In addition, baking powder produces a slightly different texture in cookies than baking soda does. While baking soda will create a coarse, chewy cookie texture, baking powder will produce a light, fine cookie texture. To achieve the best cookie results, use a double-acting baking powder as a substitute.
Instead of adding more liquid to your dough (like sour cream or buttermilk), you can simply add a bit of baking powder. These cookies will turn out tender and chewy.
Baking soda helps cookies spread more than baking powder.
So if you prefer your cookies thin and wavy (versus domed and cakey), baking soda is most likely a better route for you. Just remember: Soda spreads, powder puffs.
If you have a cookie recipe that spreads a lot using all-purpose flour, then it’s probably not the best idea to substitute self-rising flour. But any cookie with normal spread – one using at least 1/2 teaspoon baking powder per cup of flour – should be just fine.
Baking powder simply adds carbon dioxide to the equation, providing a more forceful pressure that encourages a dough to spread up and out. Without the well-developed elasticity of a bread dough, the strands of gluten in cookies would sooner snap than stretch, cracking along the surface.
What happens if I use baking powder instead of baking soda?
Too much baking soda could create a mess in the oven; and even if everything bakes up well, the flavor will be heinous. If you accidentally use baking powder instead of baking soda, the taste could be bitter, and your cake or baked goods won’t be as fluffy.
Can you use baking powder instead of baking soda in cookie recipes? Yes, but you will need about four times as much baking powder as baking soda because baking powder contains other ingredients besides baking soda.
Good rule of thumb: I usually use around 1 teaspoon of baking powder per 1 cup of flour in a recipe.
Using lower-moisture sugar (granulated) and fat (vegetable shortening), plus a longer, slower bake than normal, produces light, crunchy cookies. That said, using a combination of butter and vegetable shortening (as in the original recipe), or even using all butter, will make an acceptably crunchy chocolate chip cookie.
Creating the Cookies You Want
There are three main types of cookie categories: crispy, cakey, and chewy. … For softer, chewier cookies, you will want to add much less granulated sugar, slightly more brown sugar, and a fair bit less butter. For cakey cookies, you will often be including even less butter and sugar.
What Happens to Cookies without Baking Soda? If you have a recipe that asks for baking soda and you leave it out completely, your cookies will likely be extremely dense as there was no chemical reaction to introduce those gas bubbles and give it rise.
Is baking powder same as flour?
Baking powder is a mixture of baking soda, calcium acid phosphate, and starch. It is used as a leavening. Baking flour is ground wheat and covers all flours used for baking, including cake flour, pastry flour, all-purpose flour, and self-rising flour.
Baking soda is also typically responsible for any chemical flavor you might taste in a baked good–that bitter or metallic taste is a sign you’ve used too much baking soda in your recipe, and you have unreacted baking soda left in the food. … You may see this described as “double-acting” baking powder.
That fluffy texture you want in a cake results from beating a lot of air into the room temperature butter and sugar, and it does the same for cookies. So don’t overdo it when you’re creaming together the butter and sugar. Use melted butter for a denser, chewier cookie. Play with the liquid ratio in your recipe.