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Question about cookies, baking soda and baking powder

post #1 of 5
5/12/08 at 12:45pm
Thread Starter 
First time poster. I figured I would start with something that's been bugging me for a while.

I understand the difference between baking soda (alkaline, needs acid to combine and produce CO2) and baking powder (balanced acid/base, produces CO2 when dissolved and heated).

Now take a standard chocolate-chip cookie recipe, like Nestle's Tollhouse:
  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts
  • Plus leavening agent (baking soda and/or baking powder)
I would expect basic chocolate-chip cookies to use baking powder, since for what I can tell, most of the ingredients are pretty neutral (not the chocolate, but it's in chips, so it probably doesn't count).

So why is it that most chocolate-chip cookies call for baking _soda_??? TollHouse, Mrs. Field's, Alton Brown's, etc, etc. Clearly it seems to work, just trying to understand why :-)

Thanks!
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post #2 of 5
5/12/08 at 4:57pm
The baking soda acts as a tenderizer which aids in spread, also aids with carmelization for color.
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post #3 of 5
5/12/08 at 5:18pm

it's what's in the brown sugar

there is acid in the molasses coloring your brown sugar.
that reacts with your soda.

:roll:
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post #4 of 5
5/12/08 at 5:24pm
Baking soda or sodium bicarbonate is a chemical ingredient and it requires something acid in the dough or batter to initiate the leavening process.
Usually when a recipe asks for things like buttermilk, chocolate, cocoa, molasses, most of the time it also asks for baking soda.

I read several times that brown sugar in USA is made adding molasses to regular sugar. Maybe that is the reason of baking soda in your recipe.
In many other countries brown sugar is made out of raw sugar, less processed, unrefined, therefore much healthier than regular sugar.

Anybody out there if I'm wrong, correct me please.

Norma
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post #5 of 5
5/12/08 at 5:27pm
Well, I think that I was right! Right mbrown?
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