Having allergies is one thing but having yeast allergies is another. I chose this topic because my brother is allergic to yeast. I can’t imagine how hard that must be. I’m trying to make food better for my brother. I’d like to find out if any alternatives work as well as yeast for making bread rise.

I believe that baking powder will cause the bread to rise the highest because baking powder already contains a weak acid and base which I think will create the most bubbles.

What is a leavening agent?

A leavening agent is a substance that creates bubbles which expand when heated to stretch dough/batter and make it rise. There are three types of leavening agents; air and steam, fermentation, and chemical leavening agents.

Yeast

Yeast, also known as saccharomyces cerevisiae is part of the fermentation group, which means that yeast rises when set up with sugar. The yeast consumes the sugar and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide. The two gasses climb up towards the surface, trying to escape. After a while, the carbon dioxide bubbles make the bread rise, and the alcohol evaporates.

Baking soda

Baking soda is part of the chemical leavening agent group. It contains sodium bicarbonate. Sodium bicarbonate reacts with an acid (I used vinegar), and it produces bubbles of carbon dioxide. The bubbles get trapped in the dough, which makes the dough expand and rise.

Baking powder

Baking powder is an interesting one. Baking powder is also part of the chemical leavening agent group, and it's exactly like baking soda, except for one twist. It contains sodium bicarbonate and also a weak acid which is cream of tartar. There is also a buffer that separates the acid from the base, and absorbs the water so they don't react before you want them to. The buffer is usually cornstarch.

Egg whites

Egg whites, the leavening agent in the group air and steam, make a nice piece of bread, but if the egg whites stay out before they’re put into the bread, or if the egg white’s bubbles are smooshed when folding the dough of the bread, it could affect how the final product turns out. The egg whites create a strong foam that push on the surface of the dough, which causes the bread to rise!

Whipping Cream

Whipped cream works similarly to egg whites, falling into the air and steam group. Once you put the cream into a bowl and beat them with a beater, air bubbles get whipped into the substance, creating strong foam. When the whipped cream gets fixed inside the batter and put into the oven, the bubbles expand and push up against the surface of the dough, causing the bread to rise. 

Controlled variable(s)

• Temperature of the oven
• Time - How long the breads stay in the oven
• The amount of flour
• The amount of water
• The amount of salt
• The same day (for one trial) - Changes in pressure can affect the rising of batter in baking according to some experts

Manipulated variable(s)

• The different leavening agents

Respnding Variable(s)

• The height that the bread rose

1. Heat oven to 350°F
2. Collect all the ingredients needed:
   1. Leavening agent being used
   2. Flour 
   3. Salt
   4. Water (50 -55 degrees celcius if you are using yeast to activate it)
3. Mix the dry ingredients together, and the wet ingredients together, and then combine to make a batter

If you are using yeast, let the batter sit for 10 minutes in the bowl, then an hour once in the pan so it can double in size

4. Place the batter in the pans and measure how far it is away from the top
5. Put in the oven and bake for exactly 30 minutes. 
6. Take it out of oven, use oven mitts and place the pan on the coaster
7. Once cooled, measure the height of the bread and record results on a paper or in a logbook
8. Compare all the results to the yeast bread and see which leavening agent made the bread rise the highest

Overall,  yeast rose the highest for trial 1, 2 and 3. The winning non-yeast leavening agent for trial 1 was baking powder, trial 2 was a tie between baking powder and baking soda, and trial 3 was also a tie between baking soda and baking powder. I conclude that baking powder and baking soda were really close, but baking powder rose the highest, and is the best option for baking if you can't use yeast. (It tasted the best too!)

This would help others who are suffering from yeast allergies or any other leavening agents shown in my project. 

Also, if I were to run this test again in the future, I would try increasing the amount of non-yeast leavening agents used to see if I could make non-yeast bread rise as much as the yeast bread did. Also, if I had infinite money and infinite time, I would conduct more trials because maybe some of the trials in my experiment had flaws, which could be, for example, not mixing the ingredients in as well. I would also buy more tools, as I had to wash the measuring cups countless times and maybe there was some water left over that affected the batter of the bread, And finally, I would try two other leavening agents, Greek Yogurt and Self-rising Flour.

Here are some sources of error that could have occurred:

• Adding too much of an ingredient
• Not washing the measuring cup thoroughly that some of the ingredients move on to the next batter
• Not mixing the ingredients together thoroughly
• Overmixing the mechanical leavening agents so that the bubbles get crushed
• Not leaving the yeast batter out for 1 hour 
• Not heating the water to the exact temperature (occurs for yeast only)

Yeast

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/yeast 

Baking powder and Baking soda

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/baking-soda-vs-baking-powder 

Leavening agent definition and types

https://www.britannica.com/topic/leavening-agent#:~:text=related%20content%20%E2%86%92-,Air%20and%20steam,dried%20by%20the%20baking%20process. 

Every leavening agent and how they work

https://bakeschool.com/leavening-agents-in-baking/  

Different types of leavening agents

https://www.kitchenaid.com/pinch-of-help/stand-mixers/four-types-of-bread-leavening-agents.html 

Yeast to other leavening agents (converter)

https://www.omnicalculator.com/food/yeast-converter 

Self rising flour (I didn't use in my experiment)

https://www.bobsredmill.com/blog/featured-articles/what-is-self-rising-flour

Greek yogurt (I didn't use in my experiment.)

https://www.cakere.com/what-does-greek-yogurt-do-in-baking/        

Types of leavening agents

https://www.thespruceeats.com/main-types-of-leavening-agents-and-how-they-work-4125705