Purchasing Baking Recipes

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There's a fair little bit of chemistry concerned in utilizing alkaline salts dishes. Some recipes call for baking soda because at baking temperatures it acts partly as a chemical leaven along with selling color and taste by means of Maillard browning.

When baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is heated, it offers off some CO2 and reduces to sodium carbonate, a more potent alkaline salt sometimes called "baked soda." There are some recipes that particularly name for baked soda instead of baking soda. I have seen it used on some mainstream YouTube cooking shows.

By contrast, baking powder is sodium bicarbonate with another acidic salt added that activates and reduces the sodium bicarbonate within the presence of water. It can accomplish similar outcomes as baking soda at lower temperatures.

Lye is sodium hydroxide. That is to not say you cannot use it in cooking. It's a really potent alkaline salt. The lye will gelatinize the starches on the floor of the pretzel, and the alkaline residue helps to promote caramelization and browning throughout the baking. You wouldn't need to handle it or drink it, however its what provides pretzels their characteristic dark brown and glossy pores and skin. Pretzel recipes in particular generally call for a wash or bath in a 3% lye solution. It is usually not used as a meals ingredient because its potency requires small measures that must be fastidiously measured and diluted.

You might look into converting baking soda into baked soda in your recipe. I wouldn't immediately add lye. (Literally, you simply unfold out the powder on a sheet pan and bake it for a while.) You'll need to work out the conversion ratio for your self to substitute it for baking soda in your dish, however it's going to add the alkalinity you need perhaps with out the additional bitterness.

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