I bought this for a slightly different purpose than would be typically expected. Ammonium carbonate, when dissolved in a little water, but out a really nasty vapor. Seal it in a box with pure copper, and you can make some pretty amazing patinas on the copper. The colors you get are bight turquoise and other blues. This seems to be reasonably pure ammonium carbonate. It dissolves well and really did the job I was hoping it would. Good volume for the price too.... will buy again when I run out, but this jar is going to last a while.

I accidentally ordered this interesting chemical item 'Ammonium Carbonate' aka 'Baker's Ammonia' from two different sources. oops, and now have plenty for these cookies for a couple decades! :D
Apparently, if kept dry and dark it will keep indefinitely.
{{ When called for, the cooking process makes it safe ... I suggest you look into it yourself and make your own careful judgment to assure yourself of that, rather than just take my word for it that I'm ok with it }}
I looked it up when I saw it listed in some Scandanavian and Finnish recipes :)
***I inherited the family Springerle-decorated rolling pin, and would like to recreate some old memories for my own grand-kids now ... want to get it just right, and pass it on down ... <3

I had never used this before, but after hearing about "Vanilla Dreams" cookies on a cooking website and Pinterest, I went to the King Arthur Flour website to get the recipe. One recipe made 48 cookies for me, and they were light and crisp. The cookies were very sweet --but delish! -- so a caution if you use the full amount of sugar. This product, also called hartshorn, is apparently an integral component to some cookies--but there are not a lot of recipes out there. I read some cautions online to NOT eat the raw dough, as it could cause a lot of flatus, but others online reported no adverse effects. I kept the raw dough away from DH because if anyone's gonna have a lot of flatus ... well, he doesn't need any help!

The smell of this baker's ammonia will knock you back, so don't be figuring you'll take a sniff and thinking it can't be that bad. IT'S THAT BAD!!! Even if you have this 12 to 18 inches from your nose when you open it, you will notice the acrid smell. Wowza!!! It's unpleasant. You'll only do the "sniff test" once and you'll learn your lesson. You'll be able to smell it somewhat in the raw dough, and as it bakes, but the smell will dissipate. The product will also evaporate over time, even inside the little jar with the lid on tight.

Purchased for a recipe that called for it specifically. Outside of an ammonia odor when added to the choux I was making, it quickly went away. There was no odor during baking as I'd read about elsewhere. Satisfied.

Came across this leavener while researching the history of our German family cookie, pfeffernuesse. Then told a German/Paraguayan friend about the history of the leavener, and she got so excited to hear that it was available, for some of her traditional treats. Her birthday was coming up, so I bought this as her gift. She was delighted. When my grandjoys hear that deer antler derivatives used to go into their favorite cookies, they will absolutely love it!!