How To Make Self-Rising Flour Substitute

With self-rising flour, you can make some amazing baked goodies like irresistible buttery biscuits, fluffy pancakes, or sky-high muffins. But the downside to self-rising flour is it isn’t common in recipes, which increases the chances of it going to waste when buying it. And its short shelf life doesn’t help either.

So what happens when you need self-rising flour but don’t have any? Don’t grab your keys and head to the baking aisle just yet!

Here’s how to make self-rising flour easily with ingredients you likely already have in your kitchen. What’s best about how to make self-rising flour is it only requires 3 simple ingredients on hand.

First Things First – What Is Self-Rising Flour?

Regular bread recipes call for yeast as an agency for the bread to rise. Similarly, other recipes that contain self-rising flour allow the bread to rise without yeast by its three common ingredients.

Self-rising flour is composed of all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt to make the magic happen. It’s also a common ingredient used among Southern cooking recipes and is a Southern pantry staple.

• Easy Drop Biscuits Recipe
• Southern Skillet Cornbread
• Southern Style Green Beans
• Molten Lava Mug Cake

How To Make Self-Rising Flour Recipe As A Substitute

This self-rising flour recipe makes 1 cup as a substitute.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt

Directions:

Step 1: Add all contents of all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl.

Step 2: Whisk into a consistent mixture.

• Make sure to measure your ingredients from your recipes as accurately as possible.
• Because self-rising flour is produced from softer wheat grain, your final baked goods will lack structure and can be delicate.
• When baking with baking powder, your ingredients will activate the moment they are mixed and exposed to moisture. Place your baked goods in the oven as soon as possible after mixing wet and dry ingredients to prevent rising outside the oven.  You can potentially end up with flat baked goods by waiting too long after mixing your ingredients.

In case you didn’t know: the role of baking soda and baking powder act are chemical leavening agents. That means they act as a catalyst to make your baked goods rise. Baking powder consists of baking soda with an acidic ingredient where the rising reaction instantly occurs the moment moisture comes into play. Whereas baking soda – already alkaline – is missing an acidic ingredient for the reaction to occur. Thus making baking soda stronger than baking powder.

Now that you know how to substitute self-rising flour using all-purpose flour, why not impress your friends and family with your cookie game? Or make yourself an easy zucchini bread recipe!

Cake flour + leavening

If you’re looking for a texture similar that to self-rising flour, this is a close alternative in terms of tenderness. Like self-rising flour, cake flour is milled from a soft wheat grain as well. Due to lower protein content of around 5%-8%, you’ll create lightweight and soft baked goods. Think of a sponge-like texture like that of a cake! 🎂

Cake flour ingredients as a self-rising flour substitute:

• 1 cup of cake flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt

Pastry flour + leavening

Another soft textured flour that falls in the spectrum between all-purpose and cake flour. Protein content in pastry flour comes in around 9%, so you’ll achieve a more tender consistency compared to cake flour.

Pastry flour ingredients as a self-rising flour substitute:

• 1 cup pastry flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt

Bread flour + baking powder

If you’re looking for a more dense texture with something that contains more protein (12%-14%) and gluten, bread flour is it.

Bread flour ingredients as a self-rising flour substitute:

• 1 cup bread flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder

Nut flour

This flour is for the plant-based foodies reading. If you’re gluten intolerant and want to avoid gluten across the board, nut flours are a great and healthy alternative. 🌰 You can still use nut flours to bake goods like a pizza crust, bread, pancakes, cookies, and desserts.

Nut flours are a popular self-rising flour substitute for many reasons. Not only do these flours not contain gluten, but they are lower in carbohydrates.

For better results, you can also mix your nut flours with other flours to achieve your desired consistency.

Keep in mind when using nut flours, the strong and distinctive tastes that may be strong for your taste buds.

Best nut flours as a self-rising flour substitute:

• Almond flour
• Coconut flour
• Pecan flour
• Hazelnut flour
• Pistachio flour

If you are trying to bake rising baked goods, you need to add a leavening agent.

Nut flour ingredients as a self-rising flour substitute:

• 1 cup nut flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder

Rice flour

Another gluten-free self-rising substitute milled from brown or white rice. What’s even better is rice flour has a neutral flavor. So if you’re not a fan of the strong tastes that nut flavors come with but still want to bake gluten-free, rice flour is your friend. Great for those with allergies or intolerance to traditional wheat flours.

Rice flour is versatile and can be used for all sorts of cooking purposes: frying, baking, to being used as a thickening agent.

Depending on what you are baking, some recipes like bread will need a leavening agent. It can also be tricky baking with rice flour, as you may need to add more liquid due to the high absorption of moisture.

Rice flour ingredients as a self-rising flour substitute

• 1 cup of rice flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder

What’s The Difference Between Self-Rising Flour And All-Purpose Flour?

These two baking staples are two completely different ingredients.

Self-rising flour consists of a homogenous mix of all-purpose flour, salt, and baking powder. This type of flour is ideal for making donuts, pancakes, or sweet dessert bread. Self-rising flour contains around 8% protein. With a lower protein content, you can expect to achieve softer and fluffier baked goods.

You can use all-purpose flour for most baking applications, coating meats, vegetables, or as a thickening agent for sauces. It has a perfect gluten content which will yield the necessary structure in your baked goods and has around 10%-13% protein.

Can Self-Rising Flour Be Substituted For All-Purpose Flour?

Unless you want to eat a brick 🧱, it’s not recommended to use the two flours interchangeably. Because self-rising flour contains a leavening agent, this flour cannot be substituted for all-purpose flour.

Is Self-Rising Flour The Same As Bread Flour?

While both flours are made from wheat, these two flowers are not the same. If you’re asking yourself, “then, what’s the difference between self-rising flour and bread flour?” Hence the name, bread flour is specialized towards making yeast bread. 🍞 While self-rising flour is great for quick bread and some cakes. The gluten content is different in both flours.

Self-Rising Flour is made from softer wheat. The main difference is, self-rising flour has two ingredients bread flour doesn’t have: salt and baking powder. These two ingredients shouldn’t be mixed to create a yeasty bread like sourdough. Use it for cakes and baked treats that call for baking powder, which is why they call it self-rising flour. The raising agents are the salt and baking powder.

On the other hand, Bread Flour has more gluten and than self-rising flour giving your baked goods a chewy texture. Because it is made from harder wheat, flour is more robust and has more protein compared to other flours. Simply, bread flour is just plain flour but with a higher gluten content for structure.

How To Store Self-Rising Flour

Unlike most other flours, self-rising flour has a shorter shelf life because of the baking powder content it carries. So if you want to maximize your dollar for value, we recommend buying self-rising flour in smaller quantities or as needed.

To get the best use of your self-rising flour, how to store self-rising flour involves dating your contents. Place your self-rising flour in an airtight container for maximum seal protection so no air passes through. Write down the date when you bought or made your flour on the outside container. Store in a cool, dry, and dark place like your refrigerator or kitchen pantry.

You want to achieve optimal storing of your product to keep moisture and air out to prevent contamination. By not doing so, speeds the spoilage process and rendering deficient ingredients. Older self-rising flour, due to baking powder will lead to baked goods that won’t rise.

What Is Self-Rising Flour Used For?

If making pancakes, muffins, Southern biscuits, pizza dough, or pita chips for a yummy spinach artichoke dip – self-rising flour is the one! If you’re making your own self-rising flour, don’t forget to add a leavening agent such as baking soda or baking powder. This is assuming your recipe calls for the correct ingredients.

Bonus Tips On How To Make Self-Rising Flour Substitute

• Self-rising flour shouldn’t be used for baking yeasty bread recipes.
• Self-rising flour contains around 8% protein content, yielding soft and fluffy baking.
• Bake or buy self-rising flour in small quantities or as needed to avoid spoilage.
• If using all-purpose flour to make self-rising flour, you may need to add more liquid to your recipe because all-purpose flour is coarse.
• Follow correct measurements to avoid baking mishaps. 📏
• Always make sure your baking powder is high-quality by ensuring its freshness.