What can I make with just Flour, Water and Baking Soda?

What can I make with just flour, water and baking soda as the main i8ngredients?

Flatbread?

Irish soda bread

I would suggest bannock, though it usually has some lard in it.

Often it was formed into a ribbon and wrapped around a green peeled stick, and roasted around a fire.

Good article on the history of bannock:
https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/bannock

Bannock is usually unleavened, oval-shaped and flat. The version that we know today came from Scotland. In its most rudimentary form, it is made of flour, water, and fat or lard. Milk, salt, and sugar are often added, depending on the recipe. It is traditionally cooked by mixing the ingredients into a large, round biscuit and baked in a frying pan.

Anne Miller wrote:What can I make with just flour, water and baking soda as the main i8ngredients?

flour, water and baking soda as the 'main' ingredients or the 'only' ingredients?

I would need to know what type of flour?
whole wheat? unbleached white? corn flour? any of the seed or nut flours?

If white wheat flour I might make paste and then paper mache....baking soda might be a good ingredient to add since some recipes call for salt.

I think someone mentioned sourdough...the starter only uses a wheat flour and water, sometimes rye flour? and once a sponge is made some add baking soda to moderate the acidity and help the rise.

We used to make chapatis, rolled very thin wheat flour and water dough, maybe with baking soda...quite tough and chewy but filled a gap when we had a lot of wheat berries to grind....cooked them on the wood stove.

Another thought.....If the baking soda is intended as leavening then in order for it to work,, if no other ingredients are used, the flour and water will have to be acidified in some way.

I enjoy these 'what if' thinking exercises.
In the past we would run up short, like really really short on ingredients and have to take some risks in unknown directions to make a palatable meal,

Maybe "Baking soda" is supposed to be "Baking Powder"? I used to get the names mixed up a lot, but learned to differentiate them because my husband can't have baking powder, but can have baking soda.

In school, kids often make volcanos by mixing baking soda (alkaline) and vinegar (acidic). This causes a chemical reaction that makes a lot of bubbles. If we do this in a our bread or cakes or pancakes, we get little bubbles in dough that make the baked food rise. We basically make a little volcano!

Baking soda is sodium barcarbonate. It's alkaline, and by it's own, it will make things taste more alkaline (like pretzels, which are traditionally dipped in an alkaline bath). By itself, it won't rise the bread unless you're using a very acidic water. We want a "volcano" in our bread, so we need both an alkaline and an acid.

Baking powder is baking soda PLUS cream of tartar (an acid). Since they're both dry, they don't react and can be stored together. Corn starch is often added to keep them from getting wet and reacting with one another. When you add water to baking powder, the acidic cream of tartar reacts with the alkaline baking soda to make a little "volcano" in your bread, creating the rise we want.

If you don't have baking powder, and just have baking soda, you won't get a rise unless you add some sort of acid ingredient. Sometimes I use orange juice, or kombucha, or apple cider vinegar, or whey or yogurt or buttermilk.  They'll all acidic, and so will make a "volcanic" reaction in our bread, creating little bubbles that will make things rise.

(For a fun science experiment, you can test your baking powder to see if it will react by adding water. If it makes happy little bubbles when you add water, you're good to go! If it doesn't you might have baking soda and need to add some sort of acid. Think of baking powder as a bath bomb. Bath bombs work the same way. They have two dry powders--an acid and an alkaline--in a dry ball form. Add water, and you get a bubbly/volcanic reaction!)

I do not buy baking powder because it does not last so, yes, it is baking soda.

Just three ingredients, Just flour, water and baking soda.

https://permies.com/t/174767/cooks-baking-powder-invented-Resources

https://permies.com/wiki/168291/Bake-Baking-Powder-Leigh-Tate

this thread reminds me of something from years ago when a friends son told his grandparents 'all we eat is wheat and water' when, in fact, the foods served there were wonderful, although, yes, a lot of chipatis and other flat breads.

Anne, I'm assuming this is not an empty pantry necessitating this question but rather an exersize in working with limited ingredients?

Judith, I am always on the look out for easy, cheap frugal cooking.

My food storage pantry will stretch probably for a lifetime.

Just (all purpose) flour, water and baking soda ....

When I was growing up we always had bread on the table with a main dish and two sides.  And milk or tea to drink.  

Anne Miller wrote:I do not buy baking powder because it does not last so, yes, it is baking soda.

Just three ingredients, Just flour, water and baking soda.

https://permies.com/t/174767/cooks-baking-powder-invented-Resources

https://permies.com/wiki/168291/Bake-Baking-Powder-Leigh-Tate

I really love those threads by Leigh! Here's a thread where she goes into Basic Kitchen Chemistry

But my curiosity didn't stop there, because while I use baking soda often, I never use cream of tartar except for this recipe. Then too, baking soda is cheap and easy to find, but cream of tartar isn't. Was there another way? That's when I got interested in kitchen chemistry.

A simplified sciencey looking formula for this is:
an acid + an alkali = carbon dioxide

The carbon dioxide bubbles up through the batter and when baked quickly, creates light and tender quick breads. In homemade baking powder, cream of tartar is the acid, and baking soda is the alkali. The corn starch or arrowroot powder is the buffer. If I just mixed baking soda and cream of tartar in a dish, they would immediately begin to react and neutralize one another. A buffer slows the reaction down but doesn't stop it. That's why baking powder has a shelf life.

So, I reasoned, since baking soda is cheaper and easier to find than cream of tartar, what can I substitute for cream of tartar and get the same results? That started me of on a fascinating journey that led to writing How To Bake Without Baking Powder. I researched and experimented, and you can experiment too.

List of Kitchen Acids:

Vinegar

Lemon juice

Pickle juice

Tangy fruit juice

Tomato juice

Molasses (treacle)

Golden syrup

Honey

Brown sugar (because contains molasses)

Maple syrup

Sour milk

Sour cream

Buttermilk

Yogurt

Kefir

Whey

Cocoa powder (natural or non-processed, i.e. not Dutch)

Citric acid

Coffee

Sourdough starter

It was a lot of fun to experiment! Taste-wise, my husband never knew the difference. ;)

I don't have access to Leigh's books that you linked to, but she does have a bunch of DIY Leavening Power - Recipes! here on permies. Looking at all of those recipes, they all have some sort of acid to react with the baking soda. There's coffee, buttermilk, molasses, vinegar, pickle juice, apple juice, chocolate, etc. There's always an acid with the alkaline baking soda.

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If you want a bulk dry storage acid to keep along with your baking soda, citric acid will do the trick. It's also handy for cleaning toilets. Or just use whatever acidic additive you have around.

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But, it seems like maybe you don't want to buy or use anything other than flour and water and baking soda. If you use baking soda in the bread without any acid, your food will taste really alkaline and might give you diarrhea (this has happened to my husband). You could probably make a wild yeast sourdough, that just uses the flour to ferment? Then you could do baking soda washes on the outside of the loaf to make a crispy brown loaf. This would be good for pretzels, too. But, you'd not be using much baking soda at all.

If you just have a lot of baking soda to use up, maybe use it for cleaning? I buy baking soda in bulk for cleaning.

Maybe broaden to making something with those three ingredients plus an acid from the list Nicole posted or maybe plus one other ingredient of any kind?
I browsed the links to Leigh's recipes and they all have additional ingredients.

I'm at a loss for making any food that has only flour, water and baking soda....interesting to try though🤔

While I watch different TV shows, I see folks in other countries making breads.

It seems so easy, they mix it up, throw it into hot grease and what ever it is puffs up and looks yummy.

All I can find is flat bread and pita bread.

I'd say, if one wanted to use only flour, water, and baking soda, to first make a paste of the flour and water, cover the bowl with a dishtowel, then let it sit overnight, or even a day or two until bubbles started to form. In other words, let it ferment a bit. Then it is slightly acidic and the alkaline baking soda will react with it to create carbon dioxide bubbles, giving the final baked product a bit of a rise.

Anne Miller wrote:It seems so easy, they mix it up, throw it into hot grease and what ever it is puffs up and looks yummy.

From what I understand, there's only two ways to get bread/dough/batter to puff up:

(A) A chemical reaction of an alkaline (like baking soda) plus an acid (like vinegar). These are the "quick breads," muffins, and fluffy pancakes. You can use different alkaline things, like lye or baking soda. You can use different acidic things, like: vinegar, juice, coffee, molasses, cream of tartar, yogurt, buttermilk, etc. The alkaline thing is usually the hardest to find. It sounds like you've got lots of it, so that makes it easy. Just add any sort of acid (like from Leigh lovely list) and you'll get a puffy reaction. This is how I make most of my breads and cakes, because my husband can't have yeast. I usually just use whatever acidic thing I have on hand to go with my baking soda.

(B) Yeast. This can be store bought yeast or a wild yeast or a sourdough starter someone gave you. I don't have much experience with this. This is probably what the people in the videos are using, though.

Both of those create little air bubbles in the dough or batter, which is what makes things puffy and yummy.

Anne Miller wrote:All I can find is flat bread and pita bread.

Yep, without some sort of thing to make air bubbles, you'll get flat breads and crackers and hard tack. You need something to make bubbles to get puffy bread, cakes, muffins, pancakes, etc.

I've had good success with making my own sourdough starter.  I was gifted a copy of this book: https://permies.com/wiki/368902/Sourdough-Fail-Kate-Downham and basically followed the method in it.  

(Our tap water is piped in from Wales & has low mineral content, so is considered soft, &only lightly chlorinated, so I cheated & got away with using it).

I've made successful wheat, multigrain, mixed grain & legume, and gluten free starters this way.

Apparently there's a pretty wide geographical range of "friendly" yeast & bacteria strains in typical sourdough starters!