Is baking powder gluten free? Baking powder is a pantry staple you'll find in kitchens across the country. It's one of the most common ingredients in baked goods like cookies, cakes, breads, pancakes, and more. But can people with celiac disease safely eat baking powder?
Learn more about baking powder, including how this ingredient works, whether baking powder is gluten free, and the best baking powder brands.
What is Baking Powder?
Baking powder is a standard leavening agent, which means it causes baked goods to rise. Baking powder is responsible for light and fluffy pancakes, muffins, cookies, cakes, and even some types of bread. If you've ever forgotten to add baking powder to a homemade recipe, you probably wound up with a disappointingly flat result.
Baking powder is a blend of baking soda and a starchy ingredient to help with texture. This powder originally included wheat starch but today's cooks have more options.
Baking powder isn't the only rising agent in a cook's arsenal. Yeast is an ancient option.
Cooks relied on yeast before baking powder was introduced in the 1800s. Combining sodium bicarbonate (AKA baking soda) with an acidic ingredient is another way to create some rise and help them with baking.
What Does Baking Powder Do?
Baking powder and other rising agents create gas bubbles through chemical reactions. The gas bubbles spread throughout your dough or batter to help food expand. If you've ever waited for bread dough to rise, or seen cookies get bigger in the oven, you've seen a leavening agent at work.
Baking powder has a high pH which means it's a basic or alkaline substance. Acidic ingredients like lemon juice, buttermilk, and vinegar cause a chemical reaction with baking powder. This reaction creates the valuable bubbles that make baked goods even better.
Types of Baking Powder
You'll find two kinds of baking powder on grocery store shelves: single acting baking powder and double-acting baking powder. The difference depends on how each variety reacts with your other ingredients.
Single-Acting Baking Powder
Single-acting baking powder starts to react with acids in the recipe as soon as the ingredients are combined. Add single-acting baking powder to your recipe as late as possible to make the most of the reaction. This variety will stop reacting once all the chemicals have combined.
Double-Acting Baking Powder
Double-acting baking powder also reacts immediately to other ingredients, but this variety isn't limited to a single reaction. Double-acting powder earns its name because it contains heat-activated compounds. This means your baked goods will keep expanding on the griddle or in the oven.
Double-acting baking powder is especially helpful for gluten-free baking. Light, fluffy textures can be hard to achieve with GF flours. Double-acting baking powder gives gluten-free recipes an extra boost. You may have noticed that GF recipes call for more baking powder than conventional recipes. The extra rise is amazing but using too much double-acting baking powder can give a sharp metallic taste to your homemade treats. That's because double-acting powder often contains sodium aluminum sulfate (SAS) to deliver that extra rise. Look for aluminum-free baking powder to avoid this taste.
Is There Gluten-Free Baking Powder?
Good news for GF bakers: almost all baking powder is gluten-free! The original 1800s baking soda recipes included wheat starch so they wouldn't have been gluten free. Luckily, things have changed since then. Most modern baking powder brands have a gluten-free ingredient list. Today's baking soda is typically made with potato starch, corn starch, or other non-wheat options. Check out some popular baking powder brands to see which are safe for a GF kitchen.
Clabber Girl Baking Powder
The Clabber Girl brand is one of the most recognizable cooking names in the United States. This company started selling baking powder in the 1850s so most cooks are familiar with this ingredient. In addition to being a traditional choice, Clabber Girl Double-Acting Baking Powder is also gluten-free.
The Clabber Girl ingredients include corn starch, bicarbonate of soda, sodium aluminum sulfate, and monocalcium phosphate. Bicarbonate of soda is simply another term for sodium bicarbonate or baking soda. Clabber Girl does include SAS so it can deliver a metallic taste in large amounts. However, it's a safe addition to your GF pantry since it doesn't contain gluten ingredients.
I use this baking powder in my most popular recipe Gluten Free Krispy Kreme Copycat Donuts.
Bob's Red Mill Baking Powder
Bob's Red Mill is known for their wide range of flours, including great gluten-free options. Bob's Red Mill Baking Powder is a double-acting, aluminum-free blend that can be a fantastic addition to your kitchen.
Bob's Red Mill Baking Powder includes sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, corn starch, and mono-calcium phosphate.
Rumford Baking Powder
Rumford Baking Powder is another aluminum-free option when you want to avoid metallic tastes in your baking. Rumford Baking Powder is made by the Clabber Girl company so you know it's a trusted, dependable option. If you try to avoid genetically modified organisms, you'll also appreciate that Rumford is verified non-GMO.
Rumford Baking Powder is labeled gluten-free, which under FDA regulations means it must contain under 20 ppm gluten. Rumford Baking Powder is made from corn starch, sodium bicarbonate, and mono-calcium phosphate.
Making Your Own GF Baking Powder
Did you know you can also make gluten-free baking powder at home? This option gives you the most control in the kitchen because you can manage exactly what goes into your recipe. It's also a handy trick to keep in your back pocket in case you ever run out of commercial baking powder.
Remember that baking powder is simply a mix of baking soda and starch. Combine the following ingredients to make four teaspoons of gluten-free baking powder.
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon corn starch, potato starch, or your favorite GF option
You can substitute this homemade blend at a 1:1 ratio with baking powder from the store.
Keep Baking With Gluten-Free Baking Powder
Baking powder is a modern kitchen staple. Luckily for celiac bakers, it's easy to find safe, reliable, gluten-free baking powders. You can even make your own with basic ingredients. Try these gluten free baking powder options for great results the next time you're in the kitchen.
Tell Us What You Think