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I know all muffins, cookies and cupcakes have to be huge to be picked and bought.
You go into a supermarket or bakery and see these big monsters on the shelf. No doubt, they look inviting, something to sink your teeth into. But once you do, a tinging sensation is caught at the back of your throat. Yes it is the baking powder and/or baking soda used. The two are practically the same and both are used to make the batter rise while baking. But, unlike yeast that is natural these are chemical leaving agents that have a strong aftertaste and presence in the food. Well truth be told, most of us have grown up on excessive use of baking powder and hardly notice the aftertaste, but once you stop using them you start tasting the real taste of the baked muffin, cookie or cupcake and going back….. well gets a lot harder.
I stopped using baking powder a couple of years ago after my biochemist husband gave me a long and educational lecture on why it is NOT healthy. His reasons were convincing and although I can not even try to educate you on the chemical implications of eating a lot of it…. believe my, it was convincing.
I thought that leaving out the baking powder would have horrible effects on my baking but it hasn’t. If anything the positive impact of not using it is a lot greater.
Yes, I can not use one batch of dough and produce 150% baked goods and most of the time I don’t get huge anything, but that is the point. Leave it smaller, tastier and fresher. I don’t like cookies that fill you up like dinner. Smaller cookies you can dip in your coffee are yummier.
At times I find that adding A BIT of baking powder turns something lighter. For example in a carrot cake I might add half a tea spoon or 3/4 one (although I usually don’t), but as a rule, I never use as much as is called for. At most, I’ll use less than half the amount. Most of the time though, where I see baking powder in a recipe, I skip the line and get the most delicious results.
Try it. You will be amazed how you get used to the real taste and then when you walk by the muffins while to shop (hungry….), after the first bite you will taste the artificial aftertaste and decide it is just not worth it.
If it’s not yeast….. it should not rise.
By the way, most recipes with eggs in it- just mix the eggs really well in a kitchen aid with the sugar at the beginning of the recipe and it will rise amazingly while baking….
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1 Kim Higdon Hmmm… Food for thought. I’m wanting to get back into baking. I used to bake my own bread, cookies, etc. However, I was always a stickler for following the recipe. Now, if you can tell me how to get my cakes light, you’d be my savior. That is one thing I cannot make well from scratch.
2 balicravings Kim,
I believe recipes are a food for thought and should always be adjusted to what you like and don’t like. I don’t think I’ve ever made a recipe exactly as written. Now explain what you mean with making your cakes light- airy or less calories? let me know or even send a recipe and I will make it work for you… with pleasure
3 Yael Daphna Saar (@yaelsaar) This is very useful to me, thanks so much!
4 Stephen rueth I’ve recently become aware of a lasting bitter taste in bread made in supermarket bakeries and suspect that this is due to over use of baking powder and recently this has started to cause me stomach upsets as well as spoiling the enjoyment of the sandwich. At this rate I will go back to good old sliced white bread which is supposed to be not that good for you. Looks like I will have to find a good local baker who doesn’t use this baking powder excessively, but there are not that many bakers to choose from around here. I won’t be buying supermarket bakery bread anymore. Does anyone else find that this baking powder problem is becoming worse? Cost saving measure no doubt.
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