Baking powder - what is it and what is it for? Probably, if this question interested you, then you are either a beginner cook and want to bake the first pie in your life, or just a person who is not indifferent to your health and saw this name on the package in the list of ingredients. In any case, let's examine in detail the composition of a substance such as baking powder. What is it, where is it used, does it harm when eaten? Many will be interested in such information.
Baking powder - what is it?
This is the name of the artificial baking powder, used mainly to give volume and splendor to the dough. It is invariably added in the industrial production of bread (unless, of course, yeast is used - unicellular organisms that develop in a liquid and semi-liquid medium).
Baking powder invention history: confectionery and baking powder
What kind of substance is this and how much it is needed in the production of bakery products, we have already understood. Now let's trace the history of its occurrence. After all, if yeast bread was already known in the Middle Ages, then baking powder, the composition of which we will consider below, appeared only in 1843. He was invented by the British Bird. At the beginning of the twentieth century, German August Osker received a commercial patent and founded a company for the production of baking powder, which still exists today. In Europe and America, this substance gained immense popularity almost immediately after the invention and began to be used in the manufacture of confectionery products in industry, as well as by housewives in baking homemade pies.
The composition of the baking powder
It can significantly reduce the cooking time of sweet pastries due to the presence of acids and salts in the composition. Also, when you buy a bag of baking powder, you will find in it an additional ingredient - filler, which prevents the interaction between the components before they are added to the dough. After they get there, a chemical reaction will occur (the filler will cease to act), carbon dioxide will be released. It is he who will become the substance that is able to raise the dough and allow it to bake and dry evenly. What can replace baking powder? You have probably heard repeatedly that baking soda. But you need to consider that this product has a specific flavor, which, unfortunately, remains in the finished product. To prevent this, you need to add a large amount of aromatic substances to the dough - vanillin, zest, liquor, cinnamon, cardamom. To recreate a classic baking powder recipe at home, mix one each soda, citric acid, rice flour, starch, and powdered sugar. Such a mixture can be stored for a long time. And the listed ingredients partially neutralize the negative properties of soda, while maintaining its ability to loosen and raise baking dough. Fans of traditional medicine have an opinion about the dangers of various kinds of additives, such as yeast and soda. However, it should be recognized for the most part as speculation.