Both baking soda and baking powder are made using sodium carbonate, which adds sodium to your diet. For those of use who love baked goods, I have some good news. ENER-G produces a no sodium, no potassium, alternative to both the traditional baking soda and powder which uses calcium carbonate instead. You can get Ener-G baking powder/soda at Healthy Heart Market.
When you use Ener-G baking soda, you need to use about double of the regular baking soda in all of your recipes.
When using Ener-G baking powder, you need to use a little less than double what your recipe calls for and get into the oven a little quicker.
One thing to note, it does change the taste of food a bit. Personally, since Ed's blood pressure is under control, I've decided to just use regular baking soda/powder, and just omit the salt from most recipes.
For instructions on making low-sodium breads, I recommend purchasing a bread machine, and a low-sodium cookbook. The salt in normal bread recipes slows the fermentation of yeast, and so if you remove the salt the yeast also needs to be reduced. Therefore, unless you are feeling very adventurous, I recommend buying a low-sodium cookbook that includes bread recipes since they have already adjusted for the lack of salt
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Alicia, I completely agree with you regarding Ener-G baking soda. I've used it a couple of times and been disappointed with its performance. It didn't seem to leaven the baked goods as well as regular baking soda. And like you, I found it gave the baked goods a strange taste, almost metallic. When I tried it with a favorite bran muffin recipe, the texture was horrible, almost like heavy dough bombs. I think it's because you need to use double the amount you would normally use with regular baking soda. So like you, again, I just use the regular stuff. But I try to make recipes that don't call for more than one teaspoon of baking soda at a time.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I've had really good luck with Hain brand Featherweight Baking Powder. It's sodium free but doesn't need to be doubled. I've been using it regulary for the last four years. I haven't noticed any change in leavening ability, taste, or texture from when I used regular baking powder. So now I try to mainly use recipes that call for only baking powder. And also like you, I leave out the salt in all the quick bread, muffins, etc. that I make.
Thanks Shambo! Unfortunately, my husband is also on a low potassium diet due to his kidney disease, so we personally can't use the featherweight baking powder. However, I've heard good things about it from other sources as well. To us, the potassium restriction is more concerning than sodium since with his decreased kidney function the potassium isn't cleared out of his body very well.
ReplyDelete