A food additive that makes baked goods rise.
An element that is incorporated into dough, batter, or similar preparations to create a gas, which will subsequently expand during the heating process, causing the food to rise and become lighter in texture.
Leavening refers to any method used to introduce air or gas into mixtures of bread, cake, pastry, or pudding to make them rise during cooking. In sponge cakes, for example, air is introduced by beating eggs and sugar over hot water, which acts as the leavening agent. Batters, like Yorkshire pudding, rely mainly on the conversion of water into steam to make them rise, as steam has 1,600 times the volume of the original water. However, the most common leavening agent is carbon dioxide, which can be produced by the action of yeast or chemicals.