Self rising flour does not require yeast. Dry yeast has an approximate shelf life of about 4 months after it’s opened (and if kept refrigerated) while the shelf life of the key ingredient in self rising flour is about 2 years and does not require refrigeration.
Sounds pretty good for preparedness and/or making edible biscuits without yeast…
The key ingredient to self rising flour is baking powder. Baking powder is a leavening agent that releases carbon dioxide when moistened. This produces air bubbles in baked goods which cause them to expand and become lighter while baking.
Technical:
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.
A 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 about 1/2 tsp to some hot water in a cup. If it foams and bubbles, it has enough zip 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 (or 1/4-cup real butter)
1 tbsp powdered egg (or 1 real 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.
It doesn’t rise like a traditional loaf of bread would, but it makes for a decent tasty biscuit…
Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.
Via: modernsurvivalblog
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