Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: DrN on 14/07/2004 14:29:47
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why do biscuits go soft when you leave them out in the air for too long, but bread goes hard? arn't they both wheat based foods? so whats the difference?
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It must be something to do with the fact that bread is risen but biscuits aren't. Not sure why though, a good question.
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.....also, bread goes soft when you keep it in the fridge and this is the last place you should store it cos it absorbs moisture...but ..yes..good question Lindsay................Bakers please answer !
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My biscuits start out hard and stay that way under all conditions except soaking in the sink overnight. I can buy soft biscuits that will go hard as soon as I get them out of the package.
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John - The Eternal Pessimist.
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I've been told there's a difference in the wheat thats used between US and UK, don't know why, or what difference it makes - apart from the taste. yuk! so maybe thats why your biscuits stay hard!
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Maybe it has to do with the fat content. Biscuits have a lot of fat, and bread very little.
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quote:
Maybe it has to do with the fat content. Biscuits have a lot of fat, and bread very little.
that sounds like a good answer. I've noticed fat content of bread discussed in the (UK) papers recently, apparently the 'stay fresh' bread has fat pumped into it to keep it fresh, to stop it drying out I suppose!
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I think there may also be a fundamental difference in what we are talking about. UK biscuits (if I understand correctly) are more like what we in the US call a "cracker". UK biscuits are supposed to be crunchy, right? US biscuits are not suppposed to be hard - they're supposed to be soft and yummy!
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John - The Eternal Pessimist.
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aha! cultural differences!! so your biscuits are more like our cookies?? they're quite soft and best freshly cooked. our biscuits are things like gingernuts and digestives, which are hard and crumbly, but still quite similar to the cookies really.
what we call crackers are generally savoury, things like ritz and ryvita and jacobs cream crackers (if you have those brands over there?) that you eat with cheese etc. these are hard too!
but people still say 'cheese and biscuits' these biscuits generally being called 'biscuits for cheese'. even I'm getting confused now!
by the way, whats the deal with the uncooked cookie dough in ben and jerry's ice-cream? not sure i like it!
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John, i am not normally a biscuit fan... but soft biscuits like you describe are damn nice. One of our supermarkets (Sainsburys) does amazing soft cookies, especially the white chocolate ones!!
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In Ireland you can get bicuits which are like two soft ginger nut biscuits with sweet stuff in the middle. Mmmmm. they don't sell them here though cos people don't tend to like the idea of eating soft ginger biscuits.
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....i just found an funny site http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/
"for tea drinkers who are keen on sitting down and biscuits. Oh and cake aswell." LOL!
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In Australia you say savoury biscuits for crackers and sweet biscuits for cookies I think. Though usually you just say biscuits.
No one's actually answered the qustion though.
Leave a packet of sweet gingernut biscuits unwrapped on the bench overnight and in the morning they're all gross and soft and squishy.
Leave a piece of bread out overnight and it goes hard like toast but a plasticky elastic hardness not the crisp hardness of toast.
So, waiting for answers still.
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guess so.... shame you couldn't provide one either
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Personally i favour air biscuits...
catch me if you can!
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well biscuits get moist when they are kept in the air where as bread goes heard because fungus absorbs all its moisture and nutrients present in it.
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but surely biscuits are as likely to have fungus in them as bread? they're both cooked at temperatures which i would have thought should kill fungus? based on my reasoning that you autoclave fungal contaminated items in a lab at 130 C, whereas ovens get a lot hotter. unless you're saying that biscuits don't contain the fungus because of all the additives or something? I'm not sure i understand!
incidently, the yummy soft cookies (tesco finest are best!) also go hard when left in the air, and I'm not sure what the recipe difference is between them and normal biscuits! unless they're just eaten fresh before they've had a chance to go hard, like biscuits do when you cook them at home. I'm afraid cookies have never lasted long enough to see if they also go soft again like normal biscuits though!!
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Why don't we do an experiment?? Get a whole range of different brands and leave them out overnight, compare the ingredients and cooking conditions.
With the fungus thing, you'd think biscuits would get fungus more quickly than bread since it has so much more sugar and fat and all the good yummy things a good fungus needs to grow :)
Why is it also that a baguette frozen and thawed has a chewy texture and the crust falls off easily when you poke it or cut it, while a fresh baguette has a fluffy nice texture and the crust is elastic enough to follow the inside?
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quote:
Originally posted by Quantumcat
Why is it also that a baguette frozen and thawed has a chewy texture and the crust falls off easily when you poke it or cut it, while a fresh baguette has a fluffy nice texture and the crust is elastic enough to follow the inside?
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I think this can be attributed to the fact that water expands when frozen into ice crystals which damages the structure of the dough, so when you bake the frozen baguette, it doesn't rise as well. Thats probably the reason the crust is so "crusty" too, as the damaged dough will harden but not be as strong as the fresh dough.
When a person is frozen so that they can be brought back to life in the future, most of the water is taken out of their system and replaced with some other liquid so that this forzen bread effect is minimised when they are thawed! If the water was not removed, then the ice crystals would expand and damage internal cell structure which would be irrepairable without the help of future nanobots.
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