Self-Rising Flour

Self-Rising Flour is flour to which baking powder and salt have already been added.

It is meant as a convenience so that you don’t have to stock baking powder at home, but it does deteriorate quickly in humid conditions, and has the disadvantage that you can’t use it for pastry, etc. It is only meant for items such as cakes, muffins, dumplings, etc, to which you would normally add a leavener such as baking powder.

Self-Rising Flour is mostly used in Australia, the Southern US and in the UK (where it is spelled “Self-Raising”). It is relatively rare in Canada and the Northern States.

Substitutes

A bag of all-purpose flour (or plain flour) and a tin of baking powder in the pantry will see you through breads, pastries, cakes, muffins, dumplings — anything. Whereas if you bought the self-rising, you’d still have to buy the all-purpose (or plain) anyway. If you don’t use flour that often, that’s two different kinds of flours to go bad. If you bake a lot, then you’d probably prefer the more flexible bag of ordinary flour, anyway.

To 1 cup (5 oz / 140g) of all-purpose or plain flour, add ½ teaspoon salt and 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder.

Equivalents

100g Self-Rising Flour, unsifted = 3 ½ oz = ⅔ cup Self-Rising Flour

100g Self-Rising Flour, unsifted = 3 ½ oz = ⅔ cup ordinary Flour plus ¼ teaspoon salt plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
150g Self-Rising Flour, unsifted = 5 oz = 1 cup ordinary Flour plus ¼ teaspoon salt plus 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
200g Self-Rising Flour, unsifted = 7 oz = 1 ⅓ cup ordinary Flour plus ¼ teaspoon salt plus 2 teaspoons baking powder