I just learned the hard way the difference between self rising flour and all purpose flour (ingredients, substitute)

[no kudzu]

Blackberries were on sale today and I hurried home to find an easy cobbler recipe. I found Ree Drummond's recipe and it has only sugar, milk, butter, blackberries and self rising flour. Silly me, I keep my flour in a canister and didn't even think I might not have the right flour. I know I always buy all purpose flour and figured it was the same as self rising. I've been cooking and baking for more than 50 years and never had a disaster like I did just now.

The "cobbler" was like flat bread. I actually had to cut it with kitchen scissors. Thank god I only used less than half the berries I bought. The rest are being frozen now and I'll find a better recipe or at least one which calls for all purpose flour. So aren't most recipes requiring all purpose and not self rising?
Anybody else ever make this mistake?

What is the difference between self-raising flour and all-purpose flour? can i use slef-raising in cookies? - Yahoo! Answers

[Hedgehog_Mom]

Most recipes call for all purpose flour.

I only keep regular, all-purpose flour on hand, mostly because I bake yeast breads several times a week.

You can substitute 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt for a cup of self-rising flour.

[no kudzu]

so now I'm asking . How many of you actually keep self rising flour on hand? I honestly don't think I've ever run across a recipe which calls for it but admittedly I don't do a great deal of baking.

[Hedgehog_Mom]

I think the shelf life of baking powder is about a year, so it might not be practical to keep self-rising flour around unless you had a ton of recipes that called for it.

[gentlearts]

I buy it once in awhile in a small 2# bag and keep it in the freezer (also self rising corn meal). Quite a few southern recipes call for it, so it gets used for things like fried green tomatoes and some other things in Paula Deens cookbooks.
I think it is never a problem to use regular flour if you add baking soda or baking powder to it.

[Bulldogdad]

Good question. I's never purchased it nor anyone in my family that I am aware.

I have mixed up bread flour with all purpose flour before. The cake came out a little hard and chewy. LOL

[lubby]

Never used or purchased self rising flour. I always keep all purpose flour on hand.

[no kudzu]

You know as chatty as Ree is on her recipe instructions, it would have been in order for her to say "Remember this calls for self rising not all purpose but this is how you can add to all purpose to get the same results"
Some recipes say things like "remember non salted butter" or other helpful instructions. Just kinda po'd about wasting my ingredients and not having a special treat for the kids when they got home. but actually we called in blackberry crisp and tried to get it down. thanks to all who replied. I've certainly learned to look at recipes better.

[OpenD]

There are different kinds of flour because there are different ways to use flour, requiring different characteristics.

Cake flour is 6-8% protein, and makes for a tender crumb (the part that's not the crust) that falls apart easily.
Bread flour is 12 - 18% protein, and has a strong crumb that holds together in sandwiches and so forth.

All-purpose flour is kind of in between, and is intended for the average home cook today who doesn't use much flour, as a compromise to use in either cakes or bread. But you will always get the best cakes with cake flour, and the best bread with bread flour.

Self-rising flour is flour with baking powder incorporated, as a shortcut, once used a lot in Southern cooking.

Bisquick is a self-rising flour with shortening added, even more of a shortcut, and used in a lot of quick cobbler recipes.

[springfieldva]

I think that was an easy mistake for anyone to make. I'm glad that you still have some of your berries left.

With cooking you live and learn...sometimes the hard way. What else can you do?