Baking Soda In Cookies What Does It Do
Baking soda is a leavening agent that contains acidic ingredients like vinegar, sour cream, or citrus. Baking soda releases carbon dioxide gas when it is added to the cookie dough and thus making it fluffy and soft. Baking soda also slows protein coagulation by raising the mixture’s pH.
You will notice that many recipes for cookies, as well as recipes for other baked goods, call for baking soda, and now that you know some of the basic rules regarding this essential ingredient, you will better understand why that is the case. There are some other substitution options, too, but since baking soda is a chemical compound that needs chemical reactions in order to function correctly in your cookies, it is not as easily replaced as some of the other ingredients in baking.
If you have a recipe that calls for baking soda, and you completely skip it, then chances are that your cookie is going to be extremely dense since there is not any chemical reaction that can bring those bubbles of gas and allow for the rising. Baking soda helps your cookies to rise (the chemical reaction between baking soda and the acid causes small gas bubbles which gives your cookies a bit of a rise), it also leads to flatter, chewier cookies which spread.
| Characteristics of Baking Soda | |
| Helps to rise the Cookie | Because the chemical reaction between baking soda and the acid causes small gas bubbles which gives your cookies a bit of a rise. |
| Also Impact the texture | it also leads to flatter, chewier cookies which spread. |
Baking soda also impacts cookie texture, so cookie recipes almost always call for both bake soda or baking powder — sometimes both. Acids are basically lower pH levels than alkalis, and when baking soda and baking powder work together, it is when the carbon dioxide is released, trying to reach a neutral pH. Baking powder is generally used when the recipe does not include any acidic ingredients, since the powder already includes the acids needed to create the carbon dioxide.
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Baking soda, meanwhile, already contains the sodium bicarbonate and the acid needed to be activated–all it needs is liquid in order to create carbon dioxide. It comes with its own acids already mixed in, so it is already neutralized, and does not require any other agents or tastes, it just needs to be added and cooked, and it rises. If you do not have baking soda and your recipe calls for it, you can make your own by mixing one part baking soda with two parts cream of tartar, which is the acid that will work with baking soda to produce a leavening effect. Baking powder is also made from bicarbonate of soda, but with the acid powder–usually cream of tartar–mixed directly into it.
The flavor of your cookies will be affected by using baking powder rather than pure baking soda because it contains a variety of ingredients (bicarbonate, cream of tartar, cornstarch, and more). For instance, my recipe for Gingersnap calls for just the baking soda, without any baking powder, which is an ideal example of just how much baking soda impacts the cookies, even in moderate amounts. This will be the easiest way to ensure you can still bake a great cookie without using baking soda, since those recipes are already designed for success without it.
Of course, in order to achieve these results, you will need to be sure that you are adding just the right amount of baking soda or powder called for in the recipe — nothing more, nothing less. You will probably need about 3 times more powder than you do soda to get the same rise capability. If your cookies look overly dense and cakey, or frustratingly pale, add one-eighth teaspoon of baking soda per three ounces (85 grams, or two-thirds of a cup) of flour to push things back in the right direction.
If you were to leave out baking soda while mixing ingredients for a cookie recipe, or leave out acid to go with baking soda, you not only would the cookies fail to puff up, you would experience cookies that were soapy and metal-tasting. Especially with a dough that is not solid, the baking soda immediately reacts with acids such as chocolate, brown sugar, or buttermilk, so you will want to bake these ASAP in order to fully utilize the CO2 produced. When used in baking, baking soda acts like a chemical leavener, producing carbon dioxide when it reacts with an acid like vinegar, creating the bubbles that help a pie or cookie rise to a tender, moist, fluffy perfection.
When activated, carbon dioxide is produced, which allows baked goods to rise to become light and fluffy (1). Reactions produce microscopic bubbles of gas, or carbon dioxide, that cause the batter or dough to rise and expand. Once cookies begin baking, the carbon dioxide begins filtering through the dough, gently expanding any air cells trapped within, and keeping the dough up.
When baking soda, also called sodium bicarbonate, is combined with an acid like buttermilk or lemon juice and liquid, baking soda produces the carbon dioxide gas that helps dough or batter rise. When sodium bicarbonate comes in contact with both the liquid and acid–think buttermilk, yogurt, molasses, coffee, citrus juice, or vinegar–sodium bicarbonate produces the gas carbon dioxide, and these bubbles create the rise you are looking for. When a recipe calls for baking soda (BASE), it is typically calling for some kind of acid, such as buttermilk, brown sugar, yogurt, lemon juice, vinegar, cream of tartar, molasses, apple sauce, naturally-based cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed), or honey. Cookie dough, on the other hand, typically gets its acidity from the dry ingredients, such as brown sugar or natural cocoa powder.
Most leavening agents that are used frequently are best used in recipes that have a lot of sugar in them and have a dense texture. These are two common leavening agents in baking, which will affect the flavor and quality of a recipe.
Even especially coarse or porous ingredients, such as whole-wheat flour or cracked oats, can sneak quite a bit of air into a mixture, so it is unnecessary to cast a shadow on recipes that do not include some apparent air-lifting steps that will help baking soda elevate a dough. For one thing, cookie dough is dryer than many other baking mixes, particularly after hours of resting (rest causes water to absorb), which both slows down the baking soda reaction, but more importantly, slows the air out.
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While many combinations of alkaline and acidic powders start to produce carbon dioxide reactions as soon as they are moist, todays baking powders are designed to partially delay that reaction until it is exposed to heat in your oven. Most of us have grasped the role that sodium bicarbonate plays in quick-breads that are leavened with chemicals thanks to grade-school experiments that involved volcanoes made out of paper-mache–something about baking soda combined with vinegar makes things explode.
What happens if you bake cookies without baking soda?
Cookies can be made without baking soda or powder, but the finished product will be dense. This is because the chemical reaction that ordinarily occurs when baking soda or powder is present in cookie batter does not produce carbon dioxide.
What makes cookies fluffy?
Introducing too much air into the batter when whipping it. By whipping a lot of air into the room temperature margarine and sugar, you may get the fluffy surface that is necessary for cakes and sweets. Therefore, be careful not to overdo it while you’re combining the spread and sugar.
What makes cookies crunchy instead of soft?
It delivers light, crispy snacks by using lower-dampness sugar granulated and fat-free vegetable shortening, as well as a longer, slower preparation than usual. All things considered, using all margarine or a combination of spread and vegetable shortening as in the previous recipe will result in a cookie that is sufficiently crispy.