This ingredient should definitely not be combined with sunflower seeds

On a rainy afternoon, you plan to treat yourself to a moment of pampering: a blanket, a hot tea latte, and homemade cookies. If you're looking for some hidden treasures in your closet to brighten up your dough, you'll come face to face with a bag of sunflower seeds. A little crunchy in your mouth? good idea. Hop on, put a nice handful in your device.

Rise from the oven: The muffins puffed proudly in their tins will make those at coffee shops pale in comparison. But when it comes time to split them in two, you're surprised: Your little seeds have turned from gray to green. What's worse is that this “green tide” has literally contaminated your dough. Makes you wonder if you didn't get a good shot of penicillin…

Unexpected chemical reaction

How do we explain this strange and very unpleasant phenomenon? a American study Led by the Schmid College of Science and Technology at California, it puts us on the path to: “Sunflower seeds It contains a high concentration of chlorogenic acid (CGA), which reacts with amino acids To form green pigments under alkaline conditions during food processing.”

And therefore ? With the decoder, this basically means that sunflower seeds turn green when they react, especially during cooking, with certain substances whose pH exceeds 7. For our pies, by sifting through the ingredient list, the culprit is quickly revealed. No, it's not butter, sugar or eggs. The oven? no. baking powder? Ah, you're burning.

That's it, you got it! The biggest culprit, yes, is baking soda. The same thing you use to make your muffins more chewy and soft. Behind its snowy white powder, it hides a little alkalizing agent enough to turn sunflower seeds green with anger…

But doesn't baking powder, as the more knowledgeable say, also contain bicarbonate? True, but its combination with an acidic agent (tartaric acid, sodium pyrophosphate, etc.) delays its effect. It also seems so in general Add acidic ingredientsLike yogurt or honey, it reduces the greening reaction.

So, unless you want to scare your kids on Halloween, avoid at all costs combining sunflower seeds and baking soda. This applies not only to your cakes, but also to muffins, pies, or soda bread!