Help re: baking powder vs yeast

Can I use yeast instead of baking powder? What is the difference in using the two? Are they inter-changeable? I keep both in my freezer but the baking powder seems dead. The yeast works fine.

Reply to
Jim Davis
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They both do the same thing (make baked goods rise), but they're not generally interchangeable.

Yeast is a living organism which produces carbon dioxide when it multiplies. It needs warmth, moisture and sugars to multiply from its usual dry, dormant form. For yeast to make something rise, the item has to have some sort of structure that will hold the carbon dioxide in bubbles and not collapse, and the yeast need time to multiply. Bread dough provides that structure. When, usually after at least one rise, the item is baked, the yeast is killed off, but the gas it produced remains captured by the expanded and hardened structure of the baked dough.

Baking powder is a chemical compound that reacts to moisture and heat to produce gas, which makes the item being baked rise. It requires much less time to do its work compared to yeast, so it is mixed into the dough or batter just prior to baking along with the other ingredients. The gas produced by baking powder is captured as the dough or batter bakes and solidifies. Usually, ingredients like eggs provide more of the structure to trap the gas, rather than flour alone as in yeast breads.

I've made good pancakes with yeast or sourdough batters in place of baking powder, but that's about the only interchangeable use that I have experience with.

You can Google on "baking powder vs. yeast" or words to that effect and probably come with more detailed explanations.

Bob

Reply to
yetanotherBob

Yeast rises differently than baking powder, and tastes different.

Most yeast doughs are raised and then kneaded, like bread, you know?

Baking powder works right away, with the ingredients in the recipe. Yeast works on it's own time -- the little buggers need time to grow and produce the gas that makes the dough rise.

Baking powder WILL lose it's action if it is too old. You should just buy new baking powder every once in a while to make sure that what you have is fresh.

Alan

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Reply to
Alan Moorman

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