An Analysis of Acid-Base Reaction and Fermentation Induced Leavening Agents in in Bread Making

Abstract

Leavening is used to describe the culinary process in which an agent is added to raise bread during baking. Leavening agents release air bubbles inside the dough, and this creates the fluffy texture of well-raised bread. For example, yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is a common leavening agent used in baking, which produces carbon dioxide (CO₂) during fermentation by converting sugar into CO₂ gas and ethanol (C₂H₅OH) (Miller 523). On the other hand, chemical leavening agents depend on the phenomenon of acid-base reaction to produce CO₂ for leavening in baking (Miller 523). The two popular chemical leavening agents were brought into our attention: baking powder and citric acid and baking soda. In this experiment, we showed equivalent amounts of chemical leavening agents cannot substitute the same amount of yeast as leavening agents, and we discovered baking powder was a slightly better leavening agent compared to citric acid and base mixture, as the mean volume of baking powder leavened bread was 42% less than the volume of bread baked with yeast, while the volume of citric acid and baking soda leavened bread was 46% less than the volume of bread baked with yeast.