When I write recipes, I do my best to limit the number of ingredients used and keep using the same basic ingredients (plain flour, unsalted butter, caster sugar) so you don’t have a cupboard full of barely used ingredients. Though I sometimes think, “you know, you could get an even better result using XXX”, I then imagine about the situation when you don’t have a selection of supermarkets at your doorstep, and some readers work themselves into a state when I suggest that a great cake or loaf might benefit from a higher grade of ingredient than their local corner shop stocks. As one reviewer of “Exceptional Breads” wrote on amazon.co.uk “The ingredients are too high brow for me here in the country, I’m never going to be able to get ’00 Italian flour’ or the like in the shops here abouts”. And there are readers overseas who want to bake the recipes and might have difficulty getting some ingredients. So I keep it simple.
For cakes, save for a few recipes at the beginning, I usually call for plain flour plus baking powder. But what about the flours that already have the raising agent included?
Self-raising (or self-rising) and soda flours: the essentials
These flours are a curious mix as they vary according to the predicted uses the miller thinks you’ll find them for. So, being the creative bakers we are, we sometimes find that we need to add a little more raising agent to them, or dilute them with plain or bread flour, in order to get just the result we need.
A bag of self-raising flour will contain wheat flour, the type depends on the use the miller suggests, an acid – in commercial flours and baking powder it’s usually a monocalcium phosphate sometimes mixed with disodium pyrophosphate as they’re inexpensive, whereas at home we use the more expensive cream of tartar – and an alkali – bicarbonate of soda. In the US, salt is often added to ‘self-rising’ flour.
For the flour base, it’s usually a mixture of very soft, low protein wheat varieties that are milled or flour blended and this produces a soft texture to the crumb. So when you’re buying and using self-raising flour, remember that it’s milled to suit gentle mixing and handling. So go easy on that scone dough, don’t go tearing and ripping at it, and you’ll find the resulting scone will be much lighter and delicate that way.
Irish soda flours, which contain bicarbonate of soda and wheat flour, produce superior soda bread and, for some, even better cakes and scones. Though they’re very difficult to buy in England, there are many pastry chefs I know of that import Irish soda flour to use for their cakes and traybakes as the tender soft texture produced with it is superb.
Sponge or Superfine self-raising flours: the essentials
These flours can’t simply be imitated by mixing plain flour with baking powder. Here, the millers have chosen a mixture of soft wheat varieties, then ensured the bolting or sifting used after milling is extra fine so that it can be folded through the cake mixture easily, and it may possible be heat-treated during milling to help it hold the crumbs structure when mixed with high levels of butter and sugar. Now, although these flours do produce an extra fine and delicate crumb, I feel they lack flavour and tends to produce a crumb that’s reminiscent of a mass-produced industrial process.
Bleached cake flours: In the UK, cake flours, and to some extent bread flour, was once bleached – either by forcing gas through the flour, or by adding powders – to improve the colour, increase the acidity and, in turn, increase the volume of the cake or loaf the flour was used to make. Though flour bleaching by chemical methods has been banned in the EU since the mid 1990s (1996 in the UK), it’s still allowed in the US and helps produce the extraordinary texture of those great American layer cakes.
Self-raising (or self-rising) and soda flours: what to expect using it
As the chemical raising agents are included in the flour, the leavening starts from the moment you add moisture. So the more you stir, knead, spoon or shape the mixture, the more leavening will be lost.
Think of a chemical reaction occurring the moment the flour and the liquid combine; the more you move it through mixing the sooner the aerating power is lost. Recipes that contain a small proportion of liquid, like a cake mixture, are less volatile, whereas recipe with a high level of liquid, like a scone or a muffin, are more volatile.
The time that passes from adding the flour until the mixture is used is also a factor. Since it takes time for most of the soda to react and create gas, if you leave the mixture once combined, and then say 10 minutes later come back and give it another stir “for luck” or whatever you’ll risk the cake not being very light at all.
Biscuits and cookies: as they usually contain very little liquid and require only a little chemical leavening, you can leave the mixture at room temperature for 2 – 3 hours, or in a fridge for a few days, and only loose a little of the leavening power. But try not to overwork the mixture, scoop what you need, roll or press gently onto the tray and bake. If you prefer to keep the mixture in blocks or rolls, then shape the mixture quickly, wrap it well then chill or freeze. Simply slice what you need from the block and lay the disks of cookie dough on the paper lined tray.
Butter-rich cakes, cupcakes, brownies and tray-bakes: Add any liquid, like milk or water, towards the end of mixing, or alternate adding it with the flour. Any flour added just before or after this should be folded through or beaten in quickly until just combined. If the mixture is made ahead of baking, either spoon it after mixing into the tray and bake when ready, or keep chilled and gently spoon into the tray or tin just before baking.
Scones, soda breads and muffins: For the lightest result, the mixture should be quite soft and paste-like, and shaped quickly after mixing. Scones can be frozen once cut before baking, but need to be completely defrosted before baking. Muffin mixture can be kept in the refrigerator overnight, but should be gently spooned without stirring into the paper cases before baking. Some cooks prefer to whisk an egg white and fold this through the chilled muffin mixture the following day to ensure the muffin has a light texture.
Batters: for the lightest result, use plain or all-purpose flour (or a mixture of potato or corn starch, and plain or all-purpose flour), leave for 2 – 6 hours to mature then beat in the baking powder just before using.
Replacing self-raising (or self-rising) flour, with plain flour plus baking powder, or cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda: You can’t be exact about this as it will depend on the other ingredients and the amount of liquid in the cake, but a good starting point is:
225g plain flour plus 2 tsp baking powder, or 1 1/3 tsp cream of tartar and 2/3 tsp bicarbonate of soda.
