The wonders of formulas

           It is the week after July fourth and I am full of food and sweets. I love to bake sweets, it is one of my favorite hobbies. In the previous years I have had so much trouble baking sweets for our July party because I would get confused on how much ingredients were needed for a smaller batch than what was required. Now after taking this math course and learning the wonderful formula I can enjoy baking and knowing that my batch is going to turn out perfectly because there is no more guessing. 

Here is how it works! The formula is: Desired serving size    X  ingredient amount in recipe 

                                                              Recipe serving size 

Lets look at this batch of Cookies for an example: Makes 24 cookies. 

                                                

 

•       1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

 We only want to make 12 cookies, so for each ingredient we use the formula provided.

Desired serving size  X ingredient amount in recipe      Butter:  12  X 1 cup.  1  X 1 = 1/2 cup. butter
Recipe serving size                                                                       24                 2

Butter, sugar, and brown sugar= 1/2 cup.                            Salt: 12 X 1 or 1 x 1 = 1 cup. 

                                                                                                       24    2      2    2    4 

Eggs, vanilla and chocolate chips= 12 X 2= 1/2 X 2= 1cup. 

                                                         24

Flour= 12 X 3= 1 x 3= 3 or 1 1/2 cups. 

            24          2    1   2