Thursday, April 25, 2013

Initial Testing

First testing day!

We attempted to bake a buttermilk biscuit dough. This yeast-based dough has very little butter and is relatively dense compared to many other bread doughs. We attempted two configurations in this test, both of which were unsuccessful. The first test used all three prongs at a slow rotation speed. The dough stayed on the prongs for roughly 1 minute but as it began to heat up it became less viscous and fell off the prongs. Further attempts to reposition the dough on the prongs was unsuccessful.




The second test used a smaller amount of dough, first mounted on a single prong then pierced with the other two. This differed from the first attempt to mold the tough onto the prongs. Roughly 5 minutes into the rotation, the dough began to droop down away from the center and fell off:


We brainstormed many potential solutions and machined longer prongs for the inner ring so that the dough can be more supported through its baking. In addition we plan to thread these prongs and use nuts and washers to give extra support to the dough. While this increases the amount the metal is touching the dough, we believe it is necessary in order to complete the baking process.