Baking powder simply adds carbon dioxide to the equation, providing a more forceful pressure that encourages a dough to spread up and out. Without the well-developed elasticity of a bread dough, the strands of gluten in cookies would sooner snap than stretch, cracking along the surface.
While baking soda will create a coarse, chewy cookie texture, baking powder will produce a light, fine cookie texture. To achieve the best cookie results, use a double-acting baking powder as a substitute.
“Baking soda begins reacting in dough right away upon mixing, whereas double-acting baking powder gives you an additional hit — first when the ingredients are mixed together, and second as it hits the oven.
Since baking powder is comprised of a number of ingredients (baking soda, cream of tartar, cornstarch, etc.), using it instead of pure baking soda will affect the taste of your cookies.
Baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate and acidic salts. The reaction of these two ingredients results in a cookie that is soft and thick, but slightly harder.
Good rule of thumb: I usually use around 1 teaspoon of baking powder per 1 cup of flour in a recipe.
Both baking powder and baking soda are leavening agents, which cause baked goods to rise.
Too much baking powder can cause the batter to be bitter tasting. It can also cause the batter to rise rapidly and then collapse. (i.e. The air bubbles in the batter grow too large and break causing the batter to fall.) Cakes will have a coarse, fragile crumb with a fallen center.
If you have a baking recipe that calls for baking soda, and you only have baking powder, you may be able to substitute, but you will need 2 or 3 times as much baking powder for the same amount of baking soda to get the same amount of leavening power, and you may end up with something that’s a little bitter tasting, …
The rise: At about 212 degrees Fahrenheit, the water in the dough turns into steam. The cookie starts to rise as the vapors push through the dough. Eventually, the baking soda or powder starts to break down into carbon dioxide gas, which raise up the cookie farther.
Using lower-moisture sugar (granulated) and fat (vegetable shortening), plus a longer, slower bake than normal, produces light, crunchy cookies. That said, using a combination of butter and vegetable shortening (as in the original recipe), or even using all butter, will make an acceptably crunchy chocolate chip cookie.
Substitute or Add Ingredients
- Add Molasses or Honey. Another way to add more moisture to your cookies is incorporate a tablespoon of molasses into a standard-sized cookie recipe. …
- Replace Butter with Vegetable Shortening. …
- Double Your Yolks. …
- Use Baking Powder.
Use a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Coating your baking sheet with nonstick spray or butter creates an overly greasy foundation, causing the cookies to spread. I always recommend a silicone baking mat because they grip onto the bottom of your cookie dough, preventing the cookies from spreading too much.
Chewy cookies are the opposite, as they tend to be somewhat malleable and bendable before they split into two pieces. Cakey cookies are on another end of the spectrum, as they are thicker than chewy cookies, but they are also a bit more rigid in structure than chewy cookies are.
Water vapor escaping from the dough in combination with the carbon dioxide released by our baking soda is ultimately what makes our cookies light and airy. … Baking powder creates extra leavening and a fluffier cookie. Many recipes call for either one or a combination of both.
Mistake: When cookies turn out flat, the bad guy is often butter that is too soft or even melted. This makes cookies spread. The other culprit is too little flour—don’t hold back and make sure you master measuring. … If too-little flour was the issue, try adding an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour to the dough.