Self-Rising Flour vs. All-Purpose Flour 🥞🧁

Know the difference between these two flours + learn how to make homemade self-rising flour

Photo by Vlad Kutepov (via Unsplash)

My First Encounter With Self-Rising Flour

The first time I ever heard of self-rising flour (or self-raising flour) was when I was following a recipe for shortcakes. It called for self-rising flour and my thought process was self-rising flour = all-purpose flour.

You can imagine the horror on my face when I pulled out what was supposed to be fluffy shortcakes but instead were golden brown dense globs. That was the day I learned these two flours were completely different from one another.

What’s Self-Rising Flour? + a Mini History Lesson

Fun fact: Did you know that self-rising flour has been around since the 1800’s?

Yup! Self-rising flour was invented around the 1800’s in England by an English Baker named Henry Jones. He simply mixed all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt and sold it mainly to sailors back then, so they could create baked goods without needing much else when they were on board. 

While self-rising flour was deemed very popular back then, it’s no longer that common and you won’t see many people use it anymore except in older recipes. You might, however, still come across it here and there in modern recipes, especially in Southern dishes (biscuits, cobblers etc.).

What Makes the Flour ‘Self-Rising’?

While self-rising flour contains all-purpose flour and salt, the magic ingredient that makes it self-rising is baking powder. Not to be confused with baking soda, which is considered basic and needs another acidic ingredient (lemon juice, buttermilk etc.) to be ‘activated’ and give off its leavening effects.

Baking powder is a leavening agent (which usually consists of baking soda, an acidic ingredient, and fillers/starches) that adds air and height to baked goods by creating small gas bubbles in the mixture. Once baked, the gases dissipate in the hot oven, and thanks to those gas bubbles, it leaves an airy structure we all know and love in baked goods. 

The ‘rise’ is such a key component of many baking processes and it’s important to get it right, which leads me to say that self-rising flour might not be ideal especially if a recipe doesn’t call for it specifically. This is because you have little to no control over the leavening effects. For example, if you’re looking to make bread or any good with yeast—self-rising flour wouldn’t be a recommended 1:1 ratio since it’ll alter your final product.

How About All-Purpose Flour? What’s That?

All-purpose flour (a.k.a AP flour or plain flour) is simple white flour made from the wheat head’s endosperm (the innermost kernel). It’s commonly used in sweet and savoury applications and has so many versatile applications, and as mentioned above—it’s included in self-rising flour. On its own, all-purpose flour will not rise so you need to add leavening agents and other ingredients.

How the Two Flours Differ

With that said, self-rising flour and all-purpose flour differ through:

• Ingredients

• Protein level

• Usage

Ingredient-wise, self-rising flour is created by mixing all-purpose flour, salt, and baking powder while all-purpose flour is grown from the field and processed to only contain the innermost kernel of the wheat. 

They also differ in protein level where all-purpose flour's protein is about 11.7% while self-rising checks in at 8.5%.This means that with self-rising having a lower protein level, this also means less gluten which translates to looser structure in baked goods.

Another key difference is their use. Self-rising flour is great for achieving consistent crumb structures that tend to be light and tender (biscuits, pancakes, muffins etc.) and then all-purpose works in practically every baking application and also works as a thickening agent too (roux etc.).

DIY Self-Rising Flour

If you’re ever making a recipe that calls for self-rising flour and you can’t find any, don’t fret! Here’s a simple recipe for it:

Makes ~1 cup of self-rising flour

Ingredients:

• 120g (1 cup) all-purpose flour

• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

• ¼ teaspoon fine salt

Directions:

1. Whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl.

So easy, right? The only thing to note is it’s recommended to make the homemade self-rising flour in small batches or only make how much you need. This is because you want to ensure the leavening agent is at its best so you can maximize the effects of the rise.

If you want to make larger batches, make sure to label it with the date of when you made it and use the flour within a year of creating it. Also make sure to keep it in a dry airtight container in a cool, dark space.

Final Thoughts 💭

At the end of the day, I like to think of self-rising flour as a cheat code to airy baked goods and it’s all thanks to Henry Jones. 

However, I don’t think I’d ever buy self-rising flour simply because I like having control of the rise and spread in my baked goods. But if a recipe calls for it—I know how to whip it up in a pinch, and now, you do too.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Are you team self-rising or all-purpose flour? Do you have a favourite recipe that uses self-rising flour? Let me know your thoughts below!

That’s all for this week's bake talk. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you later. 👋

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