Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Without Baking Soda or Baking Powder (2024)

FAQs

What can I use if I don't have baking soda or powder for cookies? ›

Whipped egg whites can give your recipe structure and add leavening abilities. They work better when substituted for baking powder, but can work as a baking soda alternative in a pinch.

Without baking soda or baking powder, these cookies will remain a little flatter then other recipes but because of the eggs and creaming of the butter and sugars in this recipe they will still puff up a little in the oven. They will have crispy edges and a soft, chewy center.

Even without baking powder, a well-aerated dough will still puff with steam. If that supply cuts off before the cookies set, a soft dough will collapse in on itself. If it continues until the end, the air pockets are preserved as the cookie's crumb.

If you don't have either baking powder or baking soda, consider switching gears and relying on another type of leavener altogether: whipped egg whites. Instead of sparking a chemical reaction to produce carbon dioxide, whipped egg whites introduce air to the batter, bringing natural height to your baked goods.

Substitute 1: Baking Powder

Baking powder is used as a leavener whether the recipe has acidic ingredients or not. It will activate once when mixed in with batter in recipes like cakes, cookies, or pancakes and another time when it comes in contact with heat in the oven or on the stovetop.

Many brownie recipes don't contain baking powder or baking soda; these recipes tend to be for the dense, sometimes chewy, kind. Cakelike brownies usually contain a leavening agent, which helps give them their fluffy texture. The technique you use also makes a difference in the texture of the final product.

Let's cut to the chase. Cornstarch is not baking powder, and you shouldn't use cornstarch instead of baking powder or vice versa because they react differently and serve distinct roles.

Brown sugar, meanwhile, is dense and compacts easily, creating fewer air pockets during creaming—that means that there's less opportunity to entrap gas, creating cookies that rise less and spread more. With less moisture escaping via steam, they also stay moist and chewy.

If You have acidic ingredients in the Cookie recipe - then using baking soda is alright. However; if the recipe doesn't have acidic ingredients; when you use baking soda instead of baking powder; the cookies will have a soapy-like after taste and will be a bit bitter.

How to make baking powder? ›

How to prepare baking powder. To make baking powder, combine half a teaspoon of cream of tartar and a quarter teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. This provides the equivalent of one teaspoon of baking powder. To make self-raising flour add one teaspoon of baking powder (or equivalent homemade) to 110g plain flour.

Baking soda, a/k/a sodium bicarbonate, was produced industrially for many years by the historically-important Solvay process. You can duplicate this by adding dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) to a saturated salt solution (sodium chloride) and concentrated ammonia (ammonium hydroxide).

Vinegar is acid; baking soda is basic; when you mix them, they neutralize each other so what you end up with isn't as good as using either baking soda or vinegar alone, though since it's mostly water it'll still work to clean most things just like water will.

Baking Powder. The type of leavening you use in your cookies doesn't just help them rise while baking, it affects their texture and structure too. Baking soda in cookies yields a denser cookie with craggy tops, while baking powder causes cookies to rise higher during baking for a cakier texture.

Baking soda is a leavening agent whereas cornstarch is a thickener. These two ingredients may look similar, but they have very different purposes in cooking and cannot be used interchangeably.