Baking is a delightful and precise culinary art that involves a perfect balance of ingredients to create mouthwatering treats. Three essential ingredients that play a crucial role in various baked goods are baking powder, yeast, and baking soda. Understanding how to use these ingredients correctly is key to achieving the desired results in your plant-based cooking endeavours. Some plant-based meats and some baking items require us to use baking ingredients in the recipes.
Baking powder
Baking powder is a leavening agent that adds lightness and fluffiness to baked goods. It is a combination of an acid, like cream of tartar, and an alkaline substance, which is usually found in baking soda, along with a starch to keep them from reacting prematurely. When combined with liquid and exposed to heat, baking powder produces carbon dioxide gas, causing the dough or batter to rise.
Since baking powder is usually comprised of a mixture of ingredients, it can either be single-acting or double-acting. It means that it can leaven the item at different points of time during the baking process. Initial leavening occurs once the baking powder encounters liquid. The second leavening point starts when the baked item is put into an oven.
It is commonly used for the baked food that do not have acid and do not require to prep ahead of time.
Yeast
Yeast is a living microorganism that ferments sugars in the dough, producing carbon dioxide and alcohol. This process causes the dough to rise and results in light, airy bread and other yeast-based treats. Sugar is the key substance to trigger the leavening process if yeast is used as a baking ingredient.
Baking soda
Baking soda is often used to leaven some items, such as muffins, scones and even some fried foods, quickly.
Baking soda is an alkaline compound that, when combined with acid and moisture, produces carbon dioxide gas. This reaction is immediate, making baking soda an excellent leavening agent for quick breads and cookies. The key substance to trigger the leavening process is acid. Hence, the recipe should involve any acidic ingredient, such as lemon juice, milk and yogurt.
Understanding how baking powder, yeast, and baking soda work can make us cook a variety of plant-based foods, such as homemade seitan and sweet brown rice cake. Plant-based cooking science opens up a world of veggie food possibilities.
