Some Science at Home

We used some science kits at home to do classical experiments. The first one was the potato battery, an idea that turns out to be far too restrictive. We tried a bunch of other fruits and vegetables, along with even more exotic items.

Equipped for science!

In the classic experiment, two metal sticks (copper and zinc) are stuck in a potato and connected by wires to an electrical device, such as a light or a digital clock. The kit we had contained two sticks of each metal, making a longer circuit and more electric flow. We wired up the potatoes and were able to get the clock to display the classic 00:00 flashing image. The chemical properties of the two metals cause a flow of charged particles (ions) between them but the metal sticks can't be touching. The potato allows the ions to flow from one strip to the other, creating a small electrical current. 

After trying and succeeding with both potatoes and sweet potatoes, we moved on to other items like fruit to see if they would act as conductors for the electric flow.

Behold! The power of lemons!

Oranges caused some weird display

Any conductor works. If a person holds the metal strips, a small current flows.

Using my children as batteries! Maybe The Matrix was right?

Even soda will work to conduct electricity.

I wonder if Powerade would be stronger?

The kids were happy to drink the soda. We turned the potatoes into hash browns. 

Power for human consumption

We had another science kit that was supposed to make a salt-powered robot. Building the battery out of charcoal and salt water did not work quite right, even using a rubber band to reinforce the wire connections. If we squeezed the battery between our fingers to hold the wires in place, the wheels would spin. But it would not run on its own.

Needs the patience of an Edison

The kids enjoyed the battery a lot, the robot not so much. Now if I can only get them to advance into the mad science genre...

Brownie-filled Cookie Experiment Part IV: The Final Solution?

To find out about the first parts of this project, check out Part I, Part II, and Part III!

For the second attempt at combining cookie dough and brownie mix, we used recipe #2 from the cookies and recipe #1 from the brownies. After having lots of extra brownie mix on the first attempt to create a brownie-filled cookie, we halved the brownie recipe (which called for two eggs, so that was easy).

The mixes in appropriate-sized bowls

Since the sandwich method did not work well last time, we opted for the brownie-mix-filled-cookie-dough-ball method.

Filling

We also made smaller balls, hoping that the cookies would not spread out and become one gigantic, pan-shaped cookie. We still had some brownie mix left over but only enough to fill a small loaf pan.

We also put fewer cookies on each tray

The oven didn't get overfilled either with our new method.

Cookie-brownies with a side of brownies!

The results were a lot more satisfying as they came out of the oven.

Looks great

After they cooled, the cookies were sampled. They came out very delicious and very satisfying. They looked great too. The brownie mix was drier than last time, so that probably stopped the cookie spread. 

Looking good

In the interests of scientific accuracy, we will try this again to make sure the results are repeatable and consistent. We may have to do several batches.

Brownie-Filled Cookie Experiment Part III: Combining the Two

To find out about the first parts of this project, check out Part I and Part II!

For the first batch, we tried cookie recipe #2 from the cookies and recipe #3 from the brownies (found in the linked cookbook). The brownie mix made the most delicious brownies but it is a bit liquidy.

Two doughs

The mixing of the individual recipes was easy, but combining was a little trickier. We tried two methods.

First, we made sandwiches. We had two layers of cookie dough with some brownie dough in between. They did not look very neat on the cookie sheet, a bad portent.

Two sides

Adding brownie mix

Finished, uncooked product

Tray of samples

They went in the oven as we started on the second method. For this, we made hollow cookie dough balls and filled them with brownie mix. These were more satisfactory looking, though my daughter's results looked much better than mine on the cookie sheet. Her's were smaller.

Cap and bowl

Filled

Not my neatest work

Size differences! And beauty differences!

These went into the oven on the bottom rack.

Cooking the cookies

The first cookies did not look quite done, so we extended for five minutes over the thirteen original minutes. We gave them another three minute extension and then took them out of the oven to cool.

Finished product

So they did not turn out brownie-filled, more like half and halfs. They tasted good but weren't what we were shooting for.

The second set of cookies also got some extra baking time. With the open space, we put the remaining brownie mix in an 8x8 pan to cook (rather than save it for a later batch of cookies). The pure brownies went on the top rack while the other cookies finished on the bottom.

Finished product

The second cookies looked a lot better. Obviously we need a bigger cookie sheet or fewer cookies or smaller cookie balls. They kept their cookie appearance. The cookies didn't get the height we wanted, so some still had their brownie showing.

Side view

Internal side view

These cookies tasted great and were satisfying. We want to try again with a different combination, which will be posted soon!

Brownie-filled Cookie Experiment Part II: Brownie Recipes

To find out about the first part of this project, check out Part I!

After making a variety of cookie recipes for our brownie-filled cookie experiment, we switched over to brownie recipes to see if one would make a good candidate for stuffing inside some cookie dough and baking for an ultimate dessert treat.

The first recipe we tried was from a website that promised "Rich chocolate chewy brownies, not cakey at all!" The description is optimal for what we want to do, so we went in with high hopes. Also, the recipe is very simple and involves no refrigeration (which we found a bit annoying with the chocolate chip cookies). Once we were done mixing the dough, it was very dry.

Brownie dough, not brownie mix

The one finicky thing in the recipe is lining the 9 by 13 inch pan with greased parchment paper. To my untrained experience, that sounds redundant. Either you grease the pan or use parchment paper, right? My other cooking principle kicked in--Do not improvise on a recipe the first time you make it. Sometimes adaptations are necessary, like the fact that we only had one and half teaspoons of vanilla at home, not two. We thought it was close enough for this recipe, or at least we were too lazy to run to the store for half a teaspoon of vanilla.

We put the dough in the pan and thought it looked awfully close to already cooked.

Pan of raw brownie mix

Pan of baked brownies

We definitely did not skip the baking part, though if this one makes it to the brownie-filled cookie round, we will use the raw brownie dough with a cookie-dough wrapping.

The brownies came out very well. They were very thin and very chewy, almost like fudge.

The recipe for the second set of brownies came from this website. The recipe was nicely unfussy except for the whole "grease and flour the pan" routine which I am not used to. It did make brownie removal easy. Mixing up the dough was also easy. This dough was much wetter than the first recipe.

This photo brought to you by Black & Decker

In the oven to bake

The results looked great. By "great" I mean "cooked."

Those are not all toothpick holes

This recipe calls for homemade frosting. Those ingredients turned out the exact opposite of the batter--they were very dry, still powdery. We added drops of water until we had a more frosting-like consistency.

This photo brought to you by Pringles

We won't use the frosting on the final project (frosted-brownie-filled cookies?) but thought we should follow the recipe. After the addition, we were back to the raw look from the first brownie recipe.

Regression!

The brownies tasted great and were thin enough to be good candidates for the final project.

The third recipe was from a very finicky cookbook that we used for the chocolate chip cookies. The recipe is one of those with volume and weight measurements (imperial and metric) which I don't particularly mind. The recipe also includes premium ingredients and premium tools, like cake strips. We don't have cake strips and are not going to buy them for one recipe! So we did not exactly follow directions on this one, though we did by some premium ingredients (a couple of them were on sale!).

That's a lot of sugar

Mixing up the batter was not too difficult. This recipe also called for greased parchment paper to aid removal from the pan. We did a much less professional job cutting the paper so it stuck out more.

Raw brownies

The brownies cooked well, though at 300 degrees it took an hour to bake. We took them out a little early since we didn't have the cake strips.

Cooked brownies

These were thin and tasty, another strong candidate.

The final recipe was from The International Chocolate Cookbook and called for foil as the pan liner. Otherwise, the recipe was fairly simple and easy to execute. The batter came out nicely though it might have been too liquidy for the final project.

Raw dough #4

The final product was a little underdone and, while tasty, is not as good as the others above.

No brownie is all bad

We planned ahead this time and had samples of the earlier brownies for a "taste off" with the whole family. The final victor was #3 though #1 is the backup.

I hope you are looking forward to the next stage--integration!

Brownie-filled Cookie Experiment Part I: Cookie Recipes

The grocery store cookie aisle is full of all sorts of amazing (and horrifying) combinations of classic cookies. Oreos come with a variety of filling flavors: mint, peanut butter, birthday cake, carrot cake, etc. Chocolate chip cookies have all sorts of good additives like nuts, M&Ms, peanuts, peanut butter, peanut butter cups, etc. One particular cookie was a favorite of our kids: Chewy Chips Ahoy with Fudge Brownie inside. I decided we should try to recreate them at home as a summer project. Like any proper project, it got the whiteboard treatment:

What's worse, the handwriting or the lighting? Be honest, this is for posterity...

Each of us had to find a chocolate chip cookie recipe and a brownie recipe. First, we would make each separately and judge which would go together best. We figured we need a cookie dough that can hold the brownie mix inside. The brownie mix would have to be thicker so as not to spread around if it leaks out of the cookie dough ball. Maybe we should pre-cook the brownie part? Or partially cook it? There were a lot of questions but a clear first step: make a lot of chocolate chip cookies.

The first chocolate chip cookie recipe from BakeWise by Shirley Corriher yielded delicious cookies that may not be the best for this project. Part of the problem was leaving out an ingredient. The recipe calls for taking pecans and turning them via food processor into flour (not butter--don't overchop them!) and adding that during dough creation. The addition would have added more volume to the cookies but the chef does not like pecans so they got dropped. 

Dough sans nuts

We had to refrigerate the dough overnight after giving it a cylindrical shape. We made the dough round like a log and wrapped it as well as we could with plastic wrap. The idea was to cut cookie-sized chunks off the dough the next day. So the dough seemed like it would be thick enough to have a fudge brownie mix center. We didn't achieve the most round or shapely of results.

Logs, huh?

Even with all the hassle and changes, the recipe still turned out well if a little thin. The cookies were tasty but probably won't hold the brownie inside. Maybe they'd make a bullseye cookie/brownie combo?

Finished product

The second recipe (from this website) was much more satisfactory on the thickness if somewhat equivalent in flavor. The recipe called less refrigeration though they do say the dough could go for three or four days of refrigeration. The cookies came out well and could be a candidate for the final cookie dough.

Finished product

The third recipe (from this website) also resulted in thick chocolate chip cookies and could also be a contender. The at-least-a-day refrigeration requirement also resulted in nicely flavored cookies though scooping the dough into balls after refrigeration was tough. We tried just using our hands but that was very messy and maybe warmed up the dough too much? 

Hand-fashioned dough balls

Finished product

The fourth recipe (from this website) only required ten minutes of refrigeration, though the cookie dough was supposed to be separated into doughballs before going in the fridge. The recipe recommended using a 2-3 tablespoon scoop, which we did. The cookies came out gigantic. And flat. So the recipe tasted great but probably won't be good for stuffing.

We kept some notes (i.e., I wrote this blog post) and then moved on to testing the brownie recipes, which will show up soon in their own post.

Cute Kid Pix August 2019

More photos that didn't make their own post...

We spotted a cute little rabbit when the kids were at the Terrapin Adventures summer camp!

What's that?

Micro-rabbit

After visiting the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum, we went to Crepe Escape for a snack. My eldest had a banana strawberry crepe, which was served "ice cream cone" style. I split a fruit bowl crepe with my youngest and my daughter had an Oreo crepe. The crepe was filled with Oreos, it wasn't made from Oreos! They were all delicious.

Excited to eat!

I got mine!

A discerning customer

We went to see the Frederick Keys (the single-A team affiliated with the Baltimore Orioles) thanks to free kids tickets from the library summer reading program.

In line to get tickets with our vouchers

View from our seats

Start of the game

Like their parent team, the Keys were at the bottom of their division, though only 8.5 games behind. The other team, the Down East Wood Ducks, were the top of a different division. So the game was a bit lopsided. The non-game activities in between innings were much more fun.

One of the inning breaks had a race between a Chili's pepper and some kids dressed up as chili peppers. Naturally, the restaurant mascot let the kids win. I don't think the kids won anything for their victory, not even a free appetizer (though the ticket stubs had a coupon for a free appetizer on the back).

Pepper race

Another inning break had the announce say, "Who wants a hot dog?" I assumed they would hand out vouchers or maybe souvenir baseballs that could be traded in for hot dogs. But no, the hot dog mascot actually threw hot dogs into the stands! They were wrapped in tin foil, so most of them stayed together. The occasional tossed item would come apart, leaving the foil to waft down, the bun to fall in the red seats, and the naked hot dog to land in the blue/grey bleacher seats. It was an amazing sight.

Hot dog delivery

The hot dog tosser with his entourage

We left the game early because it was a hot day and the actual game was not that interesting.

We worked with a science kit that taught us all about electricity. In addition to learning how three-way switches work (among other cool discoveries), we experimented with various household items to see if they would conduct electricity. A pencil only works if both ends are sharpened and the alligator clips are attached to the graphite in the middle. The most fun discover was that a can of soup would conduct electricity!

Probably won't heat up the soup, sadly

Enjoying science!

The youngest had his birthday in August so we celebrate a few times with many friends and families.

Birthday boy with lit cupcake

Blowing the candle out

Mario-inspired cake

Getting older means getting more skills, so our youngest one started riding the back of the two-person bike.

Getting ready

Smiling!