Baking powder

Levure chimique

What it is

Alfred Bird mixed the first baking powder in Birmingham in 1843 because his wife could tolerate neither yeast nor egg and he wanted to give her bread. Modern double-acting powders carry a second, slower acid that waits for oven heat, which is why a batter can stand a few minutes and still rise.

In the kitchen

It dies on the shelf: a teaspoon in hot water should foam violently within seconds, and if it merely fizzes, replace it. Dose about a teaspoon per 120 g of flour - overshoot and the crumb tastes soapy and bitter, rises fast, then falls.

Goes with

T45 flour Butter Egg White sugar Buttermilk Yogurt Cream Vanilla

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