Baked In Science

Take a deeper dive into chemical leavening in part two of our look into the systems help so many baked goods produce the final perfect texture and structure. Chemical leavening systems are essential to a number of baked goods. Blends, like baking powders, are typically made up of a food-grade base, a leavening acid, and an inert filler like starch. They must be blended at just the right ratio into your formula for success. In this episode your podcast host Mark Floerke explores the impact these systems have on the development of products. He is joined by Dr. Sharon Book, a bakery technologist for ICL Food Specialties. After obtaining her MS and PhD degrees focusing on cereal starch and proteins, she went on to work for Monsanto investigating how to make bread without yeast, resulting in a patent. Now with ICL, a company that manufactures a portfolio of leavening acids, her work focuses on researching chemical leavening and baked goods. Mark and Sharon’s conversation starts with phosphates and leavening aci