Steve wrote:
Has anyone added baking soda or powder to a yeast bread to give it
more of a rise?
I never tried this but you need to keep in mind that Baking Soda
(sodium bicarbonate, bicarbonate of soda) and Baking Powder (a
mixture of different chemicals) are two very different ingredients.
You can add a whole box of Baking Soda and it won't increase the rise
one bit unless there is an acid in the recipe. Baking soda is a weak
base (alkali). Strong bases are ammonia and lye (sodium
hydroxide). In baking, Baking Soda reacts with acids (like lemon
juice, vinegar, or the acids in real buttermilk or in sourdough
recipes) and forms gas bubbles of carbon dioxide which may or may not
help the rise depending on how much acid is in the dough. In
non-sourdough bread dough there is very, very little acid produced by
yeast. In Sourdough bread baking you want the acids because they are
what give the bread its' unique flavor. If you neutralize these
acids you won't have that wonderful flavor. When your kids make
those volcanoes for school projects they use Baking Soda and vinegar
to make the lava.
When Baking Soda is heated in its dry form to about 158 F it starts
to decompose and release carbon dioxide gas (that is why it is used
in some fire extinguishers). This reaction is very slow until the
temperature reaches about 250 F. However, this does not occur in
baking because once Baking Soda is added to water it dissociates into
two ions that do not recombine until all the water is removed. So in
baking bread, any carbon dioxide gas created by the decomposition
reaction would not occur until after the bread structure has already
set up - thus no additional rise.
Baking Powder contains Baking Soda, Starch, and one or more acidic
compounds like Cream of Tarter. The ingredient should be listed on
your container. My container lists the following: Cornstarch,
Bicarbonate of Soda, Sodium Aluminum Sulfate, Mono Calcium Phosphate.
In baking, double-acting Baking Powder starts generating carbon
dioxide at temperatures between 110 and 145 F. So this might help
your bread dough rise.
To actually see these effects there is a simple experiment you can
do. Take three clear drinking glasses of the same size. Put exactly
4 oz of water in each (room temp water). Add 1/4 tsp of Baking Soda
to one, 1/4 tsp Baking Powder to the second, and nothing to the third
(your control). Mix the Baking Soda glass until dissolved (clear, no
residue on the bottom. Mix the Baking Powder glass the same amount
of time - it will be milky white as the starch will not completely dissolve.
Now put all three glasses in your microwave and heat at full power
for 3-4 minutes. BUT watch the reactions occur through the
window. The Baking Powder will start to react fairly quickly and
will foam up. The other two will not begin to boil until the water
reaches 212 F. You can remove the Baking Powder glass after it
begins to foam up so it does not bubble over and make a mess.
Now move all three glasses to the counter top and add 1/4 tsp of
vinegar to each to observe the reaction to acids.
Tom