December 8, 2015 - 7:02am
Inconsistent Soapy Taste
Hi all! Newbie here. I usually make breads and muffins from oat flour. I recently started using certified gluten free oat flour. I had a batch of muffins come out with a soapy taste. I tried a different recipe with the GF oat flour - no soapy taste. Tried the original muffins (with conventional oat flour) - no soapy taste. I used the same baking powder in all recipes. Anyone have any thoughts on why just one out of three batches would come out tasting soapy?
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Can you replicate the soapy version? If not, chalk it up to a mixing bowl that wasn't rinsed well after washing, unicorn farts or simply who knows.
gary
Okay, that made me laugh a little too loud!
Yes, it has been replicated. I actually make baking mixes that I give to friends and family. Someone else originally identified the soapy taste in the GF Harvest Muffin. So I made one I had on hand and sure enough, tasted soapy. I then tried a GF Banana Bread - no soapy taste. Then a traditional Harvest Muffin - no soapy taste. The ONLY difference between the GF Harvest and traditional Harvest is conventional oats vs GF oats, and where there's no soapy taste with the GF banana bread I feel like I've tested the different variables. Stumped!
My guess is that it is the flour. Possibly some ingredient in the banana bread is counteracting or covering up whatever is causing the the soapy taste that is evident in the muffin. I have run across flour that had off tastes one year, but perfectly fine another year.
That is so bizarre! Thank you for your input on that. I'll order a new bag of flour (this one is almost gone anyway) and see if I continue to have the same challenges.
Thanks for your thoughts!
Could you have forgotten the salt perhaps?
I get a very distinct soapy taste when I forget to add salt to my bread. Do you remember if it was harder than usual to develop the gluten in the batch too? This could also backup the missing salt theory.
If not, it is definitely unicorn farts then.
I've never heard of it happening, but it occurs to me that fat + alkali makes soap. Does the recipe use baking soda plus a fat of some sort? I doubt you want to revisit the unicorn fart hypothesis, so making soap or bad flour.
gary
is notorious for its soapy taste if either too much is used or it is not heated long enough with proper moisture. So make sure you are not using tablespoons instead of teaspoonfuls! ;-) I've found most recipes that employ BP can stand to be cut down to about half the amount called for, and still come out fine — especially if care is taken to separate the eggs, beat the whites and fold them into the batter after all the other liquid ingredients have been incorporated.
And yeah, some recipes mask the soapy taste better than others. Worse comes to worst, you can always remark to your dinner guests that they will notice a particularly clean flavor to your muffins.