What kind of baking powder and baking soda do you use? Do you use as much as the recipe calls for, or do you

Question

...skimp?

The reason I am asking is that I don't like the taste of either one
and when there is too much in a recipe, I can't take it. For a cake I skimp a little and
beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately with some of the sugar like Austrian cooks.

Do you have any suggestions?
I think I have missed the technique of adding the soda to milk to let it froth up a little to get rid of the chemical taste. I have an idea that in the old days that is what they did.

If an old recipe calls for soda water, it is not referring to club soda, but to a little water from the faucet mixed with the soda measure?

I am confused about it because I keep thinking that soda is to be added with the other dry ingredients, but in an old date-nut recipe it says to put the soda with dates and warm water. It does not ruin the action of the soda. But baking powder is different, is that the reason there is double-acting baking powder? It can't be "delayed" like soda?

Ta!

Answer 1

Baking powder, in the UK at least, is a mixture of bicarbonate of soda (which I assume is the same as baking soda) and cream of tartar. My understanding is that as soon as it's in the mixture the raising action is started, and will only last for so long.

You've already said you often use less baking powder than the recipe states - I'd suggest seeing how far you can push this, as very often recipes aren't particularly tested with regard to how little raising agent you can get away with using... if the recipe seems to work however it was first conceived they won't generally think to explore this angle, and you may find that a little goes a long way.

There are branches of baking you could experiment with that don't use chemical raising agents. You've already mentioned making a whisked sponge - which works particularly well for things like swiss rolls. Consider also:

Some richer cakes - particularly rich fruit cakes - don't use any raising agents at all. They are obviously not light and airy cakes, but that doesn't mean they can't be really nice, and if you perceive an unpleasant taste in cakes with chemcal raising agents then these kinds of recipes may be worth looking out.

Then, there's baking with yeast. Personally, I sometimes find the taste of yeast intrusive, but there are recipes for cakes and cakeish things that use a yeast dough rather than a chemically leavened mixture. Examples would be things like kuchen, danish pastries, chelsea buns, certain older gingerbread recipes, and so on. Obviously, it's a very different branch of baking, and you can't just add yeast in place of baking powder; it means using quite different techniques. But it may be worth checking out.

Finally, there are of course lots of sweet things you can bake without needing baking powder at all... meringues, maccaroons, pies, biscuits... maybe play around with these kinds of things instead.

Hope this helps - enjoy your baking!

Answer 2

Wow! You can actually taste the baking soda/powder in your recipes?!? How much are they calling for? the only time this was ever an issue was when my mother mistook teaspoons for tablespoons in a cake--pht-t-t--that was nasty :D. Anyway, I was taught to measure a "slightly rounded" teaspoon (as opposed to a flattened measure) and that it was important that the soda or powder be fresh & kept in a dry place, and unless specified, either is sifted in with the other dry ingredients., (I'm usually to hurried/lazy to sift, or go through a whole lot of other jumping through hoops these days --I figure it's enough that I threw the stuff together & made a home made dish!. tee-hee

Answer 3

baking powder is a rising agent for cakes and buns
baking soda is a rising agent for baking bread eg soda bread and cream of tartar. hope this helps ..... the every day rising agent is baking power or bicarbonate of soda same thing in old recipes this used to trouble me.

Answer 4

I'm not sure what you are saying. I use baking powder all the time and can never taste it in the cakes.
Never used soda though.

Answer 5

I think the recipe is to be added to the meal a quantity that is right for it. in other not to be too access the recipe should be of average quantity.

Answer 6

use double what the recipe says