Compared to cooking, most people believe that baking is a lot more difficult. If you want to be a good baker, it is important to be keen on the details especially the measurements and the most important one is the ratio of the ingredients.
By changing the ratio, you can come up with a consistency of the bread that is far from what you were aiming for.
The most question in baking especially for the beginners is “how much baking powder per cup of flour should be used?”
The most fundamental ingredients are flour, sugar, baking powder, soda or yeast. The flour is the building block of any cake, sweets, cookies or bread.
Sugar adds the flavor and sweetness to the baked goods. Baking powder, soda, and yeast are leaveners.
How Much Baking Powder Per Cup of Flour?
1. Why Do We Need Baking Powder?
The type of leavening agent that you will use depends on the kind of bread or baked goods you want to create.
It is important to take note the difference between baking soda and baking powder. Most new bakers tend to mix and interchange these two ingredients.
Baking soda known as sodium bicarbonate is what gives the rise to our cakes, cookies, and biscuits.
When baking soda is heated, it produces sodium carbonate that gives a metallic taste. Acid is usually added to neutralize the effect of sodium carbonate.
On the other hand, baking powder is made up of baking soda, cornstarch, and powdered acid to prevent the effect of sodium carbonate.
Baking powder is usually the better choice of leavening agent because you do away with adding acid.
Aside from the potential metallic taste, baking soda and baking powder can also be distinguished by the speed of the leavener. Baking soda usually begins to produce carbon dioxide gas when moistened.
Alternatively, baking powder produces a set of gas twice: first, when mixed with wet ingredients and second, when it is heated.
2. Getting Your Ratios Correct
When baking, the ratio should always be exact. In general, for every cup of flour, you will need about 1 to 1-1/4 teaspoon of baking powder.
Moreover, baking soda is four times stronger than baking powder. If using baking soda, ¼ teaspoon per cup of flour is enough.
Adding too much baking powder especially in cake recipes can result in bitterness. It will also lead to too much rise in the cake which will quickly collapse because of too much air bubbles. Furthermore, it can be coarse crumb after baking.
When baking cookies, the amount of baking powder needed depends on how long you will bake the cookies and your preferred consistency.
If you do not add any baking powder, the dough will still puff with steam. However, if you remove the heat before the cookies set, it will result in a soft dough that will collapse.
The purpose of the baking powder is to add carbon dioxide and pressure that helps the dough to spread out.
Without the elasticity of gluten, the strands of gluten present will snap sooner and result in cracks along the surface. Adding more baking powder will push the dough further and deepen the cracks present.
3. Use a Light Hand When Using Baking Powder
Adding different amounts of baking powder show how it can affect the cookie. The rise of the cookies will only extend up to a certain point.
After which, there will be a strong reaction that will result in the rupture and collapse of the cookie.
In essence, it is not the baking powder that makes a cookie cakey. It still depends on the gluten whether or not it can withstand the air expansion in the dough.
When using baking powder for baking, remember to store it in a cool and dry place. The typical shelf life of a baking powder is around six months.
If the acid in the baking powder reacts, it will be evident through visible clumping and caking.
It is not always the baking powder’s fault if your baked goods become flat. Other ingredients such as butter can sometimes cause your cookies or cakes to fall flat.
Creaming butter can help in incorporating tiny pocket of air to make your cookies puffed up.
In general, the ratio of the baking powder and flour is one of the key factors in making the perfect bread, cake or cookies.
Knowing how much baking powder per cup of flour is important when making big batches of baked goodies. However, there are other technical aspects of baking that can affect the finished product such as mixing, the length of time in the oven and quality of other ingredients.
Baking a perfect cookie or cake does not happen with one try. To get better in baking, you need to experiment with different methods and keep on practicing until you get the ratios right.
In the end, do not stress yourself too much with the technicalities and enjoy the whole process of creating amazing treats with baking.
If you have tips on how much flour to add, please feel free to write in the comments section below.
