What does baking powder do?

What is baking powder?

Baking powder is a highly useful leavening agent for use in bread, cakes, and any baked goods that need carbon dioxide to add air pockets.

Baking powder differs from baking soda in that it’s a ‘readymade’ solution containing both an alkaline and an acidic substance for convenience. Baking soda is the alkaline salt on its own, a compound called sodium bicarbonate.

What does baking powder do?

When introduced to heat and moisture, baking powder’s alkali and acid components react to create carbon dioxide gas. This causes the mixture to bubble, creating air pockets in the finished baked goods.

These air pockets are essential for the desired texture, lightness, and even taste of many baked goods. Without them, many cakes and breads would be too stodgy, dense, and heavy to fully enjoy or absorb liquids like soup properly.

What does baking powder contain?

Baking powder contains an acidic component and an alkaline component. The acid is usually a product like cream of tartar, made from the tartaric acid by-produced in winemaking.

The alkali is commonly sodium bicarbonate, and as long as both parts remain dry, there will be no reaction. This makes baking powder safe to store until needed.

To help with this, baking powder contains a buffering ingredient like corn starch to help keep the reactive ingredients balanced.

How can you test the quality of baking powder?

Baking powder, being stoked into reacting by moisture and heat, can be tested by mixing a small amount into warm water. If the powder fizzes and bubbles, it’s producing carbon dioxide, and therefore is working as intended.

If there is no reaction, then your powder no longer works and shouldn’t be included in any bakes.

A visual inspection might also yield some clues as to the quality of your powder, but testing its reaction is the most straightforward method without wasting time and other ingredients on a test bake.

Why is it important that you use high-quality baking powder?

High-quality baking powder matters more than it might seem, as a low-quality powder could ruin a whole bake by failing to produce the right results.

A low-quality powder might have poorly mixed ingredients that prevents it from reacting properly, leaving the batter lacking levity and texture once baked.

For professional bakers, this could mean an exponentially higher lost profit than just the cost of some ingredients. Manufacturers baking on a large scale can detect the signs of low-quality baking powder in their goods using a solution like C-Cell baking quality analyser.

Baking powder that has failed in its job will not leave the right number, size, or shape of cells behind, and these features and more can be detected by C-Cell with comprehensive reports.

Using a high-quality powder assures that these problems won’t have to be chased down and eliminated, simplifying quality assurance overall.

To get the best out of your baking results, contact C-Cell for fool-proof quality assurance today.