Haven't we all had that time of the day when our cookies just crumble away into nothingness when we dunk it in milk? Worry no more, science is here to help.
Surprisingly, an American scientist by the name of E.W. Washburn found this problem so irritating that he actually sat down to device a formula for the optimal dipping time for a cookie in milk. I'm not even kidding, look it up! (Psst...this was a hundred years back, no less!)
Nearly a century later, Len Fisher applied the formula to baked goods - discovering that the optimal dipping time for a typical British biscuit was 3.5 to 5 seconds.
In 2016, researchers at the Utah State University applied the concept to Oreo biscuits and achieved 50% of the possible liquid weight after being dunked for one single second. An average Oreo will generally hit maximum liquid density after 4 seconds, but the type of milk matters - if it has higher fat content, the cookie absorbs the milk more slowly.
The future of cookie dunking is finally here!
