What is self-rising flour, and what is it used for?
Green flour refers to the fact that the flour has not oxidized– that is the sulfhydryl groups have not been converted into disulfide groups due to oxidizing agents. Bleaching agents are generally oxidizing agents. Green flour also indicates that it has been ground from “new wheat”. Wheat flour which is not bleached may be oxidized if it is allowed to set a while and”naturally” oxidize. The dusty orange could be due to a little bit of bran and the carotenoids.
Sandy Baird Newton, Mass. Self-rising flour is something we’d never used in the test kitchen until we came across the cookbooks reviewed in this issue (see page 31), two of which were published in the United Kingdom and one in Australia, and all of which contain recipes that call for self-rising flour (or, as those speaking the Queen’s English call it, self-raising flour). In these countries, self-rising flour is apparently in wider use than it is in the United States. Still, self-rising flour is available here (it is popular in the South), and it has several distinguishing characteristics. It contains a leavener (baking powder, approximately 1 1/2 teaspoons per cup) and salt (1/2 teaspoon per cup) and is made from a soft flour that brings it closer to cake flour than to all-purpose. Most all-purpose flour has a protein content of 10 to 11 percent, whereas self-rising flour and cake flour have protein contents of 8 to 9 percent. Less protein generally translates into more tender baked
