Flour

[Meagan]

I have a few questions about flour 

I just bought some organic bakers flour during the week - wholemeal and white
Can you use bakers flour for cakes or is that a no no, ie too strong? I have always had white and wholemeal in both plain and self raising so 4 containers of flour in my cupboard and now I have two 5kg bags of bakers flour along with millet and wheat grain. Just wondering if I can cut down on the amount I have??

What do you have?

[Thermomixer]

More of a no-no to use cake flour for bread.   Can use it for many of the cakes - but some of the lighter sponge type really need cake flour.

I have all sorts - but probably could do with out the cake flour.

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

I have recently stopped buying self-raising flour after I read that it really isn't good for you - from memory I think it contains way too much raising agent that is aluminium based.  There are recipes in the EDC for self-raising flour or you can just add the ingredients into your cooking as you go to save having a SRF container.  Many recipes are calling for plain flour and baking powder instead of self-raising flour now for that reason.

Another way you could save on cupboard space is by replacing your wholemeal flour with wholegrains (keeping them in the freezer).  You can mill grains in the TMX and they work well for quite a few things (biscuits, slices, pasta, pancakes etc) and then you would have wholegrain flour rather than wholemeal.  Extra goodness.

LOL - I hope I have manage to free up some containers and space and leave you with at least one type of flour to bake with!

[Ceejay]

Another who leaves out the SR Flour... I have containers of bakers flour, plain flour and stoneground as well as gluten free.. in largish amounts at any one time.  I have a second "pantry" out in the garage and a large freezer for storage.

[gertbysea]

I was just having a discussion with myself about flour. Living in the tropics means I have to keep a lot of things like rice, grains of any kind,dried fruits, nuts,pastas and more in the fridge. I have  smallish fridge in the garage which is my cold larder and contains in addition to the above, 7 kinds of flour. You have convinced me to go and sort them out. I might just combine the lot! I need to make room for the 5 kilos of bakers flour I just bought .

Gretchen

[hools003]

I'm not sure if there is a thread on this but I don't buy self raising flour, I make baking powder and add 2 tsp per cup of plain flour. Also I don't buy bakers flour anymore as I have found that you can use 1 tsp cornflour( I use nurses brand as it has to be wheat starch) per cup of plain flour for bread making. I just find that I don't have the room in my pantry for lots of different flours. My bread turns out exactly the same as if I had used bakers flour.
Just a bit of info.

[ellie j]

Thats interesting about the bakers flour as I have an extensive selection of flours as well ..Where did you purchase the nurses brand cornflour from   I actually made some peanut butter choc chip biscuits yesterday and added 4 different types of flour to use up some bits I had .. who knows what they had in them but they turned out fantastic ...   

[cookie1]

The Nurses cornflour is available at IGA here.

[hools003]

I don't think it matters which brand it is just look at the ingredients and it should say wheat starch or something like that. Not white wings as that is pure corn(maize) and is gluten free. Apparently bakers flour has more protein in than plain flour and by putting in the corn(wheat) flour/starch it makes it stronger. I think that's how it goes. Correct me if I'm wrong though if anyone knows.

[meganjane]

Sounds right to me, hools.

I'm another one who no longer buys SR flour. I have wholemeal plain, plain,bakers pure cornflour and wheaten (Nurses) cornflour, plus wholemeal spelt and white spelt. I'll probably use the spelt up and not bother with them again.

[thermoheaven]

I thought the tm was to help save space in the pantry? lol

[ellie j]

we have IGA here as well , I will hunt some down after school holidays are over .. Thank you for that info

[Ceejay]

I thought the tm was to help save space in the pantry? lol

Well it certainly changes what's IN the pantry... but nowadays the volume of certain ingredients is much higher... so not as much room still! LOL! 

[JaneeZee]

Very interesting discussion.  I buy 25kg of Bakers Flour at a time so storage is certainly an issue.  I too have a fridge in the carport which is dedicated to nuts, seeds, grains & flours.

Especially intrigued by the adding wheaten cornflour to normal flour to make bakers flour.  Have you tried adding it to spelt flour to make bread hools?   Be really interested to hear what the results are.......

[hools003]

Hi JaneeZee, no I haven't tried it with spelt flour as I don't use it. I'm sure it would work though as you are putting protein into the flour. I just find i don't have the storage space so I have plain, self raising and bakers flour all in one with just the additions of either baking powder or cornflour.