How To Make Self Rising Flour
Dry yeast has a shelf life of about 4 months after it is opened and if kept refrigerated. In a SHTF world, without refrigeration, it won’t be so simple to make bread without being able to reach into the fridge to get some of that fresh active yeast to perform it’s magic of making the dough rise. One solution to this potential problem is to make your own self rising flour. It doesn’t require yeast.
The key ingredient to self rising flour is baking powder. Baking powder contains three ingredients. Sodium bicarbonate (Baking Soda). Monocalcium phosphate (acid salt). Cornstarch (filler and moisture absorbent).
Baking powder works by releasing tiny carbon dioxide gas bubbles into a batter or dough through a reaction between the baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and acid/salt (monocalcium phosphate) when exposed to moisture, causing bubbles in the wet mixture to expand and thus leavening the mixture.
The beneficial aspect to utilizing baking powder to make a self rising flour is that it does not require refrigeration. It’s not a living organism like yeast. So long as you keep it dry, the unopened shelf life is up to several years and once opened it’s good for about 6 months at room temperature.
To test your baking powder, add some (1/2 tsp or so) to some hot water in a cup. If it foams and bubbles, it has enough oomph left. If it just sits there, well, it’s no good.
Self Rising Flour Recipe
To make 1 cup of self rising flour, add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt. Stir/mix until well blended together. That’s it!
Self Rising Flour Biscuits Recipe
In the spirit of cross-training in the kitchen, I decided to try my hand at making something edible from my self rising flour. I actually surprised myself by successfully making a simple but tasty batch of biscuits.
All the ingredients used required no refrigeration, making this a reasonable food source for post-SHTF. I only cheated by using the oven for baking. However you could substitute by cooking over a fire (dutch oven?), or using a solar oven, or even improvising by using a covered pan on low heat over a hot burner.
This makes 8 or 9 biscuits.
First mix all the dry ingredients well.
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 cup sugar
4 tbsp powdered butter (1/4-cup)
1 tbsp powdered egg (1 egg)
Then add 1 cup water and mix well.
This will produce a sticky blend of dough. Unlike a yeast mixture, the self-rising-flour does not ‘rise’ prior to cooking. The rise will happen as it cooks. I spooned the mixture into foil baking cups (they will stick to the paper ones) and set them in cupcake trays. I suppose you could use and shape aluminum foil in a pinch, or you could even spread the batter mixture into a do-it-yourself foil ‘cake’.
Bake at 375-degrees for 25-30 minutes until golden.
Rumford Aluminum Free Baking Powder, 8.1-Ounce Canisters (Pack of 6)
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@ Ken, You bake and cook ❤ for the wonderful Ms… What a good Man! Anyone I speak to I tell them your I.P.address… The response is always positive… Best Wishes, Otter
@ Otter:
Thank you! He’s definitely a keeper! Stay well, Lauren
where in cincinnati, ohio would I find powdered butter, I did not know there was anysuch thing?
Here’s one source…
http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/powderedbuttercan.aspx
Yes. Does he do windows? Sorry, had to.
Be well.
@ Mortimer: You betcha he does! Lauren
@ Ms. Lauren, Have you ever belly laughed while mid-sneeze? This has been a great post and response. “He’s definitely a keeper!”, and my eyes are still watering having read Mortimer’s note too boot… Otter
I keep my dry yeast in the freezer. When I open a foil bag of it (I buy 2 lb blocks) then I put it into a plastic container with a top. I have literally used 5 year old yeast that worked just fine… I have never had yeast fail. The 5 year old one got lost in my freezer. It was 5 years past the best by date. The it took me probably another year to use it.
We also buy yeast in blocks for the freezer (Saf Yeast, 1 pounders
). It’s supposed to last years that way. So far so good. So long as the freezer keeps running…
@Ken; While I do most of the cooking, I do not do windows. I bake my own bread with fresh ground red wheat and throw some flax, pumpkin and sunflower seeds in along with some rolled oats and some un-ground wheat berries. I also cheat, in that I use a bread machine, although I do have the pans and a stone. My goal is to build one of the “domed” pizza ovens outside on the patio with a full outside cooking set up for wood and charcoal so that I can cook without power or LP as I have plenty of wood to burn. I buy the big 1 pounders too and put them in the freezer also. Folks shouldn’t let bread baking put them off, it’s pretty easy. It’s flour, water, salt and yeast and it is just that simple. Mix, knead, proof, knead, shape and bake (there are about a billion variations), on a stone. Great post about the baking powder formula. Survive well. Enjoy.
@ TripodXL: Hi Tripod…just wondering if you might be willing to share that bread recipe. It sounds terrific…Stay well, Lauren
@Ms Lauren; Here’s what I do. I have an “Ultramill” electric grain mill from Pleasant Hill Grain (no interest) and I grind 4 cups of hard red wheat which equals 6 cups of REAL whole wheat flour. My bread machine is a “Welbilt Bakers Select” with the part number of AMBY2K1 (if you look at the P/N closely it’s funny, this machine is about 14 y/o). Here is the basic recipe.
1 and 1/4 cups H2O
1 and 1/2 Tbls Canola oil (olive oil can also be used)
1 and 1/2 Tbls honey
1/2 tsp of liquid Lecithin
3 cups Whole wheat flour (14 ounces by weight)
2 tsp baking soda
4 Tbls powdered whey
3 Tbls gluten flour
1 and 1/2 tsps of fine sea salt (I use iodized, goiter don’t you know)
3-4 tsp of active dry yeast (depends on age of yeast and how “airy” you want the bread)
This is done at the 1.5# loaf, light (color), white (menu, type of bread…can’t explain it) setting on my machine (don’t know how to translate this, if I was air proofing it, I would proof it 2x and bake it at 375 to 400F, you’d have to experiment with the time 40-60 minutes maybe???? watch it). Be sure to put the ingredients in in the order your machine says to do it (wet vs. dry)
I always add 1/4 cup of flax seed to the bread if I don’t add anything else. Yesterday I added 1/8 cup of flax seed, 1/8 cup of plain pumpkin seeds, 1/8 cup of RAW sunflower seeds, 1/8 cup of rolled oats and some “spicy spaghetti” seasoning about 2 Tbls (oregano, dried onions, basil, garlic, dried tomatoes etc.). Now if you add a bunch of stuff like this you MIGHT need to add some water. I watch it closely and only add 1 tsp at a time if I think it needs more and watch it…you have to really have a good working knowledge of your machine as water percentage really is the key to baking bread. Use the basic recipe and ONLY change one thing at a time to see what it does until it evolves into what YOU want your bread to be. You can add cheese, fresh basil, fresh Rosemary, thyme…whatever you want. Be brave and have a good time. Survive well. Enjoy.