Kitchen Experiments

In between Grammar, Reading, Spelling and Math we worked on several projects/experiments in the kitchen today.  Jared has been wondering what was the difference between butterscotch and caramel, so after a little internet research, we determined that it's the type of sugar used that makes the difference.  Butterscotch is usually made with brown sugar and caramel with white sugar.  In both cases, they are cooked with dairy products such as butter or cream.  In our searching we also discovered that we could make caramel from a can of sweetened condensed milk, in this case it is the lactose in the milk that caramelizes and combines with the dairy to make a perfect caramel.

 The kids just thought this was great because you actually cook it right in the can.  You simmer the can for 2 1/2 hours, making sure the can is always covered in water.

 After the can cools to the touch you open it and voila! Caramel!  Our caramel was very runny, we really needed to have our heat a little higher, but it was still tasty.

 Everyone enjoyed dipping their fruit into the caramel for a nice snack and we decided that it was healthier than caramel made from white sugar.

 

Jared wanted to make caramel candies with the leftover caramel dip so he cooked it on the stove until it started to get thick and then put it on wax paper.  Yummy!

 

Another experiment we've been wanting to try out is the naked egg.  The idea is to put an egg in vinegar and the vinegar will slowly eat away at the egg shell and leave just the egg inside of it's membrane.  This takes about a day, but even a few hours later you can see that the egg is all covered in bubbles and there is a layer of calcium from the eggshell at the top of the vinegar.

Finally, I have been baking and freezing meals for our busy days and the days after the baby comes and have been wanting to make and freeze some bread.  I found a recipe for 1 hour bread and thought I would try it out and compare it to my normal dough recipe to see which one I liked best.  In the end, I made four loaves of yummy wheat bread.  Of course I had to taste both kinds of bread to see which one was better (nothing says heaven like bread right out of the oven with a little homemade peach preserves spread on it.)  In the end, I determined that the 1 hour recipe tasted better.  Sounds like we have a winner and a successful day of homeschooling!