The first of the “Big Three” leavening methods is chemical leavening. It’s the latest of the three to arrive on the baking scene, having been invented right about the time of the First Industrial Revolution, some 230 years ago. As its name implies, it involves using chemicals to create “seed” bubbles (usually of carbon dioxide) […]
READ ONSo what is “mechanical” leavening? What is the “mechanism” that results in rising vis-à-vis a microbe or some chemical reaction? In a word: steam. Though to be fair steam is the chief rising agent in any type of leavening. Microbes or chemicals may create the initial bubbles in, say, a loaf of sandwich or banana […]
READ ONMicrobial (also called “biological”) leavening is the grandaddy of all leavening techniques. It dates back to when the first human mistakenly left his bowl of gruel sitting out while he rushed off to join the village mastodon hunt. The result was what we now call a “starter”. And while the biology of microbial leavening can […]
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