Some friends and I were talking about Self Raising Flour compared to Standard flour plus baking powder.

My friend said old recipes were fine with Standard flour plus baking powder (1 cup flour, 1 tsp BP) but the recipe for Self Raising Flour has changed and newer recipes are written with this in mind.

I don't buy Self Raising Flour (one less container in the pantry) but wondered what others did?

I do bake (scones, muffins, cakes, brownies, slices etc) and am relatively successful but occasionally things do go wrong.

I don't ever use self raising flour but I did get told from a very very good baker many years ago that if you are using ordinary flour in place of Self Raising flour always use more BP which is what I have done for years and that has always worked for me...I use my judgment depending on recipe like scones I use more but I tend to just go for half teaspoon more for biscuits, cakes..1 cup flour 1 1/2 teaspoon BP....like you Cheese Lover I never have Self Raising in the pantry.

I never used to buy SR flour, but started to about 12 years ago when I got quite into baking. I noticed that cakes made with SR flour (when the recipe called for it) were quite different in texture to those made with plain flour + BP (I used 1C flour and 1.5t BP). I did some reading on it at the time and it seemed to be something about protein content being lower in SR flour, therefore it made less gluten, which made a finer textured end product. But that lower gluten level wasn't appropriate for all baking, with cookies often spreading more before setting. I do only use SR flour when the recipe calls for it.

If you're interested, perhaps try it for yourself and see if you notice a difference. If you don't, then no reason to stuff another box in the pantry!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2018 08:56AM by Jenna.

I rarely use SR flour and also tend to work on 1.5 tsp baking powder to each cup of flour.
Sometimes I will buy it but off the top of my head I can't remember what I would specifically use it for.

I always have SR flour on hand and use it when it called for in a recipe - I hadn't really given it much thought. I give it a stir before measuring out as read somewhere that the raising agent can settle to the bottom.

Regards,

Barbara Anne

I'm with Barbara Anne and use many recipes calling for self-raising flour and (lazy me) it's much easier than sifting B.P. through plain flour. But I do not substitute s.r. flour when a recipe uses plain flour and B.P. Because of flour 'settling' I stir or shake up any flour before using to get the air through it and lighten it up.

If I decide to pan-fry fish I prefer to use seasoned self-raising flour to coat the fish and I often coat it twice - i.e. first coat fish with milk, then coating of s.r. flour, then a 2nd dunk in milk and a 2nd coating of s.r. flour. It's only because I think the s.r. flour gives the coating a little more 'life' than plain flour.

I had not heard of the s.r. flour recipe having been changed. That is of interest.
Regards,
Dawn.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2018 10:26PM by Dawn.

I don't tend to use self-raising as I don't like the taste of a lot of raising agent. I'm very sparing with it and usually would only use 1 tsp in a recipe. Seems to work for me - everything rises fine. One of my pet hates is eating a scone in a café and finding my mouth is dry from all the baking powder they've used.

I don’t buy self raising flour either and l use a ratio of 1.5 tsp baking powder to 1 cup flour.

I do buy self-raising flour and use it when the recipe requires it. Once I wanted to make a recipe that required it but I didn't have any. I just added 1 tsp of baking powder but it was one of those cake recipes where I don't think it would have mattered.

Interesting - I wonder if it is an ürban myth...

Between having cornflour, rice flour, standard flour, high grade flour, buckwheat flour and occasionally wholemeal flour I am keen not to have another one to store....so I will leave it and stick with adding baking powder.

Thanks for all the comments!!

I would never be without s r flour
I always use for scones and they are great, and cakes. It is a ' softer ' flour I feel and cakes made with bp and plain flour are firmer
One cake dessert slice (shallow cake) I make with fresh fruit on top and always sr flour - was made by a fried who used plain flour and bp and didn't follow my recipe - and wondered why her fruit sat on top and didn't sink into the cake. It was not luscious at all Not nearly as nice

My pet hate, is when people don't follow recipes, and then often follow up with "I'm such a rubbish cook" or similar. Baking in particular is a science, and you simply HAVE to follow the recipe if you want the same results.

I currently have plain flour, SR flour, wholemeal flour, rice flour, corn flour, masa and probably a couple of others tucked in the pantry as well, and try to use the appropriate flour for the recipe.

I make my own SR Flour. Would not use any oher SR Flour. This recipe is from a very old fundraising recipe book.

500gr flour, 2 tsp icing sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking soda, 4 tsp cream of tartar. Sift all together and use as required. Amounts can
be doubled for a larger quantity. I have been known to triple the amounts. All good!!

Kind Regards

Anne Sutherland

I make my own too. So many online recipes you can find including detailed videos

anne sutherland Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I make my own SR Flour. Would not use any oher SR
> Flour. This recipe is from a very old fundraising
> recipe book.
>
> 500gr flour, 2 tsp icing sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 2
> tsp baking soda, 4 tsp cream of tartar. Sift all
> together and use as required. Amounts can
> be doubled for a larger quantity. I have been
> known to triple the amounts. All good!!

What is the icing sugar needed for?

I wondered that too?

So did I.

I've never bought self-raising flour as I've always understood it to be just plain flour with baking powder already added. An internet search seems to confirm this (no alternative ingredients have come up). I just sub the 1 cup flour + 1 tspn BP.

I thought buying self-raising flour was akin to buying pancake premixes, or cake premixes, etc. Not necessary, just mix yourself.

However, some of you say it makes a difference to the finished result, which is interesting. I might have to experiment.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/2018 01:49AM by J1.

No idea why the recipes has icing sugar, but I have always included it.

Kind Regards

Anne Sutherland

AWESOME one less container in the pantry!!!

I always buy both, out of habit I guess BUT would much prefer to add the baking powder for the extra pantry space.

I dont even do that much baking - a cake and biscuits/slice once a month or pancakes.

So the general consensus is one teaspoon per cup plus a bit extra?

Vanessa