2012) Since ice cream doesn't really leave a trace like pots or weapons, there is not much history about ice cream.It is said that people living in places in prehistoric times w here snow and ice were abundant made themselves a sort of â€Å"sorbet† by adding fruits to give the ice a flavor. Also, some left over ice houses, where ice was produced, have been found. Ice houses are known to have existed as early as 2,000 B. C. in Mesopotamia. They were built by rich Mesopotamians. Also, some Egyptian Pharaohs ordered ice from the colder regions to be shipped into Egypt. A lot later on, the Arabs began using syrup and sugar instead of honey.In the 10th century B. C. , ice cream was sold in all major Arab cities. The Chinese also picked up the use of ice cream, and it began to be a popular treat in the hot months of the year. (Zinger, 2012) Ancient people first began cooking on open fires. The cooking fires were put on the ground and later simple brick constructions were used to hold the wood. Simple ovens were used by the ancient Greeks for making bread and other baked goods. By the middle ages, taller brick and cement fireplaces, often with chimneys, we re being built.The food to be cooked was placed in metal cauldrons that hung above the fire. The first written historical record of an oven being built refers to an oven built in 1490, in Alsace, France. To improve the ovens, fire chambers were invented that contained the wood fire, and holes were built into the top of these chambers that cooking pots with flat bottoms could be placed directly upon replacing the cauldron. Around 1728, cast iron ovens began to be made in quantity. These first ovens of German design were called Five-plate or Jamb stoves.Around 1800, Benjamin Thompson invented a working iron kitchen stove called the Rumford stove that was designed for very large working kitchens. However, the Rumford stove was too large from the average kitchen and inventors continued to improve their designs. Cast iron stoves continued to evolve, with iron gratings added to the cooking holes, and added chimneys and connecting flue pipes. Jordan Mott invented the first practical coal o ven in 1833. British inventor, James Sharp patented a gas oven in 1826, the first semi-successful gas oven to appear on the market.It was not until the late 1920s and early 1930s that electric ovens began to compete with gas ovens, however, electric ovens were available as early as the 1890s. Some historians credit, Canadian Thomas Ahearn with inventing the first electric oven in 1882. The Carpenter Electric Heating Manufacturing Company invented an electric oven in 1891. In 1910, William Hadaway designed the first toaster made by Westinghouse, a horizontal combination toaster-cooker. (Bellis, 2012) In conclusion, I can only say that ice cream definitely doesn’t melt in the oven.But only if you cover it safely in egg whites mixture. On my first experiment, the ice cream melted partially and it wasn’t very successful. This is why I have repeated the experiment to get a different result. I only tried one recipe because the other ones take about 8 to 10 hours and I donâ⠂¬â„¢t have so much time available. The thing that went wrong on the first experiment I think was that the ice cream wasn’t insulated well enough. My second experiment went very well and I was happy about the results, but the last one was not much better than the first trial.This was because the ice cream slipped off the cookie. In summation; oven baked ice cream is definitely not an easy experiment and it takes practice to get a good outcome that tastes good and looks nice as well! Materials List – 3 or 4 large eggs – Vanilla ice cream – 1 large cookie – 113 grams of sugar – Large mixing bowl – Whisk or fork – Ice cream scoop or spoon – Cookie sheet – Aluminum foil – Oven Experimental Procedure 1. Extract the egg whites from the eggs. The egg white has to land in the bowl. 3. Use your whisk or fork to beat the egg-whites in the bowl, slowly adding in the sugar as you mix.Keep beating the egg whites and sug ar until you have a glossy looking mixture. 4. Pre-heat your oven to 260 degrees Celsius 5. Line your cookie-sheet with the aluminum foil so that it covers the entire surface 6. Place your cookie on the center of the foil-lined cookie sheet 7. Take a big scoop of Ice Cream that is about the circumference of the cookie and place is in the egg white mixture. Make sure the ice cream is completely covered and submerged. 8. Take the ice cream from the mixture and place it on the cookie 9. When the oven is pre-heated, place the cookie sheet on the bottom rack 10.Bake the ice cream cookie until the ice cream starts to turn a golden brown, about 5 minutes. 11. Remove the ice cream cookie from the oven and allow a few minutes to cool. Data Analysis Trial| Result| Observation| 1| Bad| The ice cream almost completely melted and the egg whites mixture didn’t insulate properly. Some parts of the egg whites mixture turned a gold-brownish color, but some stayed white and didn’t bake properly. To improve: I need to put on more egg whites mixture. | 2| good| The ice cream barely melted and there was more left than in the experiment before.To improve: I need to leave it longer to bake. | 3| Ok| The ice cream didn’t completely melt but it slipped of the cookie which was not the point of the experiment, still it didn’t melt fully. I left it longer to bake as well. | Observations In the first experiment, I used vanilla ice cream while in the second I used chocolate and in the third I used strawberry. This change only affected the taste and did not change the procedure of the experiment. Also, by adding more and more egg whites, I noticed that the ice cream didn’t melt as fast or almost not at all.I kept the oven temperature the same and also the type of cookie. The â€Å"texture† of the outcome of the ice cream was always creamy and soft. The outsides were a slight golden brown but that is the result that is expected. Conclusions Experimen t Conclusion Relating to my hypothesis, I can conclude that I predicted half correct and half wrong. First of all, two of my experiments failed and one trial worked out, so my hypothesis was only partly right. Secondly, it is probably quite hard to bake ice cream and it must take practice to get it right.I looked at different recipes as well, but all of them take about 8 – 10 hours and it is hard to record it that way and I can’t make my experiment last that long either. Unfortunately, I didn’t record my experiment in a video, but I have made a picture of my first trial. Overall Conclusion My overall conclusion is that I am very happy with my experiment. How did I come up with my experiment? I was looking through a website that had a whole list of experiments, and when I saw the â€Å"Oven baked ice cream† experiment, I was immediately interested, because it seemed impossible to me that something like that actually works out.So then I started doing some r esearch and finally I used this as my experiment. My hypothesis was that the ice cream wouldn’t melt, because I believed that, if the experiment exists and is also served in restaurants it must work. I was really curious to try it out myself, and my outcomes were not too bad (except for my first try). It even tastes good. I think overall I am very pleased with my experiment and what I have achieved. I am glad that I chose this topic because it is interesting to research about and it is also really fun to bake.I have displayed a few pictures and a video too! It is really easy to make the ice cream—well at least from the recipe that I have found. It doesn’t work out straight away, but I think you need to personalize the recipe a little bit so that it suits your taste. I hope that we do a Science Fair next year again because I really enjoyed the planning and research, but I think to enjoy the preparation to science fair you have to choose a topic that really suits you and that you are actually interested in.So all in all, my opinion to science fair is that it is great fun and, even if this first time everyone was a little bit under time pressure, I think it worked out well and I hope that the actual day of science fair will reward our effort and hard work! Acknowledgements I would like to say thank you to my teachers Ms. Mullen and Ms. Phan for helping me in my science fair project. I would also like to thank my mum and my dad for helping me with my experiment. Last but not least I want to thank Ms. Wiedemann and Mr. Lenihan for giving up their lesson and letting us work on science fair. BibliographyEhler, James T. â€Å"Baked Alaska. † Recipes for Sweet Comforts from the North Country. New York, New York: James T. Ehler, 2000. 143. , . . Print. Bellis, Mary. History of Ice Cream. Ed. Mary Bellis. about. com: Mary Bellis, 2011. 2. , . . Print. Bellis, Mary. History of the Oven. Ed. Mary Bellis. about. com: Mary Bellis, 2009. 3. , . . P rint. http://farm4. static. flickr. com/3269/3107121731_69336f5e82_o. jpg â€Å"Baked Alaska. † Alaska Wild Berry Cookbook: 270 Recipes from the Far North. Alaska: Alaska Northwest Books, 2012. Print. http://www. zagblog. ch/wpcontent/uploads/2012/06/icecream. jpg