I thought that it was important to bake something pretty quickly if it had baking powder or soda in it (because the moisture activates the leavening) However, the NY TImes has an article on best chocolate chip cookies that says to refrigerate the dough for 36 hours. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/091crex.html?_r=1&ref=dining&oref=slogin

thanks Giovanna, for this lovely piece on baking powder. i have recently been baking solely with baking soda, not knowing the chemistry behind the interaction (though i often include buttermilk and cultured butter, so i suppose i’m getting my acid without realizing). now i’ll know to include cream of tartar if i don’t have an acidic component!

i also have noted a heightened taste sensitivity once i stopped eating much white sugar and processed foods; i wonder if some of your tasters who didn’t notice the difference simply have a larger proportion of chemicals already in their diet, and they’re inured to the taste?

and like donaleen i wonder about the chocolate chip cookie recipe. i really have to try that recipe...

Ladies: Please peruse the comments chat held by me and Matthew Amster-Burton on the chocolate-chip-cookie thing.

Very interesting! Here in Maine, we use Bakewell Cream, which is aluminum-free and is used in a 2 to 1 ratio with baking soda (for instance 2/3 tsp. Bakewell Cream to 1/3 tsp. baking soda). But next time I buy double-acting baking powder, I’ll look for Rumford.

Up in Canada a favourite brand is Magic Baking Powder. It is an all-phosphate baking powder (containing calcium acid phosphate - no aluminum). My big question is why recipes call for both baking powder and baking soda, if baking powder already has baking soda in it?!?

Thanks Cafemama--interesting thought about taste sensitivity. I wish I’d had more immediate family members tasting to test this--I suppose it might be part of the question. Though I must admit I eat plenty of white sugar! It did seem that cake flour (which has its own chemical taste) obscured the metallic taste to more people than all-purpose flour did.

And to Petrovame and Ruth, it’s interesting how many regional products there are. Is Bakewell is a SAS (single-acting)baking powder? Magic Baking Powder--according to the web--appears to be an all-phosphate baking powder containing calcium acid phosphate--just like Rumford.

As for the question about recipes calling for both baking soda and baking powder, this seems to occur in recipes with an acid ingredient. My understanding is that the baking soda would give an extra boost as well as neutralize the acid flavor. Rose Levy Beranbaum discusses this in ‘The Cake Bible’. She prefers not neutralizing the buttermilk flavor, finding the cake’s flavor fuller and texture finer when she uses baking powder by itself. Beranbaum is careful to use only as much leavening as necessary in her recipes—to the point that she has worked out that 1/2 cup buttermilk + 1/4 tsp. baking soda = 1-1/8 tsp baking powder—not the 1 tsp the USDA suggests.

Clearly, a lot of cake baking is called for to experiment with this!

Whenever I am given a choice between a good recipe and the science behind it, I am sure to choose the science. That is because I like to go it alone and find recipes somewhat tiresome in there tendency to promote fashion over solid cooking foundations. So thank you Giovanna for giving me something worthy of the recipe files. This one will show up over and over again in the recipes of my imagination. Keep them coming!

I stumbled onto this site due to the mentioning of Clabber Girl Baking Powder. It may interest Giovanna to learn that I programmed the machinery that fills the Baking Powder Canisters for Clabber Girl. Small World.
David R. Zivny

I really liked this post. I too notice a taste in baked goods with aluminum baking powder. I am going to switch to non aluminum baking powder and see if I can detect a difference.

When I’ve made a mistake in measuring. Is there a way to neutralize the taste of too much baking powder? Help!

To anonymous: too much leavening will cause the bubbles in the batter to rise to the top while baking and they’ll pop instead of staying inside the muffine or cake and retaining the bubbles to create the crumb. For two cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder should do it as I read on another article on this website. They may sink in the middle, and the texture might be a bit off, but I’m sure they would still be delicious! Depends on what you are trying to bake I guess.

Thanks for the notes on the baking powder.
I’ve noticed that with biscuits, or pancakes, if I put in a touch too much aluminum baking powder, they have a repulsive taste.... I’m surprised that not everyone notices this. Since I don’t measure everything, the non-aluminum powders are much easier to use for this very reason.

Plus, there is an association between Alzheimer’s disease and Aluminum. No causality has been demonstrated yet, but it just seems prudent to minimize the exposure.

Giovanni
Very good article. I can taste the aluminum. I just associated that with baking powder/soda. I didn’t know It was actually in there.
One important thing to note is that there are three kinds of taster’s. Super tasters, average, and non-taster’s(doesn’t mean they can’t taste anything). We used this a lot in the coffee world for tastings. They actually have tests you can take for this(fun).
So my question is, why would a recipe for sourdough pancakes call for starter and baking soda?

Hey Jeff,

My experience is that making sourdough pancakes without the soda leaves them flat. They have that great taste and may have a more traditional texture, but the soda seems to give them the loft I’m after. But that’s the unscientific read on it.

Hi there--my understanding is that a sourdough starter is generally used together with additional yeast in bread.

From Wikipedia: ‘The other manner of using sourdough starter is common for making quick breads or foods like pancakes. It involves using baking soda (and sometimes baking powder) to neutralize some or all of the acid in the starter, with the acid-base reaction generating carbon dioxide to provide lift to the dough or batter in a manner very similar to Irish soda bread. This technique is particularly common in kitchens where the starter is intentionally kept off-balance, with a substantially high acid level, and is particularly associated with areas such as Alaska.’

I can no longer use Rumfort baking powder as one of it’s ingredients is mono calcium phosphate. My husband is on a renal diet in which all phosphates are taboo. I just wish Rumfort would replace mono-calcium phosphate with cream of tarter. Renal deficiency is on the rise in the U.S. Most Doctors will not tell you your kidneys are in stage two or stage 3 unless you are passing blood and protein in your urine. And renal function declines with age. How many people are even aware of this?

I bake eggless cake and cookies. I always get the ‘bad’ taste, which I thought was due to the soda or baking powder. And I thought I would always get that in home baked eggless goods. Thanks to your post, I realized it is due to the aluminum in the baking powder. I am eager to change the baking powder and see the difference!

The local health food store was out of Rumford, and I picked up some Calumet at the grocery instead. My scone recipe uses one tablespoon of baking powder, and was absolutely ruined by the metallic taste of the Calumet - inedible. Looking forward to trying the cream of tartar/baking soda substitution. Thanks!