Amateur and accomplished cooks alike will be familiar with leavening agents. A leavening agent is also known as a raising agent. The baking product is used to create air pockets to ensure baked products rise. The Italian Home Kitchen blog team are passionate about food. However, today, we would like to tell you about the different types of raising agents available. Our team of professional cooks have tested various leavening agents and have come up with an efficient list of raising agents for you to trial.
Alternative Baking Leaveners
- Ammonium Carbonate or Bakers Ammonia
- Original Bakewell Cream
- Instant Clearjel
- Signature Secrets
- Cream of Tartar
- Xanthan Gum
- Bakewell Cream Baking Powder
- Whipped Cream Stabilizer
These eight thickening agents and baking leaveners are supreme food thickeners for home baking. All eight effective culinary leavening and thickening agents are used by professional bakers. While many of these types of leaveners may sound exotic, they are commonly used in baking to achieve different textures, tastes and consistencies in doughs, cakes and other baked goods.
General Information about the Eight Baking Leaveners and Thickening Agents
- Bakers Ammonia (Ammonium Carbonate) was once referred to as Hartshorn. The chemical cooking leavener was widely used before you could buy baking soda and baking powder. We find this old-fashioned raising agent makes the crispiest crackers and cookies
- We found Original Bakewell Cream acts in the same way as Cream of Tartar. The gluten-free raising agent is ideal for cookie baking
- Instant Clearjel is a highly-concentrated thickener. We discovered the Kosher thickening agent was perfect for making thick fruit pie juices
- Signature Secrets is a good all-round thickening agent. We whisked the Kosher thickener into cakes, sauces, custards and pies. Our custard pies were unusually creamy and light
- Cream of Tartar is yet another old-fashioned baking leavener. We used the raising agent in old-fashioned biscuit recipes. Our cooks also used it to make creamy icing and tasty candy. Use cream of tartar to make the perfect meringue, you won’t be disappointed
- In our opinion, Xanthan Gum is a great emulsifier, stabilizer and baking leavener. The kosher thickening agent is also gluten-free. We acknowledge some gluten-free treats lack texture and body, however, we discovered Xanthan Gum improves gluten-free recipes
- The Original Bakewell Cream Baking Powder is an amazing raising agent. The fast-acting, non-aluminium, kosher leavener is ideal for baking muffins, cakes, biscuits and cookies
- Add a little Kosher whipped cream stabilizer before whipping to prevent the cream from separating. We found the cream stabilizer also helped the dairy product to maintain body and freshness
With the abundance of modern leaveners such as baking powder and instant yeast widely available in grocery stores these days, many of these alternative leaveners are not commonly used anymore; however, if you are using traditional recipes, you may find that they call for these types of leaveners. Some more adventurous bakers may want to try using some of these leaveners, as they offer different textures, and can lead to softer cakes, stretchier doughs, and interesting tastes to all of your baking projects.
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