What Makes Cookies Rise
Cookies are a delicious baked treat that are popular all over the world. Interestingly, the name cookie is only used in the United States and Canada, in most of the other English speaking countries cookies are called biscuits. The name cookie came from the Dutch word for “little cake.” Cookies are made from a mixture that contains mostly flour, eggs and sugar. However, they also contain other ingredients to help them rise and add to the flavor. If you have ever wondered what makes cookies rise, continue reading.
What Makes Cookies Rise
People that bake cookies use a number of different ingredients to make them rise properly. The most common ingredient used to make cookies rise is baking powder. This is simply baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) with an acid added to create an acid-base reaction. This reaction releases carbon dioxide gas into the batter, which causes bubbles in the mixture and the end result is that the cookie rises. If you only have baking soda in the kitchen you can add a little lemon juice (or even better, cream of tartar) to create the same reaction.
There are other, less common, ways of making cookies rise. Some people choose to use self raising flour in the mixture to get their cookies to rise evenly. More rarely, yeast is used as a rising agent. Other methods include; substituting 1/2 the butter with applesauce, extra egg and chilling the batter in the fridge.
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