Cookies: Can You Blame the Burnt Ones On the Cookie Sheet? *

Abstract

Have you ever bitten into a beautiful golden-brown cookie only to realize in dismay that the bottom is burned and black? What causes that uneven baking? Can it be prevented? You can discover the answer by conducting a science fair project to determine whether different types of cookie sheets result in noticeably different cookies. First you'll need to do some background research to figure out what kinds of baking sheets you can buy. For example, there are aluminum, steel, insulated, and nonstick, just to name a few! But what properties does each type of baking sheet have? Do the different types of metal conduct heat at different rates? Do they heat up evenly across the whole cookie sheet?

Once you've done your background research, you'll be ready to make a hypothesis about how the different types of cookie sheets will affect your cookies. Then you can test your hypothesis by baking cookies on the various cookie sheets and comparing the results. Make sure you keep as many variables as possible exactly the same, like the batch of cookie dough, size and shape of the cookie dough on the sheet (Hint: try using chocolate-chip cookie dough dropped on the sheets with an ice-cream scoop to get the same amount of dough each time), oven temperature, and cooking time. You'll need to use your imagination to figure out how to compare the different cookies, but measuring the width and depth, and comparing the color of the top and bottom of each cookie is a good starting place.

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