Fluffy Dumplings
Dry ingredients:
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
Wet ingredients:
½ cup milk
2 tablespoons salad oil
Sift flour, baking powder and salt together into mixing bowl. Combine milk and salad oil in separate bowl and add together with dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Drop from tablespoon on top of bubbling stew or canned chicken broth. Cover tightly; let mixture return to boiling. Reduce heat, don’t lift cover, simmer 12-15 minutes. Makes 10.
The action of baking powder in recipes:
Yeast used in some recipes makes the product rise, but takes 2-3 hours to produce the gas to do so. Baking powder produces an instant reaction and is usually used in muffins, biscuits and pancakes. Baking powder is composed of three main parts: an acid such as cream of tartar (KHC4H4O6) or sodium aluminum sulfate (NaAl(SO4)2), a base such as baking soda (NaHCO3) and a filler such as cornstarch.
When the baking powder is incorporated into wet ingredients of the recipe, the water in the wet ingredients causes the cream of tartar and baking soda to go into solution and act as acid and base. Hence, the instant reaction produces carbon dioxide bubbles that cause the product to rise. These ingredients in the baking powder must be kept dry until used, or the reaction will begin. This is the reason the dry ingredients are blended together and the wet ingredients are mixed together separately. Also, recipes call for the wet and dry ingredients to be incorporated with each other only until moist, or the carbon dioxide gas will escape and the reaction may end, resulting in a flat product.
The reaction with cream of tartar type baking soda is:
NaHCO3 + KHC4H4O6 ----> KNaC4H4O6 + H2O + CO2.
The reaction with sodium aluminum sulfate type baking soda is:
NaAl(SO4)2 + 3 NaHCO3 ----> Al(OH)3 + 2 Na2SO4 + 3 CO2
In recipes that call for baking soda rather than baking powder, another acidic ingredient such as buttermilk, yogurt or an acidic fruit provide the acid for the reaction.
