Processed
Food Grade Powder
S tier
Food-grade ammonium bicarbonate powder is the baker's ammonia a Central European cookie tin expects: a fine, volatile white salt that disappears into gas in a hot, thin bake. Springerle, speculaas, and crackers get their dry, open snap from it. The powder should smell faintly of ammonia when you open the jar and not of a warehouse. It is legal food grade, not a laboratory lump. Sift it through the flour; a clump left in a thick cake will perfume the crumb with smelling-salts. Keep the jar sealed—this salt evaporates its own usefulness if you leave it open. Wrong in a muffin, right in a flat biscuit.
Track this ingredient
Characteristics
Preparations
Traits
History
German and Dutch bakers used ammonium carbonate salts, later refined to bicarbonate powder, for thin holiday cookies.
Food-grade powdered baker's ammonia became a labelled grocery item in northern Europe.
Industrial cracker lines specified food-grade powder for even, residue-free lift.
Mail-order food-grade powder served bakers outside the traditional grocery range.