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I used cake flour given that char siu bao requires a low-protein flour, and kneaded and proofed both batches of dough. Batch A had approximately 0.6% ammonium bicarbonate in its dough (this recipe really called for a microscale), while Batch B had none. I made two batches of char siu bao, one with ammonium bicarbonate (let’s call this Batch A), and the other with exactly the same ingredients, minus ammonium bicarbonate (Batch B). The smell alone made me nervous about putting it into my bread dough, but who are we to question traditional recipes? A deep inhale of the stuff reminded me of my cat’s litter box. Upon opening the bag of ammonium bicarbonate, I could tell that the substance definitely lived up to its name.
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But I was curious about its effect on buns, which had become a lockdown obsession of mine. The ingredient is therefore advised to be used in recipes for thin and crispy biscuits, rather than cakes or bread. However, in the presence of high-moisture doughs such as cake batter or bread dough, the ammonia gas dissolves in the water resulting in a sharp, pungent odour in your baked product. Like baking soda on steroids, ammonium bicarbonate releases both ammonia and carbon dioxide when decomposed, making it a super leavening agent. If you want your bao to break open and reveal its soft fluffy texture, or if you want your bo lo bao to have that signature crack on its surface, or if you wish for your you tiao to have a crispy texture upon deep-frying, you’re going to need to get acquainted with ammonium bicarbonate. It was used as a leavening agent before baking powder, and somewhere along the way, it ended up in the doughs of many traditional Chinese recipes. I wanted to find out for myself, so I got my hands on some in pursuit of the perfect char siu bao.Īmmonium bicarbonate is an ingredient found in many old European recipes for cookies and biscuits. Some recipes were adamant that the ingredient be included while some thought it was necessary. Trawling the internet for char siu bao recipes, I noticed an ingredient that kept popping up: ammonium bicarbonate, or chou fen ( 臭粉), which translates directly to stinky powder. Come 2020, when many of us turned our hobbies up to eleven, I found myself gaining more and more confidence in baking, eventually becoming interested in Chinese breads and pastries. Things will all just work out if I put all my faith into a recipe and follow it to the exact milligram. Truly believing in the hard and fast rule that baking is an exact science, I’ve never questioned the why or how. It’s extremely difficult to find, and the only place I could find it was Ace Hardware. Your ammonia must be unscented and contain absolutely nothing but ammonia and water. As a home baker, I’ve always found leavening agents a mystery. In a separate beaker or shot glass, add 20 ml.s of 10 ammonia (Ace Hardware brand) to 20 ml.s of distilled water.