Baking Soda vs. Baking Powder: Which Leavener Makes a Better Cookie?

Though I don’t usually give it much thought, nearly all dessert recipes include baking powder or baking soda. These two staple ingredients may appear identical, but is there a difference between them? To answer this question, I conducted four trials on a classic treat: chocolate chip cookies. With the same base recipe, the batches differed only by the inclusion of baking powder or baking soda. Additionally, I used neither in some cookies, and those acted as a control group.

Overall, this recipe produces a cakey, biscuit-like cookie, but the trial groups varied depending on what leavener I used.

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups flour, sifted
• ½ tsp. coarse sea salt + more to sprinkle over cookies after baking
• One of the following:
  • 1 ½ tsp. baking soda
  • 1 ½ tsp. baking powder
  • ¾ tsp. baking soda and ¾ tsp baking powder
• ½ cup unsalted butter
• ¼ cup white sugar
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 1 egg 
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.
3. Lightly whisk together flour, salt and the leavening ingredient of your choosing until just combined—do not overmix.
4. In a separate bowl, use an electric or handheld mixer to beat together butter and sugars. Once the mixture has turned into a paste, add eggs and vanilla, and mix until combined.
5. While stirring the batter, slowly pour in about ¼ of the dry ingredient mixture. 
6. Repeat the previous process two more times. With the last of the mixture, only mix slightly, stopping before the ingredients are fully combined. 
7. Add the chocolate chips and fold them into the batter, incorporating the last of the dry ingredients.
8. Roll the dough into roughly 1 tbsp. balls and place on the prepared baking tray, pressing down slightly. 
9. Bake for 15 minutes.
10. After removing from the oven, sprinkle coarse sea salt on top.
11. Enjoy!

When baking powder was the only leavener, the cookies were pale and maintained their original shape, resulting in dense, hearty cookies. 

In the batch with baking soda, the cookies expanded in the oven, flattening out and turning light golden brown in color.

The cookies with both leaveners were a middle ground between the tests. They darkened slightly and spread out a little, while still remaining fluffy. It’s important to note that I used the same total amount of leavener as in the other batches. 

When I didn’t use any leavener, the cookies didn’t rise as much as their counterparts. In contrast to the baking soda cookies, which maintained their size in the oven, these lost their initial circular shape. The bottoms were also splotchy in some places, with less even coloring, unlike the other batches.

After this experiment, it’s evident that baking soda and baking powder are not interchangeable. Choose the leavener based on your cookie preferences. For a denser, thick cookie, perhaps baking powder is the way to go, but if one would rather eat a more airy, classic cookie, I recommend baking soda. At least when it comes to chocolate chip cookies, you can’t go wrong with what you decide. Even including neither produces a solid cookie!