Self-rising flour is available widely in the United States and is plentiful. It is the rare American grocery that does not carry it. But it is not carried in nearly the same volume as all-purpose flour -- which has an average protein level, not as low as "cake flour" and not as much as "bread flour." In other words, an American baker seeking self-rising flour may have to search their grocer's baking aisle to find the one or two storekeeping units where sacks of self-rising flour are shelved. As noted in the link, it is available through Kroger, a national chain of groceries with a presence in nearly every US state (operates as "Ralph's" in California.)
Even so, it is provided by grocers as a courtesy. Outside of the November and December holidays, few Americans buy flour regularly. And self-rising flour is inappropriate for use as flour in many traditional dishes, such as Thanksgiving turkey gravy. So the shelves of the American grocery baking aisle groan under the weight of "all-purpose" flour from, what, more than half-a-dozen national brands -- nearly all of them headquartered in the Grain Belt along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers in the American Midwest.
I'd hazard that many, if not most, experiences with self-rising flour by Americans result from error. I made that error as a child, sent to the grocery for a bag of "Gold Medal" flour, I returned with that brand's self-rising version. My mother had wanted the all-purpose variety.
The error was discovered as a bowl of American muffin batter horrifically fizzed and bubbled with the addition of acidic sour milk. The normal amount of baking powder had been added unknowingly to self-rising flour, already charged with a chemical leavening agent.
Digital kitchen scales — essential for measuring by weight as baking requires precision. I will always give my measurements in grams for the simple reason that it enables me to more accurately calculate the carbohydrates in my recipes. You will not be able to convince me to change this.
If it helps, 1 gram is 1/454th of a pound, so one ounce is 28.375 grams, a quarter cup of flour is 30-35 grams, so if she says 325 grams of flour, you know that is 10 quarter cups or 2 1/2 cups.
a quarter cup of sugar is 50 grams, so if she says 250 grams of sugar, just measure out 1 1/4 cups sugar.
a tablespoon of butter is 14 grams, so a stick is around 112 grams.
You were told there would be no maths. You were lied to.
Baking bread takes some work to tune in but even the good store-bought kind pales. Except for french bread, which even Julia Child famously struggled with. I started with "Classic Sandwich Bread" on the King Arthur website.
I am into raised pancakes (or as we call them out West "flapjacks"). I use bread flour, the yeast substitutes for soda/baking powder, mix everything together and let stand for an hour. MUCH more robust than the usual breakfast-restaurant foamy kind. Very robust recipe, ok to measure by eye if you don't have a scientific kitchen. Use lots of butter. Come back next summer to learn how to make your own blackberry syrup.
That sounds good - you want roughly the same consistency in the batter as the baking powder kind? And use eggs and a little sugar? I'm not a big pancake fan, but I can see where this could be good.
You can adjust the consistency to preference before the batter goes on the griddle depending on how thick you like the cakes. I prefer something on the crepe-y side.
Since you ask: 1 cup bread flour or maybe a little whole wheat thrown in, 1 cup of milk to start, 1 chunk (2T) melted butter, a little (1/2t) salt, some (1T) sugar, an (1 ea) egg, generous (2t, 1 packet) yeast.
NB these keep well enough for a day or two. Great with peanut butter for trail food.
Self-rising flour (as it's called here) is quite common in the US, though it's mostly regarded as a Southern thing. We also have jellies, jams and preserves, which differ mainly in their solid fruit content, from none (juice only) for jellies, to whole fruits for preserves. Though "whole" is only for those the size of, say, strawberries. I've never seen, say, cantaloupe preserves. Except now that I've thought of that, I really want to try to make it.
One of my mothers best recipes is/was three citrus marmalade (orange, lemon, grapefruit). Sadly, the neighboring crabapple tree that was the source of her finest jelly is no more.
Cakes, all of that sounds wonderful, but first, I need to go through all of the kitchen cabinets. It's a task that I should have done last year, and did get started on, but family stuff and the holidays got in the way of keeping it up. I should start back up up next week, but we will see, because I am lazy.
We're getting ready to move out of home of 40+ years this spring. We've been purging for the past year. Lots left to go. The kitchen is high on the to-do list.
Yep. They are the cutting edge of design and functionality from the 1970's DIY craze. Despite the beer my dad and uncle consumed while installing them, they are even almost straight!
I had a hand-held electric rotary beater thingie for 35 years that served me very well. It cost eight bucks. I expect the K-name replacement for it I now have to last me the rest of my cooking life. No offence to the stand mixer fans, but those brutes take up a lot of space if you’re only an occasional baker, and they sure cost a lot too.
Yes, I was delighted with myself when I figured out how to use my stand mixer for kneading bread dough. It’s wonderful! I’d had several bread machines over the years, but used them for kneading only - I didn’t like the crust that a bread machine bakes.
I am reasonably certain my hand mixer is almost as old as I am, if not a wedding present for my mom (joke's on the giver- she hates baking. Is good at it, but hates it.) So its likely 50 ish years,old. Still works for the once every maybe two years something needs mixing.
Thanks to Mary Berry, we pronounce layers as "l-l-l-e-e-e-e-h-h-h-h-e-e-e-r-r-r-s-s-s."
And, for any barely adequate pastry we note "but no soggy bottom, though."
And, whenever anyone, anytime, says anything about chocolate, we perk up and instruct: "Remember! It melts in a child's pocket!!"
As was mentioned, they totally do sell "self-raising" flour in the United States.
It's called *self-rising* flour.
Here's a link to that item for sale where The Dude shops: https://www.ralphs.com/p/kroger-bleached-self-rising-enriched-flour/0001111013945
According to other posters, availability seems to be rather spotty, so knowing how to make it is useful.
I appreciated the recipe -- thank you!
Self-rising flour is available widely in the United States and is plentiful. It is the rare American grocery that does not carry it. But it is not carried in nearly the same volume as all-purpose flour -- which has an average protein level, not as low as "cake flour" and not as much as "bread flour." In other words, an American baker seeking self-rising flour may have to search their grocer's baking aisle to find the one or two storekeeping units where sacks of self-rising flour are shelved. As noted in the link, it is available through Kroger, a national chain of groceries with a presence in nearly every US state (operates as "Ralph's" in California.)
Even so, it is provided by grocers as a courtesy. Outside of the November and December holidays, few Americans buy flour regularly. And self-rising flour is inappropriate for use as flour in many traditional dishes, such as Thanksgiving turkey gravy. So the shelves of the American grocery baking aisle groan under the weight of "all-purpose" flour from, what, more than half-a-dozen national brands -- nearly all of them headquartered in the Grain Belt along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers in the American Midwest.
I'd hazard that many, if not most, experiences with self-rising flour by Americans result from error. I made that error as a child, sent to the grocery for a bag of "Gold Medal" flour, I returned with that brand's self-rising version. My mother had wanted the all-purpose variety.
The error was discovered as a bowl of American muffin batter horrifically fizzed and bubbled with the addition of acidic sour milk. The normal amount of baking powder had been added unknowingly to self-rising flour, already charged with a chemical leavening agent.
Thank you so much for the wonderful recipes!
Digital kitchen scales — essential for measuring by weight as baking requires precision. I will always give my measurements in grams for the simple reason that it enables me to more accurately calculate the carbohydrates in my recipes. You will not be able to convince me to change this.
If it helps, 1 gram is 1/454th of a pound, so one ounce is 28.375 grams, a quarter cup of flour is 30-35 grams, so if she says 325 grams of flour, you know that is 10 quarter cups or 2 1/2 cups.
a quarter cup of sugar is 50 grams, so if she says 250 grams of sugar, just measure out 1 1/4 cups sugar.
a tablespoon of butter is 14 grams, so a stick is around 112 grams.
You were told there would be no maths. You were lied to.
Just get the damn digital scales. They cost less than $10. Then there will be no math(s).
I cannot remember the last Christmas that I received a chocolate orange.
TERRYS!!!!
We get them every year. They're perfect stocking fillers.
Yes but you live in a civilized country.
Only baking tip I know is do not try to whip egg whites in a plastic mixing bowl. It does not work at all. Glass or stainless only.
I've got a couple of metal mixing bowls for that exact purpose. And a small glass one for melting chocolate in a bain marie.
I want chocolate orange cheesecake and I want it now!!
My first foray into baking was after a retired. Banana bread. It came out of the bread pan and looked just like pic in the recipe.
I thought, "Fuck! This is easy."
Baking bread takes some work to tune in but even the good store-bought kind pales. Except for french bread, which even Julia Child famously struggled with. I started with "Classic Sandwich Bread" on the King Arthur website.
I am into raised pancakes (or as we call them out West "flapjacks"). I use bread flour, the yeast substitutes for soda/baking powder, mix everything together and let stand for an hour. MUCH more robust than the usual breakfast-restaurant foamy kind. Very robust recipe, ok to measure by eye if you don't have a scientific kitchen. Use lots of butter. Come back next summer to learn how to make your own blackberry syrup.
That sounds good - you want roughly the same consistency in the batter as the baking powder kind? And use eggs and a little sugar? I'm not a big pancake fan, but I can see where this could be good.
You can adjust the consistency to preference before the batter goes on the griddle depending on how thick you like the cakes. I prefer something on the crepe-y side.
Since you ask: 1 cup bread flour or maybe a little whole wheat thrown in, 1 cup of milk to start, 1 chunk (2T) melted butter, a little (1/2t) salt, some (1T) sugar, an (1 ea) egg, generous (2t, 1 packet) yeast.
NB these keep well enough for a day or two. Great with peanut butter for trail food.
Super that is very useful to me. Essentially baking powder pancakes but with yeast. I'll definitely give these a try and play around with it.
Thanks Cakes! I’m a great cook but a lousy baker. I got two gifts for xmas, a digital scale and new underwear. Will put both to use in 2025.
Please share the results of your experiments with the first of those gifts.
Self-rising flour (as it's called here) is quite common in the US, though it's mostly regarded as a Southern thing. We also have jellies, jams and preserves, which differ mainly in their solid fruit content, from none (juice only) for jellies, to whole fruits for preserves. Though "whole" is only for those the size of, say, strawberries. I've never seen, say, cantaloupe preserves. Except now that I've thought of that, I really want to try to make it.
One of my mothers best recipes is/was three citrus marmalade (orange, lemon, grapefruit). Sadly, the neighboring crabapple tree that was the source of her finest jelly is no more.
I'm a huge fan of lemon curd, lemon and lime curd, pina colada curd, and passionfruit curd.
All curds really. Except grapefruit. I never could stand the taste of grapefruit.
Excellent article Cakes, I don't make cakes, I leave that to The Mem. But I do make pizza from scratch so if you are ever up this way give me a shout.
Bread is life. My beautiful wife, Zyxomma, just made delicious cornbread. I am so grateful for the life and love she has brought into our home.
You are a lucky man.
Ay, I know it.
You are both so lucky in each other.
Thank you. We are very happy.
There will be times you add salt instead of sugar"
or - making chilli - you will add a pinch of chilli powder and - horribile dictu - 3 tablespoons of cayenne pepper
I'd eat that.
I don't think making chilli counts as baking. Was it still edible after the 3 tablespoons of cayenne pepper?
no
No amount of citrus and/or dairy was about to rescue that chilli, eh?
I don't want to talk about it
I have a batch of homemade spaghetti sauce like that.
From "Girl with the Dogs", a No-Name rescue shelter cat gets a spa day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6wd8XH2bm8&ab_channel=GirlWithTheDogs2
Cakes, all of that sounds wonderful, but first, I need to go through all of the kitchen cabinets. It's a task that I should have done last year, and did get started on, but family stuff and the holidays got in the way of keeping it up. I should start back up up next week, but we will see, because I am lazy.
We're getting ready to move out of home of 40+ years this spring. We've been purging for the past year. Lots left to go. The kitchen is high on the to-do list.
I swear I'm going to purge the cabinets again soon! Maybe even sometime this year. Maybe next year.....but in the overall grand scheme of time, soon.
You guys have cabinets?!
Yeah, humble bragging how fancy they are.
Yep. They are the cutting edge of design and functionality from the 1970's DIY craze. Despite the beer my dad and uncle consumed while installing them, they are even almost straight!
I had a hand-held electric rotary beater thingie for 35 years that served me very well. It cost eight bucks. I expect the K-name replacement for it I now have to last me the rest of my cooking life. No offence to the stand mixer fans, but those brutes take up a lot of space if you’re only an occasional baker, and they sure cost a lot too.
You should've seen the floor standing Hobart I used in a restaurant. All the attachments.
I favour the stand mixer because of the other attachments. I don't often have the energy to hand-knead bread these days.
Yes, I was delighted with myself when I figured out how to use my stand mixer for kneading bread dough. It’s wonderful! I’d had several bread machines over the years, but used them for kneading only - I didn’t like the crust that a bread machine bakes.
I love the meat grinder and pasta maker for the stand mixer. Also the sausage maker.
I need to get those attachments.
I am reasonably certain my hand mixer is almost as old as I am, if not a wedding present for my mom (joke's on the giver- she hates baking. Is good at it, but hates it.) So its likely 50 ish years,old. Still works for the once every maybe two years something needs mixing.