Home-made Baking Powder
Ingredients
Directions
Make the baking powder
Sift the cream of tartar, baking soda, and cornstarch together 6 times.
Store and use
Store the mixture in a dry place.
Use 2 teaspoons of this baking powder for every quart of flour.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Cream of tartar
- Provides the acid that reacts with baking soda to release carbon dioxide for rising.
- Baking soda
- Supplies the base that reacts with the acid to produce gas, lifting the batter.
- Cornstarch
- Absorbs moisture and keeps the powder dry, so it stays stable and does not react early.
The step that matters
Sifting the mixture together thoroughly. Cream of tartar and baking soda must be evenly distributed. Uneven mixing leaves pockets of base or acid, so some batter rises unevenly or tastes bitter or soapy.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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