Among those ingredients are chocolate, cocoa, brown sugar, tomato juice, sour milk, buttermilk, apple sauce, spices, cottage cheese, molasses, vinegar, citrus fruit juices and many more. These acid ingredients are familiar to everyone. One or more of them, you will notice, is used almost every time you bake.
The baking soda gently but surely reacts with these natural acids, freeing millions of tiny carbon dioxide bubbles which are held enmeshed in the batters and doughs. As this gas expands during the baking, the product becomes light and tender. Thus it is that baking soda uses nature’s own unrivaled acids to leaven and lighten baked products.
Success Assured
Leavening nature’s way is surprisingly easy. The acid content of citrus fruit juices or vinegar may be used to develop the unsurpassed flavor and texture associated with baking soda products. The following amounts,
1⅓ tablespoons vinegar (4 teaspoons)
1½ tablespoons lemon juice (4½ teaspoons)
¾ cup orange juice (12 tablespoons)
may be used with ½ teaspoon baking soda. Many of the recipes in this booklet are especially designed for this natural combination of baking soda and acid juices. Sometimes the acid is added last as in the “Lemon Loaf Cake” on [page 11], while in the “Lemon Clover Rolls,” [page 28], it is combined with the liquid, then added to the mixture. In any case, you will be pleased with the results.
IMPORTANT! You don’t need natural sour milk or buttermilk to prepare your old time favorite delicacies. It is the acid normally found in these ingredients which reacts with baking soda for leavening. If sour milk or buttermilk with its natural acid is not available, you may provide the necessary acid by using citrus fruit juices or vinegar with sweet milk. It is surprisingly simple to change sweet milk to milk that contains as much acid as natural sour milk or buttermilk when it is at its best for baking.
For example, when vinegar is used to provide this acid, place 1⅓ tablespoons vinegar (white vinegar makes a whiter product) in a standard measuring cup, then fill to the one-cup mark with sweet milk. Mix well. The resulting liquid can be used in place of sour milk or buttermilk in any baking soda recipe. Use 1½ tablespoons lemon juice or ¾ cup orange juice in a similar manner.