Baking soda question

[TylerK]

Last year for Christmas I made what IMO was an amazing gluten free ginger-snap type cookie - light, crisp, buttery and very spicy. Flour to baking soda proportions were 4cups to 2 tsp. I'm assuming the acidic ingredient was the molasses. This year I'd like to make a vanilla version of the same cookie to go with it, but I need some help.

In order to keep the moisture in the recipe the same I was going to replace the molasses with either glucose or corn syrup, but I'd still need to add an acid to react with the baking soda. Cream of tartar seemed like the obvious answer, but from what I understand, baking powder is just a mixture of baking soda and cream of tartar, and in my experience produces a different texture in the final product.

What I'm looking for are any opinions on the acid ingredient I should use that would best replicate the reaction between the molasses and baking soda, and how to best incorporate it into the dough. Any baking theory around all of this would be greatly appreciated as well.

Tyler

[Panaderia Canadiense]

All of the ginger-snap recipes I've got, both with and without white flour, call for the soda to be mixed with the molasses plus one or two tablespoons of white vinegar. I would assume that the same can be done substituting corn syrup or heavy golden syrup for the molasses, but keeping the soda and vinegar constant.

You could also try using honey as your liquid sugar - these will turn out much crisper than cookies made with corn or glucose syrups. (Plus, IMHO, honey snaps are just to die for....)

[TylerK]

Thanks for the reply. It's interesting that recipes you've been using called for vinegar, as I had no problem last year getting a good rise with just the molasses. I don't know why, but I hadn't even considered using vinegar for the vanilla version. Besides the cream of tartar, I had toyed with the idea of dissolving some citric acid in water.

Your honey idea sounds great. I just might give that a try.

Tyler

[Panaderia Canadiense]

My hands-down fave gingerbread cookie recipe is from the 1922 Purity Cookbook that my gran gave me. It calls for 2 tbsp of vinegar to RETARD the rise of the molasses and soda, so that the bread snaps well. When I want gingerbread for houses, I leave the vinegar out.

[TylerK]

Now that's certainly interesting. Given that mixing vinegar and baking soda produces a lot of gas do you have any idea how adding it in this case helps retard the rise? Or am I misunderstanding what you're saying?

Tyler

[piracer]

I didn't realize molasses was considered an acidic ingredient. Can someone care to explain?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Well, adding just baking soda to the molasses I can buy here (which is one step darker than Blackstrap) gives me incredible expanding molasses, which would say to me that I'm seeing a neutralization reaction of some sort. Adding the vinegar spends out the soda a bit faster, which keeps my molasses from overflowing the bowl and also seems to keep the cookies lower. I know from experience that when I forget the vinegar, the cookies will always come out tall and cake-y rather than flat and snappy.

.... and a quick trip into the kitchen with the pH papers, I also find that my molasses has a pH of about 5, which means it's definitely acidic. You should probably test your own, though - from what I understand, there's a great deal of variation between different molasses.

[andiesenji]

Note that a small amount of vinegar and even smaller amount of baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) is a major factor in making molasses taffy.

And you have to work fast!

Also, it is what gives the oomph to honeycomb candy. Use a bit too much and you can have a candy volcano! I know about this from personal experience - my kids were making the candy and got a bit too energetic with the bicarb.

A few seconds for the result and several hours for the cleanup.