Why and How to Use Lecithin in Baking and Cooking

I was recently talking with my wife and wondered why and how is lecithin used in baking and cooking. I know how to use it to make bread but I wondered what else it could be used for. So, I did some research and some actual testing to find common ways that lecithin is used in both baking and cooking.

So, how and why do you use lecithin in baking and cooking? The two biggest reasons to use lecithin are to mix two things together that don’t want to be mixed (emulsify them) and to add a natural preservative for shelf life. How to use lecithin is a bit trickier question and is mostly determined by what you are trying to bake or cook and what you are trying to achieve. I’ll go into more detail below.

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Why Use Lecithin in the Kitchen?

First, lecithin is a natural preservative and will add shelf life to whatever you’re baking or cooking. If you look at the ingredients of most commercial goods, you will notice lecithin in almost everything. That is because it will add shelf life to products without adding any harmful chemicals.

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Second, and maybe more importantly, it is a great emulsifier. “Emulsifier” is a fancy way to say that it helps two or more things mix together better. The definition of emulsifier is “a substance that stabilizes a mixture, such as a food additive used to stabilize foods.”

An example of this is trying to get oil and vinegar to mix together for a dressing. You can put them together and mix them with a whisk and they seem to mix together. However, this emulsion, will only be temporary and soon they will separate. If you add an emulsifier such as lecithin to this and then mix it together the emulsion will stabilize and become more permanent. This is because the oil and vinegar are now bonded together. The lecithin has one side of it that likes oil and one side of it that likes vinegar so it links them together. The best way for me to visualize this is to think of Legos. They have one side that has bumps and one side that receives the bumps. One side likes the bumps and one side likes the holes so it joins them together and holds them there. As you know, there are many ingredients in cooking and baking that don’t mix well or need to be smoother or more consistent so this is why you would use lecithin in cooking. I know in baking bread it will make the dough hold together better and help it rise more making it lighter and fluffier.

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