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WHEN you’re baking, getting a single ingredient wrong can ruin an entire recipe.
And it’s easy to mess things up when dealing with baking soda, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Are they the same or different?
What is bicarbonate of soda?
Bicarbonate of soda is the most necessary out of the baking substance family.
The vital white powder is also known as sodium bicarbonate and is a mixture of sodium and hydrogen carbonate.
Bicarbonate of soda is also known as sodium bicarbonate and is commonly used for baking cakes or soda bread[/caption]
How to use it?
Its main use is for baking and it’s alkaline with a bitter taste.
It helps baked goods rise and is most commonly used for preparing cakes or soda bread.
When it is mixed with an acidic ingredient such as brown sugar and a liquid such as milk, it creates carbon dioxide.
This causes the mixture to expand before it’s replaced with air, resulting in light and fluffy baked goods.
But it’s also a super-effective but gentle abrasive and a great natural deodoriser.
It is one of the most effective great natural cleaners.
It can be used to clean dirty mattresses and polish tarnished jewellery, and it even works to get the kitchen sink sparkling.
What is baking powder?
Baking powder is made up of numerous elements – one of these is sodium bicarbonate, above.
Unlike sodium bicarbonate which requires an acid and a liquid to become activated, baking powder only needs a liquid.
That’s because baking powder already includes acid, usually in the form of cream of tartar.
Because it incorporates both acid and bicarbonate of soda, baking powder won’t leaven your recipe quite as much as pure bicarbonate of soda would.
That’s why some recipes call for both baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.
How to use it?
As the name suggests, baking powder is used in the kitchen for various recipes.
It’s used to increase the volume and lighten the texture of baked goods, and is made up of cream of tartar plus a filler like cornflour or rice flour which absorbs moisture.
Because baking powder already has an acid with it, it’s pretty much a pre-packaged version of sodium bicarbonate – so generally you need only add water to it for the same reaction.
While it is used for similar foods as sodium bicarbonate, some people have other uses for it too.
Beauty fans can use it to make their own dry shampoo, as well as using it to fake a sun-kissed look with a nose contour.
Baking soda is just another name for sodium bicarbonate[/caption]
What is baking soda?
To further complicate things, baking soda is just another name for sodium bicarbonate.
Some might assume that baking soda is more similar to baking powder than sodium bicarbonate.
This is not the case.
If your recipe calls for both baking soda and baking powder, you must use both ingredients or risk the wrong amount of leavening.
And no one likes a deflated cake.
How to use it?
Just like sodium bicarbonate, baking soda is a common rising agent used in a lot of food – particularly baked goods.
But it has many uses around the rest of the home too.
Although it might sound strange at first, it also proves effective in whitening stained teeth and freshening your breath.
After all, many toothpaste products do list baking soda as a main ingredient.
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