Baking powder

“ Royal Baking Powder is most economical. Its well-known dependability makes baking success simpler and surer, thus preventing loss of eggs, flour, butter and other ingredients. Only the best materials are used in its production—pure cream of tartar and tartaric acid, derived from grapes, bicarbonate of soda and corn starch, all scientifically blended and perfectly balanced. The best is always the most economical. ”

“ Always use winter wheat flour for cake baking. One pound of pure baking powder is composed of one-half pound cream of tartar, one-fourth pound of soda, and one-fourth pound of rice flour. In all recipes that call for baking powder, use just one-half as much cream of tartar as it calls for baking powder, and one-half as much soda as you use of cream of tartar; that is, if a recipe calls for two teaspoonfuls baking powder, you simply use one teaspoonful of cream of tartar and a scant half teaspoonful soda. ”

“ The market is flooded with “low-priced” baking powders, gotten up to make an unjust profit by unscrupulous manufacturers and dealers, and it is worthy the attention of all housekeepers to note there is at least one brand of baking powder distinctly sold upon its merits, and which can be relied upon for its strength and purity. The Royal Baking Powder, now known almost the world over as a standard article, has stood the test of nearly a quarter of a century, and its friends among the ladies are legion. ”

“ Its use is a safeguard against the alum baking powders of which the market is full and which are known to make dangerously unwholesome food. Royal Baking Powder makes finest flavored, lightest, sweetest, and most delicious food, and imparts to it positively anti-dyspeptic qualities. ”

“ Baking powders are composed of an acid and an alkali. Some kind of flour usually is added to keep them dry and free from lumps. When the mixture containing the baking powder is moistened the acid and the alkali chemically combine and alter, a gas being generated. If the articles be placed soon in great heat, the gas is warmed, expands, and in its endeavor to escape raises the mass. The heat sets the mixture in this raised condition, thus the cake or pudding is rendered light, easier to masticate and digest. ”

“ But even the young or inexperienced housekeeper will find that with Royal Baking Powder a perfect short cake is an easy and agreeable task. The baking powder only needs to be thoroughly sifted with the flour, so that it may evenly lighten the cake. Use sweet milk always. For the old-fashioned short cake no eggs are needed, the dough being put together in the same way as for baking powder biscuit. ”

“ Pure baking powders are very simple in composition, care being used in preparing them and procuring pure ingredients. According to the advertised statements of the various leading manufacturers we are forced to make our own if we desire a pure and wholesome article. As the essential ingredients of the best baking powder are baking soda and cream of tartar we need only be careful in buying of honest grocers or druggists who will guarantee their purity. It is not difficult to procure pure soda, but the cream of tartar is frequently adulterated, and care must be used in its purchase. ”

“ Price's Baking Powder
Cream shortening, add sugar slowly and beat well; add beaten egg yolks; add milk a little at a time and flour which has been sifted with baking powder; divide batter in half and add to one-half one teaspoon lemon juice and the grated rind of half a lemon; to the other half of batter add two ounces unsweetened melted chocolate, one teaspoon vanilla. Bake in shallow greased pan or in very small individual tins in hot oven about 15 minutes. If a large pan in used, when cool cut cakes into fancy shapes. Cakes should be less than an inch thick when baked. ”

“ Do use good ingredients. You can’t do first-rate baking with second-rate materials. Use fresh, sweet shortening and eggs of fine quality. Use fine granulated sugar, unless some other kind is called for in your recipe. Remember that baking powder and flour are the most important ingredients in baking. Give yourself the protection and advantages of Calumet, the Double-Acting Baking Powder ... and of Swans Down Cake Flour, too, whenever the recipe calls for it. It gives to cakes and to certain quick breads a fineness and lightness that you cannot expect from ordinary flour. ”

“ All have a certain proportion of starch to absorb moisture. Of these the alum powders are the most harmful and should be avoided. Practically all of the well-known brands of baking powder are of the first-mentioned class and wholesome, and are rarely adulterated. ”

“ Do not use more baking powder than is necessary for good results; two level teaspoons to each cup of flour is the usual allowance, but one and one-half teaspoons each to each cup will be sufficient if the muffins, biscuits, or cake are quickly and lightly handled and properly baked.
FLAVORING EXTRACTS
When volatile flavoring extracts are used in cake, much of their strength is wasted during baking; grated rind or spices could well be used in their place, or only the icing or filling flavored. All desserts, whenever practicable, should be flavored when cold. ”

“ Every recipe has been tested many times and all have been found excellent.
Royal Baking Powder is used in all recipes in which a leavening agent is required, and the biscuits, muffins, griddle cakes, doughnuts, cakes and pastry prepared by its use are unequalled in texture and healthfulness. ”

“ Steadily, evenly, hundreds of new tiny bubbles swell through the batter and continue the leavening. Up! ... up! ... they keep raising the batter and hold it high and light. Thanks to these two scientifically balanced actions, Calumet Baking Powder protects your baking from start to finish.
Baking powder is a small part of any given recipe, yet it plays such an important role that it is often called “the biggest little thing in baking”. Too much or too little baking powder or baking powder that is not efficient ... what a lot of baking trouble that can cause! ”

“ From the results of Experiment 69 we know that an increased quantity of baking soda will not produce satisfactory results. Hence more carbon dioxide gas must be obtained by other means. Since baking powder consists of both baking soda and an "acid" material, it makes a desirable substance for additional leavening. A combination of baking soda, sour milk, and baking powder is therefore used for leavening some quick bread mixtures, especially those that contain only a small quantity of sour milk and no eggs. ”

“ It perfectly aerates and leavens the batter or dough and makes the food finer in appearance, more delicious to the taste, and more healthful.
It possesses the greatest practicable leavening strength, never varies in quality, and will keep fresh and perfect in all climates until used.
The Standard for over 50 Years
For over 50 years Royal Baking Powder has been the standard. Most of the famous baking recipes in use today were created with it. Most of the famous cooking schools use it. Housewives all over the world have followed the lead of the American housewife and insist upon it. ”

“ I have made a large number of analyses of Royal Baking Powder, and have found it to be an absolutely pure cream of tartar powder, entirely free from alum, ammonia, and all adulterations and impurities. In leavening power it is of the very highest. ”

“ Even though the measuring of the cream of tartar and soda separately is accurate, the proportions may not be correct. There is no great advantage in homemade baking powder. It costs almost as much as the manufactured, and is not as perfect a product.
The proportions of the main ingredients.—Attempts are made to define the degrees of stiffness of batters and doughs, but these distinctions are not very accurate. A “pour batter” is liquid enough to pour, and a “dough batter” soft enough to drop from a spoon; a “soft dough” is next in grade, and “dough” is the stiffest of all. ”

“ Baking the mixture in a bread pan rather than in muffin pans saves some effort in pouring the batter in the pan and in washing them. For those whose time is limited for food preparation, the making of baking powder loaf breads is recommended.
If it is necessary or desirable to use meals or flours other than wheat, baking powder loaf breads are advisable. Such
grains can be used successfully in greater quantity (i.e. with the addition of little or no wheat flour) in quick breads than in yeast breads. ”

“ Repeat until all the butter is used, then set on ice for an hour to harden. In baking beware opening the oven door until the paste has risen fully and becomes slightly crusted over.
Baking powder crust must not stand—the gas which aerates it begins forming and escaping the minute it is wet up. It also requires a hot oven and delicate handling. Half a pound of shortening and a teaspoon of baking powder, to the pound of flour, mixed stiff or soft, according to [94] the consistency of the fat, properly handled and baked, make crust good enough for anybody. ”

“ With the exception of true sponge, cakes depend for their lightness upon the gas generated when the baking powder combines with liquid ingredients. Therefore do not beat the batter any longer than to thoroughly mix it, or the gas will be lost and a heavy, compact mass results. A better method is to reserve two tablespoons of the flour and sift it with the baking powder into the well beaten batter before the whites are folded in. Long beating before addition of the leavener tends to make a more even grained texture. ”

“ This allows the heat to penetrate the mixture quickly; the moisture and heat start the baking powder into life; each tiny grain of the powder acts on the materials surrounding it; the dough or batter expands, then is stiffened by the heat, and all the starch grains are thoroughly and evenly cooked.
Royal Hot Biscuit.—1 quart flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons Royal Baking Powder, 1 tablespoon lard or butter, 1 pint sweet milk, cold (never use sour milk) ; use cold water when milk cannot be obtained. Sift together flour, salt, and powder; rub in shortening; add milk ”

“ Now in with the flour, Kit; and you must have baking powder."
"I don't think Eliza put in any baking powder," said Kitty, dubiously.
"Oh, she must have!" said Midget. "That's what baking powder is for,—to bake with. ”

“ Cream the butter and add the sugar gradually. Then add the milk alternately with the flour, to which has been added the baking powder. Beat the whites of the eggs until they are stiff and fold them into the mixture. Add the vanilla. Butter baking-powder cans or other molds, fill them half full with the mixture, adjust the covers, which should also be buttered, and place in a kettle of boiling water. Raise them from the bottom of the kettle by means of a rack, have the water come half way up around the molds, and cover closely. ”

“ Baking powders vary in strength; follow directions on can. Mix thoroughly, with big spoon or wooden paddle, first the baking powder with the flour and then the salt. Rub into this the cold grease (which may be lard, cold pork fat, drippings) until there are no lumps left and no grease adhering to bottom of pan. This is a little tedious, but don't shirk it. Then [364] stir in the water and work it with spoon until you have a rather stiff dough. Have the pan greased. Turn the loaf into it and bake. Test center of loaf with a sliver when you think it properly done. ”

“ Should we continue to add flour and milk and repeat the aforesaid amount eight times, we arrive at a cake mixture calling for one pound each of sugar, shortening and eggs, but one pint of milk, two pounds flour and one-half ounce of baking powder, or an equivalent amount of soda bicarbonate with cream of tartar. ”

“ No real economy is thus accomplished—in fact, the use of an unwholesome, undependable baking powder often produces a bitter taste in the food which makes it unappetizing and sometimes inedible, to say nothing of the injurious effect produced upon the digestive system. ”

“ Just the same effervescence takes place in the cake or damper as in the tumbler, and it is the air bubbles, caused by it, that make the cake, pudding, &c., rise or swell, and become light. Many of the baking powders sold are excellent, but as all are merely composed of the two ingredients mentioned, viz., soda and acid, and, in some instances, a small quantity of ground rice, or some other equally harmless powder, just to add to the quantity, they can as well be made at home, by pounding together soda and tartaric acid. ”

“ Boil sugar with cold milk until thick and pour very slowly over whites of eggs which have been beaten light with a wire whip. Fold in flour, cream of tartar, salt and baking powder which have been sifted together five times. With whip beat mixture with long strokes until very light; add flavoring; put into ungreased angel cake tin in cold oven, turn on heat and bake at very low temperature for 25 minutes. ”

“ Then, Mary, I have a recipe taken from the 'Farmers' Bulletin' for dumplings, which I think fine. You must try it some time. Your Aunt Sarah thinks them 'dreadfully extravagant.' They call for four teaspoonfuls of baking powder to two cups of flour, but they are perfect puff balls, and this is such a fast age, why not use more baking powder if an advantage? I am always ready to try anything new I hear about. ”

“ Mix and sift flour with salt, and cut and fold in at the last. If mixture is beaten after the addition of flour, much of the work already done of enclosing a large amount of air will be undone by breaking air bubbles. These rules apply to a mixture where baking powder is not employed.
To Mix Butter Cakes. An earthen bowl should always be used for mixing cake, and a wooden cake-spoon with slits lightens the labor. Measure dry ingredients, and mix and sift baking powder and spices, if used, with flour. ”