What Is Baking Soda?
Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate, a fine white powder that has many uses. You may wonder about bicarbonate of soda vs. baking soda, but they are simply alternate terms for the same ingredient. If your recipe calls for bicarbonate of soda, it is simply referring to baking soda.
Baking soda is a quick-acting leavening agent. As soon as pure baking soda is blended with moisture and an acidic ingredient, such as honey, buttermilk, molasses, chocolate, yogurt, sour cream, brown sugar, or cocoa, a chemical reaction occurs that produces bubbles of carbon dioxide. These bubbles are what gives the light texture you want in baking.
The trick with baking soda in recipes is that the reaction that creates the bubbles is immediate, so you want to get the batter or dough into the oven quickly, before all the bubbles dissipate. That’s why baking soda is used for “quick” recipes for biscuits or breads. There’s no waiting around for yeast to do its work and dough to rise.
What Is Baking Powder?
Baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate, but it already includes the acidifying agent (cream of tartar) as well as a drying agent, usually starch. Baking powder is available as a single- or double-acting powder. Single-acting powders are activated by moisture, so you must bake recipes that include this product immediately after mixing. Double-acting powders react in two phases and can stand for a while before baking. With double-acting powder, some gas is released at room temperature when the powder is added to the dough, but the majority of the gas is released after the temperature of the dough increases in the oven.
Baking Soda vs Baking Powder
| Basis of Comparison | Baking Soda | Baking Powder |
| Meaning | It is the purest form of sodium bicarbonate containing few apparatuses of sour food items. | It Is the blend of baking soda along with other essential components like starch and acidic and drying agents. |
| Ingredients | It contains just one component which is Sodium Bicarbonate | It contains 3 main dry ingredients of Baking Soda, Corn starch and Mono-calcium phosphate |
| Reaction | Baking soda will react immediately with acids | It will not react instantly when we expose it to acids |
| Calories and Carbohydrates per 100 grams | Zero caloriesZero carbohydrates | 53 grams of calories28 grams carbohydrates |
| Combinations | Use of several alkaline edibles like honey, chocolate, buttermilk is done to generate CO2 under oven temperature | We use it to make cakes and muffins because of its acidic and basic components |
| Leaving Process | It has a short leavening process | Its leavening process extends with the help of a second acid |
| Fluffiness | Bakery products not that fluffy in comparison to baking powder products | It produces fluffier bakery products when baked. |