[Northkeep] cooking question

[Stephanie Drake]

  Interesting


  Q. I have a Danish cookbook with recipes for Christmas cookies. Several of
them call for hartshorn, also called bakers ammonia. I cannot find it. I
have tried pharmacies, bakeries, and old-time bakers. Is there a substitute
I can use or a source you know of?
  A. Hartshorn is a leavening agent, and a precursor to the baking soda and
baking powder that everyone uses these days. Hartshorn's virtue is that it
readily breaks down into a gas when heated (causing the leavening), but
unless it escapes completely, it leaves a hint or more of the smell of
ammonia. For that reason, it is generally used only in cookie recipes where
it doesn't have to fight its way out of a deep batter.

  Another name for hartshorn is ammonium bicarbonate, and it should be
available in at least some drug stores, but you must first grind it to
powder to use it. The Baker's Catalog at King Arthur Flour doesn't carry it,
so as far as we're concerned, it is not an essential aid to baking. We think
substituting baking powder (at a ratio of 1 teaspoon per cup of flour) would
be a perfectly good solution to your problem. If the recipe you're using
includes a particularly acidic ingredient (such as buttermilk), you might
instead substitute baking soda for the hartshorn, in the ratio of 1/4
teaspoon per cup of flour.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <faolanmacfarland at cox.net>
To: <northkeep at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 9:56 AM
Subject: [Northkeep] cooking question


> I have a friend that mentioned that they  are  interested in medieval
baking & that they are
> trying to find "Baker's Ammonia".   They found it on the Internet that
it's used in old world pastries.  He wants to use it in cookies.
>
> Have anyone ever head of "Baker's Ammonia"?   aka Hartshorn.  and maybe
where to get it?
>
> thanks Faolan
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Northkeep mailing list
> Northkeep at ansteorra.org
> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/northkeep