As a raising, or leavening, agent, baking powder is a common ingredient in cakes and other baked goods, including biscuits and some bread.
You can use baking powder instead of yeast in products where you don’t want fermentation of flavours.
But does baking powder quality matter? Can it affect the outcome of your bake?
How Baking Powder Works
Baking powder is a combination of bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar, which is an acid element, and a filler, normally corn starch.
In the typical bread-baking process, yeast releases carbon dioxide, causing the bread to rise.
But other baked goods don’t use yeast in their recipes. These include biscuits and cakes. Instead, they use baking powder.
When you add water to baking powder, the resulting reaction produces carbon dioxide bubbles.
There are two types of baking powder:
Single acting, which produces all of its carbon dioxide bubbles when wet, and
Double acting, which produces a second lot of bubbles when it heats up.
The most frequent use of baking powder is in recipes that don't call for an additional acidic ingredient, since the powder already contains an acid-base. It also speeds up the production of baked goods.
Self-raising flour consists of plain flour with baking powder.
Is Baking Powder Different from Bicarbonate of Soda?
Bicarbonate of soda, or baking soda, is not the same thing as baking powder.
Bicarbonate of soda does not contain the additional cream of tartar raising agent found in baking powder, and it’s much stronger than baking powder.
In certain baking recipes, to achieve more leavening, you may need to include both baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. This can apply where the recipe doesn’t contain sufficient acid to make this happen.
The important thing, as in most baking processes, is getting the balance right. But you also need to make sure that the baking powder is of good quality to give you your desired results.
What Determines the Quality of Baking Powder?
Baking powder is most effective at its freshest. Like other ingredients, it can lose its potency over time.
This is especially true if it has exposure to moisture or heat. This can weaken its capability as a leavening agent.
Baking powder that’s no longer fresh won’t make baked goods taste different, but it will affect the outcome of the bake, creating products that are denser and heavier.
It’s crucial to test the quality of baked goods, including key parameters such as size, shape, colour, internal inclusions and external features. You can now do this objectively using the C-Cell baking quality analyser.
As well as supporting quality control and quality assurance, it helps refine processes and check the quality and balance of ingredients, such as baking powder. For more information about C-Cell, please contact us.