One of the most common responses I get when I tell people that I bake for a living is, “Oh I’m a terrible baker.” and (I cannot stress this enough) I just DON’T BELIEVE THEM. I think they tried baking a couple times and something went wrong. It was disheartening (something I can personally relate to as I once cried in my bathrobe on my kitchen floor because of a cake gone wrong) and they decided that was it for them and baking. But this categorically doesn’t make someone a bad baker!
The thing about baking is that you have to go in armed. You need a good recipe, the right tools, and you need a little bit of background info on ingredient functions/interactions. These tools work together and if one fails (e.g. your recipe isn’t well written or clear or even correct) your knowledge of ingredients jumps into action to help you course correct. So let’s learn a few baking basics and become better bakers together! We can do it!!
It’s some real irony that the subjects in school that I was the worst at (hello math and science) are the ones that I use the most in my job but alas, that’s the way the cookie crumbled. Science is the basis of baking. This can sound intimidating but the good news is that we don’t need a degree in chemistry to make an excellent cookie. Praise the Lord. We just need some fairly surface-level knowledge. One of the most science-y things we need to know when it comes to baking is the difference between and the effects of chemical leaveners. It’s a baking soda v. baking powder showdown!
First things first, the term leavener (or rising agent, as it’s sometimes called) is just a fancy way of saying the thing that makes your baked goods rise as they bake. There are 3 categories:
1) Chemical leaveners - this means baking powder or baking soda, most commonly used in cakes, cookies, and quick breads and what we’ll be talking about today.
2) Mechanical leaveners - this means air or steam. Think pie dough or puff pastry - as the butter melts in the oven it creates steam pockets which causes the layers of pastry to puff up.
3) Organic leaveners - this means yeast! Whether it’s your sourdough starter that you made or a packet of instant yeast from the store, this type of leavener breaks down sugars in your dough and converts them into gases that create bubbles and air to make your baked goods rise.
Chemical leaveners, baking soda and baking powder, are the ones we use most often in baking. While they might both live in the same category, these two are very different beasts and not really interchangeable. Let’s talk about why.
Baking soda (or sodium bicarbonate) is a chemical compound that is naturally alkaline (or basic.) This means that in order to activate it in our batter, we need to mix it with an acid. A few examples of acidic things that will do the trick: buttermilk, yogurt, sour cream, cream of tartar, lemon juice, and even brown sugar. Once it hits liquid, the alkaline baking soda reacts with the acidic ingredients and produces carbon dioxide, giving lots of lift to your baked goods.
Anytime a recipe calls for just baking soda as the leavener you want to make sure that it also calls for an acid. If it doesn’t, that recipe is a dud! You can either find a different one OR you can play chemist and substitute an acidic ingredient for a non-acidic ingredient. For example, if it calls for milk you can substitute buttermilk. If it calls for white sugar, you can substitute brown. Fair warning: playing chemist can produce varying results so substitute at your own risk. But recipes that call for just baking soda as the leavener MUST include an acid in order to rise.
Speaking of substitutions, here’s why I never recommend using baking powder in place of baking soda or vice versa. Baking soda is about three times as strong as baking powder so *if* you were going to substitute baking powder for baking soda you’d need to multiply the amount times three. Unfortunately baking powder that’s used in larger quantities and not balanced with the rest of the ingredients in the batter can cause an off putting, bitter taste and can also cause your batter to rise too quickly and then fall, creating a mess in your oven and a very sad, flat cake or cookie.
Baking powder is a chemical leavening agent that contains both baking soda AND acids (usually cream of tartar) plus a lil’ corn starch (which acts as an anti-caking agent.) This means you don’t need additional acidic ingredients in the recipe to help activate it. Most baking powder cans will also say “double-acting” which just means that it reacts twice: once when it hits the liquid in any given recipe and then again when it’s exposed to heat.
Some recipes will call for both! In cases like these, the batter needs a lil’ help to do the (literal) heavy lifting. These recipes will/should contain an acidic ingredient to help activate that baking soda. The baking powder is there to add some extra oomph.
One more important thing to note about baking soda versus baking powder in chocolate recipes of any kind: the kind of cocoa powder you’re using will greatly impact the results you get with each one. Natural cocoa powder is acidic and should be used in recipes with baking soda. Baking soda (alkaline) plus natural cocoa powder (acidic) reacts to create rise!
Dutch processed cocoa powder has been put through an alkalizing process to remove its acidity and make the flavor a little less harsh. Because it’s been alkalized, using Dutch process cocoa powder in a recipe with just baking soda (also alkaline) won’t produce the reaction needed to leaven your baked goods. This isn’t much of a mnemonic device but here’s how I remember it:
baking Powder -> dutch Process. They both have a "P” in the name.
At least it’s better than 6th grade me who memorized prepositions by singing them to the tune of “the ants go marching one by one”…
Whatever recipe you’re using should already have taken these things into account, but knowledge is power and this can help point you in the direction of great recipes and steer clear of the not-so-great ones.
Even so, things don’t always pan out in the kitchen. We all make mistakes and sometimes what we pull out of the oven is not what we hoped it would be. THAT’S OKAY! Even the best of bakers flub things (probably more than you realize) and when that happens, we crumble it all into a bowl, add some whipped cream, and call it a “chef snack.” We retrace our steps, figure out what might’ve happened, and we give it another go. Becoming good at anything is a process and one that is always worthwhile if we really enjoy it. Don’t be afraid, friends!
xo,
Mindy
