Baking Powder Substitutes – How to Make Homemade Baking Powder

Are you looking for an easy baking powder substitute? I will share with you three easy ways to substitute baking powder in your recipes with simple common ingredients.

Follow us on Pinterest

Make sure to check out my Kefir Substitutes where you can find a recipe for Homemade Buttermilk.

Baking powder is a very popular leavening ingredient that can make the texture dough and batter light and add volume to the baked goods. There are plenty of ways to substitute baking powder in the recipes, but I will be concentrating only on those options that have baking soda as one of the ingredients. I show you three ways how you can use this common ingredient instead of baking powder: by itself, in combination with an acid, and the recipe of homemade baking powder.

How to make baking powder substitutes at home?

Homemade Baking Powder Recipe

The foolproof method and the most obvious one is to make a homemade baking powder yourself. Would you believe me if I say that you need only three ingredients to make an identical product at home? Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 5 parts baking soda;
  • 3 parts citric acid;
  • 12 parts all-purpose flour (or cornstarch).

Combine all these three ingredients in a deep bowl or in the airtight glass container where you are going to store it. Give the mixture a good mix to ensure that all the ingredients are evenly distributed. Make sure to use glass tupperware; do not use metal spoons for mixing and adding ingredients. Everything should super dry. You can start a chemical reaction before you even need it if something will be wet.

You can use homemade baking powder for sweet pastry, sponge cakes, choux pastry, and shortbread cookies.

Can you use baking soda instead of baking powder?

Baking soda can be a baking powder substitute by itself. However, there are several particular conditions of interchanging these ingredients. You can replace the baking powder with soda only in batter and dough recipes with sour ingredients, such as sour cream, yogurt, buttermilk, kefir, fruits and berries, fruit puree, or juice. When combined with sour liquid soda can provide the same effect of leavening the dough as baking powder. In the oven, at temperatures higher than 140˚F/60°C, baking soda starts producing carbon dioxide.

The ratio is the following: use ¼ teaspoon of baking soda with ½ Metric cup of sour liquid for 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Adjust the ratio to the amount of powder that is listed in your recipe.

Baking powder substitute vinegar + baking soda

However, if you have no sour ingredients in the recipe, what should you do? You can add vinegar instead. Due to the level of acidic pH, vinegar can be paired with baking soda to achieve the same leavening effect as baking powder. White vinegar is the most appropriate type of vinegar to use, as it has no distinct flavor and translucent color, so it will not have any influence on the taste and color of your baked goods.

The ratio is the following: instead of 1 teaspoon of baking powder use ¼ teaspoon of baking soda combined with ½ teaspoon of white vinegar. Add baking soda to dry ingredients and vinegar to liquids, so they are going to be combined in the batter/dough. Never combine these two ingredients before adding to the bowl with other ingredients, as all the carbon dioxide will evaporate even before the liquid reaches the batter.

In this method, you can substitute vinegar for lemon juice. However, this liquid has a distinct taste that can alter your pastry’s flavor and taste. Use when you need to substitute small amounts of baking powder. The ratio is the same as with vinegar. 

If you have Pinterest, fill free to pin the following picture!

Homemade Baking Powder Recipe

I hope that this article was helpful and you found a baking powder substitute that you could use in your recipe. Please, share your experience in the comment section below.

Share and enjoy!

Julia Miller is the founder of FreeFoodTips. Julia loves to travel and test new recipes. Here you will find recipes that are simple, delicious and perfect for everyday meals. FreeFoodTips is also packed with cooking tips and tricks.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

We use cookies in order to give you the best possible experience on our website. By continuing to use this site, you agree to our use of cookies.
Accept
Privacy Policy