The dough for muffins, pancakes and shortbread cookies does not contain yeast. How to achieve its friability and crumbling? The splendor of such baked goods is given by carbon dioxide, which is released during the interaction of soda and an acidic environment.
Among the 3 existing ways to extinguish soda with vinegar, only one is effective.
1 – Grandma’s way: soda is collected in a spoon, poured with vinegar, wait until the mixture “boils over” and the result is added to the dough.
As a result, all the carbon dioxide that should “fluff” the baked goods goes into the air. The only salvation is if the hostess takes more soda and the one that did not have time to react with vinegar will already show itself in the dough.
2 – Typical method: Soda is gently poured into a mixture of liquid dough ingredients (flour has not been added yet) and poured with a few drops of vinegar. Then mix, trying to capture all the powder. After 2-3 seconds, the mixture will react, you need to mix the entire contents, distributing the baking powder throughout the volume.
In this case, most of the carbon dioxide remains in the dough.
3 – The correct way: Soda should be added to dry ingredients and vinegar to liquid ingredients. That is, add soda to flour, sugar and other bulk dough components (be sure to distribute it throughout the volume). In a separate bowl, mix all the liquid ingredients (kefir, eggs, sour cream, etc.). Pour in the required amount of vinegar here and mix. Then the contents of the two bowls are combined and the dough is kneaded.
So the powder reacts already inside the mixture, and the carbon dioxide is completely retained.