Can I use yeast instead of baking powder? What is the difference in
using the two? Are they inter-changeable? I keep both in my freezer
but the baking powder seems dead. The yeast works fine.

In article >, jdavis000
@centurytel.net says...
> Can I use yeast instead of baking powder? What is the difference in
> using the two? Are they inter-changeable? I keep both in my freezer
> but the baking powder seems dead. The yeast works fine.
>
They both do the same thing (make baked goods rise), but they're not
generally interchangeable.

Yeast is a living organism which produces carbon dioxide when it
multiplies. It needs warmth, moisture and sugars to multiply from its
usual dry, dormant form. For yeast to make something rise, the item has
to have some sort of structure that will hold the carbon dioxide in
bubbles and not collapse, and the yeast need time to multiply. Bread
dough provides that structure. When, usually after at least one rise,
the item is baked, the yeast is killed off, but the gas it produced
remains captured by the expanded and hardened structure of the baked
dough.

Baking powder is a chemical compound that reacts to moisture and heat to
produce gas, which makes the item being baked rise. It requires much
less time to do its work compared to yeast, so it is mixed into the
dough or batter just prior to baking along with the other ingredients.
The gas produced by baking powder is captured as the dough or batter
bakes and solidifies. Usually, ingredients like eggs provide more of
the structure to trap the gas, rather than flour alone as in yeast
breads.

I've made good pancakes with yeast or sourdough batters in place of
baking powder, but that's about the only interchangeable use that I have
experience with.

You can Google on "baking powder vs. yeast" or words to that effect and
probably come with more detailed explanations.

Bob