Differences in Leavening Between Chemical and Biological Leaveners

Abstract

This study is an experiment into examining the differences that chemical and biological leaveners have on the final product of a baked good. To accomplish this, three recipes of bread (each with a different leavener (baking soda, baking powder, and yeast) were baked with a standardized amount of dry ingredients. After baking these loaves were measured to find their overall density, and then later these densities were compared between recipes. The initial hypothesis was that biological leaveners would be better at leavening compared to chemical leaveners due to the biological leavening process that takes place. After baking 9 different bread loves and conducting a one-way ANOVA test, we concluded that there was a significant difference in density when the biological leaveners were compared to the chemical leaveners. This aligns with previous research indicating that biological leaveners incorporate more gas into bread doughs.