Baking Soda ?

[Italiancook]

When we discussed my semi-flopped yellow cake a few weeks ago, it was said that baking soda loses its potency quicker than baking powder if batter is left to rest on counter. When I made Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies (KAF) today, I felt concerned that my butter was too warm for the oven. I didn't want the cookies to spread more than they should and not rise enough. After much guess work, I finally threw caution to the wind and put the bowl of dough into the refrig for 30 minutes. The butter tightened up in that time, and the cookies seemed to turn out okay. I had never made the recipe before, so I have no frame of reference. Recipe calls for 1 teaspoon baking soda.

Did I "kill" the baking soda by refrigerating it for 30 minutes? Or does the act of cooling the dough render the soda dormant? Keep in mind that it took me a while to scoop out the cookies after I took them from the refrigerator. The recipe also had a teaspoon of baking powder.

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• This topic was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by Italiancook.

[BakerAunt]

I have also wondered about this, since more than one cookie recipe I have says to refrigerate the dough or let it sit before scooping, even though the recipes contain baking soda. Perhaps it is different for cookies and cakes?

[Mike Nolan]

Some cookie recipes have both baking soda and baking powder. (For example, my mother's Oatmeal Crisps chocolate chip cookies.)

Perhaps the baking soda serves to balance the pH of those recipes and the baking powder does most of the leavening work?

[luvpyrpom]

There are a lot of stories out there on the internet where people have done baking tests about the chococolate chip cookie in the eternal search for that "perfect" cookie. One blogger, Tessa, from Handle the Heat, did a bunch of tests on the cookie. She made the cookies without the baking soda and the cookie came out cakey and puffy. I don't know the exact science of the baking soda in baked goods. I do know that last year, in preparation for the Christmas holiday baking, I had premade the chocolate chip cookie dough and froze them thinking that it would help me with the baking later. Unfortunately, they all came out flat with little mountains of chips sticking out. But what I've done this time is bake them as soon as I make the batter and then freeze them after they have cooled. Haven't tasted one yet to see how they taste.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I wonder if that was because of the baking soda. I've frozen several things with baking soda only and never had that problem.

Could it have been something else?

Also, there are TONS of frozen cookie doughs on the market. I'll start looking to see if the use soda or powder or both (and by both I don't mean double acting baking powder).

[Mike Nolan]

Frozen commercial cookie doughs are likely to have all sorts of things that won't be in home-made cookie doughs.

[BakerAunt]

I think that cookies that use only baking soda tend to be flatter than cookies that rely on baking soda and baking powder. The Butterscotch Barley cookies from KAF that I baked last week use only baking soda, and they are flat, and meant to be, as the texture is chewy.

I've not frozen cookie dough, although I keep meaning to try it. Part of the issue for me is freezer space. The other is plenty of people around to eat the cookies, or else I bake a half recipe.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by BakerAunt.

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, I routinely freeze chocolate chip cookie dough, and they turn out fine when baked. I use the recipe on the back of the Ghiradelli bittersweet chips package. I scoop the dough onto waxed paper-lined cookie sheets (the 1/4 cones so they'll fit in the freezer). I "flash freeze" them for 1 hour. Then I package 12 dough balls per quart freezer bag and put them into a gallon freezer bag. I write the baking direction on the plastic so I don't have to search for the chips bag when I want to bake them. I put them in the oven frozen and have never been disappointed with the results.

This won't work for oatmeal cookies. That dough will not spread. The end product is a cooked lump of dough. So I doubt it'd work for oatmeal chocolate chip dough.

It also won't work for peanut butter cookies made with Crisco. Someday I'm going to try it with these cookies made with butter.

This freezing method also doesn't work for shortbread-type cookies.

For all those cantankerous cookies, I bake the cookies, put them in a freezer container and heat them in the microwave to thaw them.

I don't know that baking soda or powder play a role in this. A KAF rep told me it was the butter content, but I wonder about that, because peanut butter cookies have plenty of fat.

[S_Wirth]

For BakerAunt

[BakerAunt]

Thanks, Sarah! I knew that if anyone could find that thread, it would be you! I'll repeat the information here, but I will leave the other thread as well. Here is Cass's answer to the two questions that stumped us--and thank you to Italian Cook for asking the questions that helped us all:

I received an email from Cass (Kid Pizza), in which he sent me two comments about some points Italian Cook had raised in a couple of threads. (I’m happy that Cass is lurking at Nebraska Kitechen!)

“I spent a few moments over at Mike's Site, & I thought I would answer two interesting inquiries stated by member Italian Cook.

Relate to her the following thoughts about the purpose of the function of baking soda in a COOKIE. A cookie generally is thin like about 1/8th inch to maybe 3/16ths inch thick. If so, we do not require a leavener in a cookie most often. Baking powder is employed to make the cookie LIGHTER mostly but it can help in leaven somewhat. that is how the cookie gets to be lighter.

Now then the Baking soda is there for this reason only, to neutralize any ACDIC ingredients in the recipe whatever they may be. Like cocoa, lemon juice sour cream, bananas for banana bundt cake, etc.

In her question on the 30, minutes she held her concoction in the fridge, yes the soda dissipated, but it did its thing first…. It didn’t help the cookie to leaven.

Marliss, she posed this question as well about butter fat versus peanut butter fat melting. Tell her the answer to her inquiry is this: the melting point of butter is much lower than peanut butter. That is why it melts sooner.

"Thank you for your help. I hope Italian cook understands what I intended for her."

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