[R&D Diet Cookie]

Can anyone suggest ingredients I can add to my cookie dough that will lower the pH? I currently add 2TB of vinegar to 6 lbs of dough and the pH runs a little over 7. I need it to be below 6.5. The same dough has 3 tsp baking soda and 3 tsp baking powder if that counts.

[BuddingCook]

To lower pH add acids: cream of tartar, fruit juice, cultured dairy products, vinegar etc.

[phatch]

Why do you need a lower pH?

Phil

[eeediot]

I think Lime is one of the most acidic fruits you can come by easily. Not sure if you want the flavor though. Oh wait - u can just use sour salt which is basically just citric acid and it's got no flavor.

[BuddingCook]

Yeah, you don't want to dump a bunch of fruit juice into your dough, lol. But little bits should lower the pH to below 6...

[R&D Diet Cookie]

I need to add potassium sorbate as a mold inhibitor and it is not effective above pH of 6.5
Thanks for all the ideas!

[Luc_H]

There is a commercial/industrial ingredient that has been developped to solve that problem i.e. lowering acidity without adding too much flavour (like lime juice and vinegar): It is called Gluco Delta Lactone of GDL.
see here; Glucono delta-lactone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Personally I would go with lactic acid which is the predominant acid in sour dough bread. Tastewise it is closely related to bread then the other acids mentionned.

hope this helps^
Luc H.

[ED BUCHANAN]

Originally Posted by R&D Diet Cookie

Can anyone suggest ingredients I can add to my cookie dough that will lower the pH? I currently add 2TB of vinegar to 6 lbs of dough and the pH runs a little over 7. I need it to be below 6.5. The same dough has 3 tsp baking soda and 3 tsp baking powder if that counts.

I don't know what they put in your water supply and what is its PH out of the spout, every municipality is different,. but you can lower it more by adding cream of tartar. So I would conclude you may want to try a little of it in the batters and doughs. I would start with 1/2 teaspoon.