Baking Powder Recipes
What Is Baking Powder?
In short, baking powder is a chemical leavening agent that helps baked goods rise in the oven. Baking powder is made with three ingredients: an acid, a base, and a filler ingredient.
Baking powder comes in two varieties, single acting and double acting. This recipe for DIY baking powder makes a single acting baking powder. I’ll explain what that means in a little bit.
What Does Baking Powder Do?
Baking powder is what makes your cakes, cookies, and quick breads light and fluffy rather than dense and chewy.
When baking powder comes into contact with a liquid — such as melted butter, eggs, or milk — it causes an acid-base reaction. This reaction creates carbon dioxide and causes batters and dough to rise.
Single Acting vs Double Acting Baking Powder
As I mentioned above, baking powder can be either single acting or double acting. Here’s the difference between the two:
Single acting baking powder: Only reacts once, when it’s stirred into a dough or batter and comes into contact with a liquid. This type of baking powder is best suited to muffin, quick bread, cake, and cupcake recipes (i.e. anything that will be baked immediately and won’t have to sit out).
Double acting baking powder: Reacts twice, first when it’s stirred into a dough or batter and again when it’s exposed to heat. Double acting baking powder is ideal for batters and doughs that won’t be cooked right away, such as cookie dough, pancakes, and waffles.
