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Authors: Lauren Chattman
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air. The result may be a heavy and greasy cake. Even cool butter will melt quickly if the air in your kitchen is warm, so take care when baking in a warm room to start with butter that is closer to 65°F (18°C), and to chill your bowl and beaters in the refrigerator for 15 minutes before using them.
Creaming together shortening and sugar presents no such difficulties, because shortening maintains an optimum consistency for incorporating air (in addition to already having been aerated with nitrogen during processing) at a wide range of temperatures.
3. Chemical leaveners. Recipes for drop cookies, muffins, and quick breads, the batters and doughs of which are generally dense and heavy, usually call for a powerful chemical leavener: either baking soda or baking powder. When moistened, these leaveners release bubbles of carbon dioxide into the dough or batter. The bubbles expand in the heat of the oven, causing the baked goods to rise.
The leavening power of baking soda is activated only in the presence of acid. So it is used in recipes that contain ingredients such as lemon juice, buttermilk, or non-alkalized cocoa powder, all of which will work with baking soda to produce those bubbles when liquid is added to the mix.
For recipes without acidic ingredients, baking powder is required. Baking powder is a mixture of baking soda, acids, and a little bit of cornstarch to keep the ingredients dry and thus forestall the production of carbon dioxide until needed. It works exactly the same way as baking soda, but on its own instead of in the presence of an additional acidic ingredient.
Baking soda will begin to release carbon dioxide bubbles as soon as it comes in contact with a liquid, and these bubbles will pop, the gas dissipating, in a matter of minutes. So it is important to mix your batter or dough and get it into the oven quickly, before this happens and the baking soda loses its leavening power. With baking powder you have a little more time because of the way it is formulated. It contains two acids (thus the label “double-acting”), one of which begins to produce carbon dioxide immediately, and one of which reacts only in the heat of the oven.
Baking soda is more powerful, proportionately, than baking powder. In general, for every cup of flour in a recipe, you will need ¼ teaspoon of baking soda or 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Once you know these proportions, and the way baking soda and baking powder react with acids and liquids, you can see that there are ways to substitute one for the other.
Say you want to make biscuits with buttermilk instead of milk. If your recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of baking powder and ¾ cupof milk, you can adapt it by using ½ teaspoon baking soda and ¾ cup of buttermilk. Or say you realize that your recipe calls for Dutch-process cocoa, whose acids have been neutralized, and baking powder, but you only have natural cocoa powder, which does contain acids. Replace the baking powder with one quarter of the amount of baking soda for an equivalent result.
4. Yeast. Bread and many sweet breads and pastries such as babka, croissants, and Danish rely on yeast for rising. Yeast is a microorganism that feeds on starches in flour, producing carbon dioxide as a byproduct. The carbon dioxide, which fills air cells in the dough created by kneading, expands in the oven, causing the dough to rise.
While many bakers understand yeast’s function in bread making, they may not realize that yeast can’t raise dough on its own. It works only in the presence of gluten, the protein aggregate that develops into stretchy, elastic strands as wheat flour is mixed and kneaded with water or another liquid.
During mixing and kneading, the proteins in flour organize themselves into a webbed cell structure made of gluten strands. As the dough rests after kneading, the yeast proliferates, and the carbon dioxide it produces as it multiplies fills the gluten cells. That’s why bread dough rises on the countertop as well as
Creaming together shortening and sugar presents no such difficulties, because shortening maintains an optimum consistency for incorporating air (in addition to already having been aerated with nitrogen during processing) at a wide range of temperatures.
3. Chemical leaveners. Recipes for drop cookies, muffins, and quick breads, the batters and doughs of which are generally dense and heavy, usually call for a powerful chemical leavener: either baking soda or baking powder. When moistened, these leaveners release bubbles of carbon dioxide into the dough or batter. The bubbles expand in the heat of the oven, causing the baked goods to rise.
The leavening power of baking soda is activated only in the presence of acid. So it is used in recipes that contain ingredients such as lemon juice, buttermilk, or non-alkalized cocoa powder, all of which will work with baking soda to produce those bubbles when liquid is added to the mix.
For recipes without acidic ingredients, baking powder is required. Baking powder is a mixture of baking soda, acids, and a little bit of cornstarch to keep the ingredients dry and thus forestall the production of carbon dioxide until needed. It works exactly the same way as baking soda, but on its own instead of in the presence of an additional acidic ingredient.
Baking soda will begin to release carbon dioxide bubbles as soon as it comes in contact with a liquid, and these bubbles will pop, the gas dissipating, in a matter of minutes. So it is important to mix your batter or dough and get it into the oven quickly, before this happens and the baking soda loses its leavening power. With baking powder you have a little more time because of the way it is formulated. It contains two acids (thus the label “double-acting”), one of which begins to produce carbon dioxide immediately, and one of which reacts only in the heat of the oven.
Baking soda is more powerful, proportionately, than baking powder. In general, for every cup of flour in a recipe, you will need ¼ teaspoon of baking soda or 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Once you know these proportions, and the way baking soda and baking powder react with acids and liquids, you can see that there are ways to substitute one for the other.
Say you want to make biscuits with buttermilk instead of milk. If your recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of baking powder and ¾ cupof milk, you can adapt it by using ½ teaspoon baking soda and ¾ cup of buttermilk. Or say you realize that your recipe calls for Dutch-process cocoa, whose acids have been neutralized, and baking powder, but you only have natural cocoa powder, which does contain acids. Replace the baking powder with one quarter of the amount of baking soda for an equivalent result.
4. Yeast. Bread and many sweet breads and pastries such as babka, croissants, and Danish rely on yeast for rising. Yeast is a microorganism that feeds on starches in flour, producing carbon dioxide as a byproduct. The carbon dioxide, which fills air cells in the dough created by kneading, expands in the oven, causing the dough to rise.
While many bakers understand yeast’s function in bread making, they may not realize that yeast can’t raise dough on its own. It works only in the presence of gluten, the protein aggregate that develops into stretchy, elastic strands as wheat flour is mixed and kneaded with water or another liquid.
During mixing and kneading, the proteins in flour organize themselves into a webbed cell structure made of gluten strands. As the dough rests after kneading, the yeast proliferates, and the carbon dioxide it produces as it multiplies fills the gluten cells. That’s why bread dough rises on the countertop as well as
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