Why make your own homemade baking powder?
If you are following a grain-free diet such as a Ketogenic Diet or the Wheat-Belly Diet then you'll want to avoid baking powder because it contains cornstarch.
Or, maybe you're in the middle of a recipe and realized you don't have baking powder in the house.
Here, I'll share four ways you can make your own baking powder with common household ingredients.
The Down Low On Baking Powder
Is regular store-bought baking powder keto?
(Or acceptable on a grain-free diet?)
The short answer is No.
Baking Powder is not grain-free.
The good news is...
It's very easy to make your own homemade baking powder that's keto approved.
The fact that the vast majority of baking powders currently on the market are not keto-friendly doesn't seem to be well known. I can't tell you how many "Keto recipes" I've come across that are using baking powder. It is something that is easy to miss. I mean really. Who would have thought?
The Baking Powder "Oops!"
I figured out that baking powder is not keto-friendly by pure accident. I was converting a number of my favorite quick bread
recipes to keto versions. (I've been creating recipes since I was 15 and was challenging myself by learning how to cook with keto flours). Anyhow, I flipped over the baking powder can and looked at the ingredients.
eeeeek! Cornstarch!
I instantly sat down on the computer and googled "Is baking powder keto?". When I did this search, there wasn't much that came up. Digging through brand after brand of baking powder, I realized that the vast majority do contain cornstarch. Many of them also contain aluminum which isn't very healthy to ingest.
Therefore, cornstarch is not keto-friendly.
Which means that the answer to the question "Is baking powder keto"? is.... Nope.
So what do we do?
We can learn how to make our own single-acting Keto baking powder!!
There are just a few things we need to know.
What Ingredients Do I Need?
The ingredients of homemade baking powder can vary quite a bit. All of the recipes call for baking soda. For the other part of the equation, you can use cream of tartar, vinegar, lemon juice, or citric acid (food grade).
Check Expiration Dates
Before making homemade baking powder, check your expiration dates!
It's sooooo easy just to use what's in our cupboard. If you're anything like me...the stuff in there could have been sitting in there for a year, or two, or three. I mean how much of this stuff do we really go through?
So, the first thing I did was check the expiration dates. My cream of tartar and baking soda were borderline, so I ran to the store and replaced them.
4 Ways To Make Homemade Baking Powder
All of these recipes use acid-base reactions. The base in all of these recipes is baking soda (sodium bicarbonate).
The acid in each recipe varies.
For the Cream of Tartar & Citric Acid recipes, simply add these into your dry mix.
When you are working with a liquid (vinegar or lemon juice), add that into your wet mix and the baking soda into your dry mix.
When you get to the part of your recipe where you mix wet and dry ingredients, you'll see a "foaming" reaction as the acid-base creates CO2.
How To Make Homemade Baking Powder with Cream of Tartar
Let's start with my favorite method for making DIY baking powder.
Simply mix baking soda and cream of tartar in a 1:2 ratio.
For example-- you could make a small batch of baking powder by mixing 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar in a small bowl.
This will yield 1 tablespoon of baking powder.
Note: I was totally tempted to make up a big batch of this but wondered if that would work. Unfortunately, pre-mixing seems to give flat results later on. But it's really not a big deal to mix this up quickly when baking.
📖 Recipe
Homemade Baking Powder
If you're looking for a keto baking powder (a grain free baking powder), the easiest way to accomplish this is to make it yourself. This is my go-to recipe for grain free baking powder because it's easy to make on the fly. Happy baking!
Print Pin Rate Servings: 1 recipe
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
Instructions
- To make your grain-free baking powder, all you need to do mix baking soda and cream of tartar
- Use the adjuster in this recipe card to adjust how much you want to make. One batch will yield 1 tablespoon of baking powder.
- You should use this right away. It's generally not recommended to make this homemade baking soda in a large batch and store it in the cupboard because it will lose its effectiveness. However, I find it is very fast and easy to mix this up quickly when baking.
Notes
You'll notice carbs in the nutrition facts and this is because cream of tarter contains some carbs.
Nutrition
Calories: 15kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 0g | Fat: 0g | Saturated Fat: 0g | Cholesterol: 0mg | Sodium: 1261mg | Potassium: 990mg | Sugar: 0g | Iron: 0.2mg
Now let's look at a few other ways to make your own baking powder at home!
(This would be a great science experiment for those of you with kids!!)
Homemade Baking Powder with Lemon Juice
To make a substitute for 1 tsp of baking powder with lemon juice:
¼ tsp baking soda and 1 ½ tsp lemon juice
Add the baking soda to your dry mix and add the lemon juice into your wet mix. When you combine the dry and liquid mixes, you will notice a "foaming" reaction which is the acid from the lemon juice mixing with the baking soda and forming CO2.
Homemade Baking Powder with Vinegar
To make a substitute for 1 tsp of baking powder with vinegar:
¼ tsp baking soda and 1 tsp vinegar
Like the lemon juice recipe above, you'll add the vinegar to your wet mix and the baking soda to your dry mix. You'll notice the same "foaming" reaction as you did with the lemon juice.
You can also use citric acid to make your own baking powder. Make sure you have food-grade citric acid.
Homemade Baking Powder with Citric Acid
To make baking powder with citric acid you'll use a smaller amount of citric acid than baking soda.
In a small bowl, mix: 1 tsp baking soda and ½ tsp of citric acid. This yields 1.5 tsp of homemade baking powder. You can use this in your dry mix as a direct substitution for your baking powder.
A Few Notes On Homemade Baking Powder
When you are using homemade baking powder, it's important to quickly move your baked goods to the oven. Many of the commercial baking powders are "double acting" and contain aluminum. When the aluminum heats up, it creates a second reaction which helps give your baked product the texture and volume you desire.
Most of what I read on making your own baking powder recommends NOT making up a big batch in advance because the mixture will clump or lose it's potency quickly. It's really not that much work to substitute baking powder with a few simple ingredients.
You'll notice that my recipes on my YouTube Channel Tara's Keto Kitchen and here on this website are set up so that the work is done for you. You'll never have to use baking powder for one of my Keto recipes. (I do also have traditional recipes that were developed in my pre-keto days)
Do you know another homemade baking powder trick or tip? Post it in the comments below!
P.S. This was an excellent reminder for me to read labels. Even if it's just simple baking ingredients that I wouldn't even imagine could have something in it that I don't want to ingest.
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Carrie says
The amount of carbs in the baking powder from store due to cornstarch is so minute. Typically it’s 1.5 grams for your entire recipe.
Tara Wright, CHC, MBA says
Yes, that's true 🙂
Deborrah says
True, but it still makes it not Keto-friendly in recipes where the quantity is large. The recipes are analyzed by total amount, not by individual serving, then ranked by net carbs per serving. Commercial baking powder can throw that off. It's better to just avoid the drama if possible, and these recipes make that possible.
Shannon says
After my kids anaphylactic episode, I learned to read everything even if I had used the product before. Those stinkin' companies are always fiddling with ingredients. Probably trying for cheaper.
Tzippy says
If you look carefully, you can find baking powder that is kosher for Passover and therefore contains no cornstarch or any other grain. I use it all year round with perfect results every time.
Tara Wright, CHC, MBA says
Great tip!! I'll have to look for it.
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KetoCookKC says
Wow, so much knowledge! Thanks! Do you have any recommendation for a leavening agent to use in fathead dough that you do NOT cook right away? Making the dough and freezing has been a time saver, but would like to fluff it up a bit.
Tara Wright, CHC, MBA says
Great question. I have never actually tried freezing the fathead dough. If I were going to try that, I'd start with 1/2 tsp baking soda to experiment!
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