Baking with ammonia
Friday, January 9, 2009 | 05:06 PM ET
by Amber Hildebrandt, CBCNews.ca
As soon as I arrived in frigid Manitoba for the holidays, my grandmother handed me two volumes of a cookbook and history of Mennonite cuisine.
But the day before I left, she gave a tiny bag full of something much more valuable to the actual consumption of the cuisine — baking ammonia.
Though unknown to most of my Toronto friends, you can find the leavening agent in grocery stores and even bulk food stores in southeast Manitoba. The white powder comes in hard chunks that have to be broken up before cooking and isn’t harmful when cooked, though you might want to plug your nose when opening the bag.
It is a predecessor to our modern baking powder and baking soda.
I haven’t found a purveyor in Canada’s largest city yet so I was excited to get enough to make a few batches of cookies.
While I successfully substituted a mixture of baking powder and baking soda (1 teaspoon baking powder and 1 teaspoon baking soda for each teaspoon of ammonia) in one recipe, there’s a peppermint cookie recipe from my paternal grandmother that I wouldn’t dream of making without it.
It seems to make them airier than the substitute.
In fact, Wayne Gisslen notes in his book Professional Baking that baking ammonia should only really be used for such small products as cookies that are baked until dry.
He also writes that the powder is sometimes used in products where quick leavening is required, such as cream puffs.
So, while baking ammonia has been usurped by a perhaps more efficient and less smelly successor, it seems it still has its uses in recipes, at least the ones in my grandmother’s splattered and dog-eared cookbooks.
Do you have any strange ingredients in your kitchen cabinets, perhaps something unique to your family recipes?
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From trends and culture to politics and nutrition, Food Bytes serves up tasty tidbits about food and the issues surrounding it that flavour our everyday lives.
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Amber Hildebrandt writes for CBCNews.ca in Toronto. Growing up on a farm in Manitoba, she acquired an insatiable appetite, but it was during a stint in Japan that she developed her discerning tastebuds and "foodie" ways.
Andrea Chiu is an associate producer at CBC Radio Digital. Though she loves to eat, cook and discuss food,
don't ask her to bake. It never turns out well. She tweets as @TOfoodie on Twitter and organizes food and wine events in Toronto called FoodieMeet.
Tara Kimura is the consumer life reporter for CBCNews.ca, covering a wide range of issues that range from rising food costs and the growing organic movement, to new trends in the marketplace.
Andree Lau is a CBC web reporter in Calgary. Her journalism career includes seven years as a CBC-TV reporter. Her own blog called "are you gonna eat that?" chronicles her eating adventures (including sampling snake and camel hoof tendon).
Jessica Wong is a CBCNews.ca writer who loves to eat and cook, as well as discuss, read and watch programming about food, sometimes all at once.
Kevin Yarr, CBCNews.ca's writer in Prince Edward Island, wrote about food and beer for national and regional magazines before joining the CBC. He acquired a desire for new tastes on his first trip to Europe, and an appreciation of eating locally and in season when he finally settled down on P.E.I.
Elizabeth Bridge is a writer with the CBC Digital Archives in Toronto. She first ventured into the kitchen as a child to indulge a sweet tooth by baking cookies and making fudge. A student budget compelled her to be a vegetarian (for a while) and instilled in her an ongoing curiosity about food and cooking.
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Comments
Cynthia
Vancouver
Asian food stores often have it under the name Ammonium bicarbonate
Posted January 19, 2009 03:30 PM
Laura
Hamilton
As a fellow Mennonite, the peppermint cookies are one of my favourites! And they just aren't quite right without baking ammonia. In Hamilton, I find it at Fortinos grocery stores. Look for a very small glass jar, in the baking aisle (usually well above eye level).
Posted January 27, 2009 11:45 AM
AlyseM
Vancouver
I posted when this story first came out and it never went up.
I answered the question
"Do you have any strange ingredients in your kitchen cabinets, perhaps something unique to your family recipes?"
This is the last time I will post on this forum.
You are very rude.
Posted January 28, 2009 08:31 PM
Crystal
Winnipeg
So, that is the secret to Grandma's cookies! I think it is time to snoop in her pantry to find more secrets....and that stashed bottle of chokecherry wine!
Posted February 5, 2009 10:13 AM
Crystal
Winnipeg
So, that is the secret to Grandma's cookies! I think it is time to snoop in her pantry to find more secrets....and that stashed bottle of chokecherry wine!
Posted February 5, 2009 10:45 AM
Sheryl Ackerman
Well, i am just starting my search for Baker's Ammonia? My mom always used to rave about her Aunt's Hirshonsalt cookies! I have decided to try to make some to take to my Aunt's for Christmas but boy, in South Texas, it seems almost impossible! If I do find some locally, would you mind sharing your recipe for the Mint cookies? (I have seen others mention that it can be purchased online from the King Arthur website)
Posted November 23, 2009 08:14 PM
kathleen
I have also been on the hunt for baking ammonia for peppermint cookies. The other ingredient that my Oma's recipe called for is peppermint oil (not extract). Anybody know where in Calgary I can find either or both? And does it make much difference to substitute extract? Unfortunately most of the bakers of these old Mennonite recipes aren't around anymore. Were anyone's gramma's cookies iced in pink icing?
Posted December 18, 2009 03:03 PM
Elle
Calgary
For Kathleen. You can find baking ammonia at Edelweiss on the corner of 19th Street and 20 Avenue N.W., Calgary. For recipes, you can look for "Mennonite Food and Folkways from South Russia, Vol. 1 & 2."
Posted December 25, 2009 06:51 PM