Merdeka.com – For those of you who often make cakes, of course, you are familiar with the term baking powder, which is a developer material used to increase the volume and lighten the texture of baked food. For example, such as muffins, cakes, scones and biscuits.
Baking powder works by releasing carbon dioxide gas into the mixture through an acid-base reaction. This reaction causes bubbles in the dough which is still wet, and when it is heated the dough will expand. When the dough is cooked, the bubbles are trapped, causing the cake to rise and be light.
Baking powder is often used as a substitute for yeast, when the fermented taste is undesirable in the food it lacks elastic properties to hold gas bubbles for more than a few minutes. There are many baking powders with various brands on the market, but most of these baking powders are made from alkaline elements.
Typically, baking soda, also known as sodium bicarbonate, has one or more acid salts, and the inert pat is generally corn starch or potato starch. There are many benefits of baking powder that you can get, here is complete information about the benefits of baking powder from type to use has been summarized by merdeka.com through repository.uma.ac.id and fimela.com:
Benefits and Uses of Baking Powder
Based on its physical properties, baking powder is very useful and is used for household life. Baking powder can neutralize odors chemically, so it is used as an ingredient in soap and deodorant production.
Apart from that, baking powder is also used as an ingredient effervescent which is good in antacids and denture cleaning products. Sodium bicarbonate is also found in several anti-plaque mouth-washing products and toothpastes. Baking powder is also used as yeast in making baked goods such as bread or pancakes.
In addition to household use, baking powder is also useful in the industrial world such as extinguishing fires so that it can be used for fire extinguishers because when heated, baking powder releases carbon dioxide.
Another benefit can also be used to reduce air pollution because baking powder can absorb emissions of sulfur dioxide and other acid gases.
Types of Baking Powder
Many people can’t tell the difference between baking soda and baking powder. When viewed from the taste, baking powder tends to have a neutral taste when compared to baking soda which tends to be bitter and is not balanced with baking ingredients or food ingredients that contain acids.
In general, baking powder can be divided into two, namely single acting and double acting. If you are using single acting baking powder, then you must immediately bake or steam the dough after all the ingredients are mixed. Because the single-acting one is activated by liquid and will immediately react to form gas when it meets the dough.
Meanwhile, double-acting baking powder is activated twice, namely during the mixing process of the dough and when it is baked. In other words, this type of baking powder can last for a while while waiting for it to bake or steam.
For that, if we plan to make cakes or cakes in large quantities, it is advisable to use this double acting baking powder. So that the cake can keep expanding even though you have to “queue” first when it is going to be steamed or baked.
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Illustration of baking powder. © Pexels