Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Without Baking Soda or Baking Powder (2024)

FAQs

What can I use if I don't have baking soda or powder for cookies? ›

There are several pantry-friendly ingredients that you can use as baking soda substitutes, including egg whites, self-rising flour and even club soda. Or, you can use baking powder - and even a couple of extremely scientific sounding items that perhaps you just happen to have lying around - baker's ammonia anyone?

It is possible to make cookies without baking soda or baking powder, but the resulting cookie will be dense. This is because carbon dioxide is not being produced by a chemical reaction that typically occurs when baking soda or powder is present in the cookie batter.

Even without baking powder, a well-aerated dough will still puff with steam. If that supply cuts off before the cookies set, a soft dough will collapse in on itself. If it continues until the end, the air pockets are preserved as the cookie's crumb.

If baking powder is unavailable, the following substitutes may be appropriate for your recipe: buttermilk, plain yogurt, molasses, cream of tartar, sour milk, vinegar, lemon juice, club soda, self-rising flour, or whipped egg whites.

Without any leavening agent, the cookies will be more dense. Many cookies don't use baking soda or any leavening agents. In absence of baking soda you can use baking powder.

Without baking soda or baking powder, these cookies will remain a little flatter then other recipes but because of the eggs and creaming of the butter and sugars in this recipe they will still puff up a little in the oven. They will have crispy edges and a soft, chewy center.

If you don't have baking soda on hand, you can use triple the amount of baking powder instead. Alternative substitutions include potassium bicarbonate, baker's ammonia, or self-rising powder.

Cornstarch helps product soft and thick cookies. Using more brown sugar than white sugar results in a moister, softer cookie. An extra egg yolk increases chewiness. Rolling the cookie dough balls to be tall and lumpy instead of wide and smooth gives the cookies a bakery-style textured thickness.

For most cookie recipes and chocolate chip in particular, baking soda is the better choice. Baking soda requires an acid to make it work (baking powder has the acid built in), and in chocolate chip cookies that acid comes from the brown sugar.

Can cornstarch replace baking powder? ›

As we've seen, cornstarch and baking powder are not the same, working in very different ways to impact the foods we bake. With both of them in your arsenal, you can thicken and leaven for various recipes. But most importantly, remember to know when each one works best.

To make baking powder using baking soda, combine two parts cream of tartar (potassium bitartrate) with one part baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). If you don't plan to use it right away, you will want to add some cornstarch to keep it from clumping.

Self-rising flour has leavening agents already inside of it, so by subbing that in for all-purpose flour, you eliminate the need for extra baking powder. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 cup all-purpose flour, use 1 cup self-rising flour.

For 1 tablespoon baking powder, mix 2 teaspoons cream of tartar with 1 teaspoon baking soda (add 1 teaspoon cornstarch if you're making a big batch—it prevents the mixture from caking, but it's not necessary).

Let's cut to the chase. Cornstarch is not baking powder, and you shouldn't use cornstarch instead of baking powder or vice versa because they react differently and serve distinct roles.

Baking soda is a leavening agent whereas cornstarch is a thickener. These two ingredients may look similar, but they have very different purposes in cooking and cannot be used interchangeably.