When Recipe Says Flour
The fact that the recipe calls for leavenign and salt is also a tip off that you should use a p flour.
When recipe says flour. If the recipe calls for 2 cups sifted flour you should sift the flour into a bowl then measure it. The addition of water and exposure to heat activate the baking powder causing it to give off gas bubbles that cause your baked goods to rise. Some chef s use 00 flour to make pizza bases too. Some cake recipes replace part or all of the wheat flour component with rice cornmeal chestnut or other wheat free flours ground almonds or ground polenta.
A ground wheat flour that looks like plain flour but is a special grade which is the perfect blend for making delicate pasta or noodles. But how much baking powder to add that is the question. The answer to this question usually depends on the recipe s grammar. Bread benefits from a high protein flour about 13 percent compared to about 11 percent for all purpose flour.
If an american recipe says flour which one do they mean. If it says flour you can usually assume it means plain or all purpose flour. Cookbook 120 family meals from mumsnetters. In recipes that call for self rising flour the dough relies on the leavening agents in the flour to cause the dough or batter to rise.
When combined with water and developed by mixing and kneading the gluten becomes elastic and stretches around gas bubbles produced by the yeast. It contains approximately 1 1 2 teaspoons of baking powder per cup. If the recipe has baking powder or bicarbonate of soda in it then it would definately mean plain flour otherwise you would have 2. Unless it specifies self raising it will always mean plain flour.
Recipes requiring self rising flour will call for that specific type of flour. If your recipe mentions sifted flour in the ingredient list then you might wonder whether you should sift or measure first.