Research Progress Blog #1

     This week my main focuses were finding someone to interview, starting to answer my 25 questions, and working on my rough draft. I really wanted to interview someone creates recipes healthier than the original recipes. First, I went to Cooking Light's website to try and contact one of the recipe builders. I ended up have to contact the website as a whole and received an automated email back saying they sent my letter to an office and they answer all emails but in the order they get them. This leaves when I would hear back super open-ended so that was kind of disappointing.

     In the mean time I decided to try and contact a local nutritionist to help me decide what a healthy ingredient actually is. I found myself on the website for the Nutrition Council of Greater Cincinnati. While looking under the staff tab to pick who best to contact I found a recipe creator! Since it isn't likely that I'll hear back from Cooking Light I sent an email off to Suzanne Hooper. She is a dietitian who helped to write the cookbook More Nutritious Still Delicious, published in 2006. She responded promptly and was very excited to set up a phone call. Along with the email she sent two PDF's about recipe creation.

 
  This is the header for one of them. It focuses on all types of cooking not just baking but I still found it very helpful seeing as it addresses the health benefits of making each change. I still can't believe she took the time to respond & attach documents I might find useful. I'm super excited to get the chance to talk to her.

     I really wanted to start answering some of my guided questions because I think they will really help direct my research. The first question I answered was: Does applesauce work as a replacement for oil in baking?

This was a rough one to find a credible source. Most answers were on message boards with testimonials from people who have tried it. One of the big things addressed in these message boards was that applesauce works in cakes but isn't the best for making crispy cookies. Also, most people said it is best to do half oil and half applesauce. I used this information to refine my search and did find some useful sources. A website for an applesauce company said you could use up to a 1/2 a cup of applesauce to replace oil in a 1:1 ratio. If the amount of oil exceeds 1/2 cup use half oil and half sauce. I thought it might be bias because it is a company trying to sell their applesauce but they addressed baking on a very general level and didn't plug their specific applesauce throughout. They also added in the things you would have to change if you did make the substitution. Like you have to let your cake cool for and extra fifteen minutes and should use a plastic knife to prevent crumbling. Considering this substitution saves you 26 g of fat and 217 calories, waiting a few extra minutes to dive in doesn't seem like that big of a deal.

     The next question I've been looking into has been eggs vs. egg whites. I haven't looked that much into it but I have found that in some recipes the yolk is necessary fr binding and thickening. Researching this also lead me to some answers to my questions about using a flax egg so hopefully I can answer that one as well.

     I had started the rough draft over the weekend just because I knew I wanted plenty of time to reword and change up what I said. Wording has always been a struggle for me so when we wrote in class for the five minute segments it was a nice way to just get down words. Since I had a limited amount of time I focused more on getting information down and less on making it flow. Flow is a key part to a paper but you gotta have words to make flow first! The first two sections of the draft have not been too difficult. More struggles with wording than actual information. The third paragraph has been a bit tough because I'm not sure how to find people with good ethos on this topic. The people who got me interested in healthy baking aren't professional chefs or nutritionists. They have just been baking for a long time and figured out what works. I have been trying to find scientific studies on baking times and temperature but there isn't much out there. I hope that talking to a dietitian will help me get some valid information and maybe(hopefully) lead me to more credible sources.