Baking Soda

Makes one 10-inch cake Butter (for the pan) All-purpose flour (for sprinkling) 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1/3 cup cake flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg 1/2 ...

Makes 12 Great with pulled pork, on their own, or for breakfast with eggs. ½ pound sliced bacon 2½ cups flour 2 teaspoons baking powder ¼ teaspoon baking soda 2 teaspoons kosher salt 2 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening, cut up ½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut up 1½ cups cold buttermilk Extra flour (for sprinkling)

Skillet-sizzled buttermilk cornbread Makes 1 thin 10-inch round This was the cornbread Crescent Dragonwagon made at the inn she ran for 18 years. "It is a basic African-American-style cornbread," she writes in "Bean by Bean," "not strictly Southern or Northern, but taking the best notes from both. " Vegetable oil cooking spray (for the pan) 1 cup unbleached white flour 1 cup stoneground yellow cornmeal 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 1/4 cups buttermilk 2 tablespoons sugar 1 egg 1/4 cup mild...

Q. Can baking soda be substituted for baking powder in recipes? A. These two baking stapes are both leavening agents, but they work at different speeds and in different environments, so they are not interchangeable. Baking soda, or pure sodium bicarbonate, is required in recipes that have an acidic ingredient, such as molasses, sour cream, or chocolate. Baking soda reacts with the acid and moisture, releasing carbon dioxide and causing the dough or batter to rise, yielding fluffy muffins or cake.

Q. Can baking soda be substituted for baking powder in recipes? A. These two baking stapes are both leavening agents, but they work at different speeds and in different environments, so they are not interchangeable. Baking soda, or pure sodium bicarbonate, is required in recipes that have an acidic ingredient, such as molasses, sour cream, or chocolate. Baking soda reacts with the acid and moisture, releasing carbon dioxide and causing the dough or batter to rise, yielding fluffy muffins or cake.

Makes 25 to 30 Very thin and especially crisp, these traditional Belgian cookies, from Flo Braker’s award-winning “Sweet Miniatures,’’ are perfect beside a bowl of summer berries. Shape the dough by hand or use a 6-by-9-inch glass baking dish to give you the same shape. Refrigerate the mixture until firm for at least 4 hours (or make the dough a day ahead). Then cut it carefully with a long, sharp knife into ultra thin slices. Their thinness is what makes these cookies unique.

Last week, I was looking over the high stacks of cookbooks that come to my desk for review. "Purple Citrus & Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean," with its stunning jacket design, jumped out of the pile. The soup is chilled sweet pea and watercress with a rose petal cream. The author, Silvena Rowe, was raised in Bulgaria, near Istanbul (her father is Turkish). Rowe, executive chef at Quince at the May Fair Hotel in London, is a popular TV personality there.

Makes about 3 cups (enough for 20 pancakes) 2 cups flour 1/2 cup dry buttermilk 1 tablespoon baking soda 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1. In a large bowl blend the flour, buttermilk powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt. 2. Store in an airtight container. Adapted from Saco Cultured Buttermilk Blend

Buttery and brightened with a filling and glaze of apricot jam, this close-textured and moist cake is uplifted by the tang of buttermilk and a few spoonfuls of sour cream. Pull the buttery cake from the oven and after it has cooled, split it in half, and spread lemony apricot preserves in the middle. Then carefully reposition the top of the cake and coat it with the remaining glaze. At dessert time, the cake can be served with poached dried apricots or other fruit. Next month, when local strawberries are in season, add a bowl of ripe berries to the table.

Serves 6 My mother, Judith Anderson, and her mother, Martha James, learned this handsome-looking variation on succotash from my great-grandmother, Helen Harris, who called everything she made potluck. The luck, of course, was that you were there to eat it. 6 ears fresh white or yellow corn 1/8 teaspoon baking soda 2 pounds green beans, trimmed and cut on the diagonal into thirds 2 tablespoons butter, cut up Salt and pepper, to taste ...

Rose of Persia cake Makes one 10-inch cake CAKE 1/2 cup dried cherries 1/3 cup unsweetened sour cherry juice Vegetable oil cooking spray (for the pan) 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour mixed with 1 tablespoon sugar (for the pan) 3/4 cup buttermilk or 1/2 cup plain yogurt whisk with 1/4 cup water 2 tablespoons rose water 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cups chickpea flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 2/3 cups sugar 1 cup (2 sticks)

Skillet-sizzled buttermilk cornbread Makes 1 thin 10-inch round This was the cornbread Crescent Dragonwagon made at the inn she ran for 18 years. "It is a basic African-American-style cornbread," she writes in "Bean by Bean," "not strictly Southern or Northern, but taking the best notes from both. " Vegetable oil cooking spray (for the pan) 1 cup unbleached white flour 1 cup stoneground yellow cornmeal 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 1/4 cups buttermilk 2 tablespoons sugar 1 egg 1/4 cup mild...

Makes 2 This dough is firm enough to be kneaded in the bowl and shaped into two rounds. A little whole-wheat flour mixed with all-purpose flour gives the bread more heft than cakey soda breads. Golden raisins add plenty of sweetness. Look for a package marked "Jumbo Raisin Medley" at Trader Joe's; it contains very large golden, light, and flame raisins. 3 1/2  cups all-purpose flour   1  cup whole-wheat flour   1/3  cup sugar   1  teaspoon baking soda   1  teaspoon baking powder  1  teaspoon salt   2  eggs   1 1/3  cups buttermilk   ...

Makes one 8-inch square cake Roberta Strack of Westwood makes a cake handed down to her from her late grandmother Mary Evelyn Kimball, who lived in Hyde Park. She found the recipe written on a piece of paper slipped between the pages of "A New Book of Cookery" (1912) by Fannie Farmer. The flavor of the molasses isn't as pronounced in this cake as in the others, and it has a nice, spicy bite. Butter (for the pan) Flour (for the pan) 1 egg 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup molasses 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1/3 cup butter, melted and cool but still liquid ...

Molasses-ginger cookies Makes 16 2 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 3/4 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon ground ginger 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature 1 cup granulated sugar 1/4 cup dark brown sugar 1/4 cup molasses 1 egg 1. Set the oven at 375 degrees.

Makes one 10-inch Bundt cake Bradford resident Sarah Chase makes this family recipe, which her mother found blowing around a store parking lot when they were vacationing in Maine in the 1970s. We loved this cake, with its strong molasses flavor and taste of coffee, so we doubled the recipe that Chase sent in to bake it in a Bundt pan. The hot coffee gives this cake an extra depth of flavor; the high proportion of molasses and coffee makes a moist crumb. Butter (for the pan)

Makes one 10-inch cake A perfect coffee cake, ideal for a wedding shower, brunch, or as a gift for your weekend hosts, is a matter of finding the right balance of dairy and sparks of flavor. Cinnamon is probably the most beloved morning spice, especially in a buttery sour cream batter. The best way to arrive at a good-looking swirl is to fill the pan with a little more than half of the batter, spoon a mixture of the cinnamon-sugar in a wide circular band in the center, top with the remaining batter, and run a round-bladed knife through both in wide, loopy curls.

Makes one 9-inch square cake Transplanted New Englander Sue Conrad, who now lives in North Redington Beach, Fla. wrote, "I found this recipe years ago in a 1960s Good Housekeeping magazine, back when recipes didn't require ingredients that were exotic or could only be used in one particular dish. " The flavor of molasses is strong (in a good way); the buttermilk tenderizes the cake and gives it a little tang, helped by the lemon sauce. CAKE Butter (for the pan) Flour (for the pan)