Baking soda and baking powder?!


Question: My daughters home ec teacher told her that these things are the same.
I dissagree.
Can someone explain the difference, and effectiveness of each.
Thanks


Answers: My daughters home ec teacher told her that these things are the same.
I dissagree.
Can someone explain the difference, and effectiveness of each.
Thanks

The two who posted before me are absolutely correct-
Your daughter's teacher is most certainly not, and I would wonder why she's teaching that particular class, if she really doesn't know/understand the difference.
If other ingredients are added, (I.e., cream of tartar, etc.,) baking soda can be used to replace baking powder, but you should never use baking powder in place of baking soda.
It's understandable that not everyone knows this, but those teaching young people how to cook have no buisness doing so if they can't cook themselves..

Both baking soda and baking powder are leavening agents, which means they are added to baked goods before cooking to produce carbon dioxide and cause them to 'rise'. Baking powder contains baking soda, but the two substances are used under different conditions.
Baking Soda

Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate. When baking soda is combined with moisture and an acidic ingredient (e.g., yogurt, chocolate, buttermilk, honey), the resulting chemical reaction produces bubbles of carbon dioxide that expand under oven temperatures, causing baked goods to rise. The reaction begins immediately upon mixing the ingredients, so you need to bake recipes which call for baking soda immediately, or else they will fall flat!

Baking Powder

Baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate, but it includes the acidifying agent already (cream of tartar), and also a drying agent (usually starch). Baking powder is available as single-acting baking powder and as double-acting baking powder. Single-acting powders are activated by moisture, so you must bake recipes which include this product immediately after mixing. Double-acting powders react in two phases and can stand for a while before baking. With double-acting powder, some gas is released at room temperature when the powder is added to dough, but the majority of the gas is released after the temperature of the dough increases in the oven

They are not quite the same:

Baking soda and baking powder are both chemical leaveners used to make baked goods such as cakes and muffins. Baking soda has some other culinary uses, not discussed here. In recipes calling for baking powder, baking soda can be used, along with some cornstarch and cream of tartar. Baking powder cannot, however, be used to replace baking soda.

The chemical in baking soda is bicarbonate of soda (NaHCO3). When combined with an acidic ingredient, such as vinegar or the lactic acid in buttermilk, baking soda releases carbon dioxide which forms into bubbles in the food. When heated, these bubbles then expand and help to rise or lighten the final product.

Baking powder is a mixture of baking soda and an acid, in powdered form, that combine in liquid to create the same reaction. There are three general types of baking powder -- fast-acting, slow-acting and double-acting; the most commonly available being double-acting.

For more discussion on the subject, go to the site listed below.

There's definitly a difference!! You put baking "soda" in cookies to make them spread out. You put baking "powder" in bisquits to make them rise! It sounds like home ec teacher needs to go to "cooking" school!





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