Homemade Baking Powder

Most baking powder you buy in the store contains aluminum compounds, like sodium aluminum sulfate or sodium aluminum phosphate.  In the past few years, alarms have been raised due to the possible negative long term health effects of aluminum, such as bone degeneration and Alzheimer's Disease.  Although, the association between aluminum and Alzheimer's has yet to be proved, I have decided NOT to take any chances.  So, a couple of years ago, I started making my own baking powder.

The ingredients are simple and easily obtained - baking soda, cream of tartar and arrowroot (or cornstarch).  Recipes are readily available on the internet, but the one I use calls for 1 part baking soda to 2 parts each cream of tartar and arrowroot.

The white powder in the jar on the right is arrowroot.  I bought it several months ago in a large cellophane bag and put it in the jar for long-term storage.  When I need to make up a batch of baking powder, I generally use 1 tablespoon of baking soda, 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar and 2 tablespoons of arrowroot.  This makes 9 teaspoons of baking powder.

I keep the mixture in the plastic container below.