Korean Job Discussion Forums

[pangaea]

Can someone tell me which words to look for to tell the difference between self-rising and all purpose flour? I want to make banana bread but I don't know which kind of flour I have. I picked out flour that had a picture of a cookie and a gingerbread man on the front as opposed to a picture of a dumpling and noodles, but I have no clue if I need to add baking soda or salt.

[Lynns]

The cookie flour is just general all-purpose flour. You can use it to make banana bread.There's another flour with pictures of bread and pizza, and that's a high gluten, high protein flour that's good for making yeast bread and yeast doughs, but you don't need that kind for quick bread. The flour with pictures of noodles and dumplings would be the low gluten flour. I've used it in place of all-purpose flour, but it's not ideal. Self-rising cake flour is available, but harder to find. Anyway, if you want to make cakes, you can just use the all-purpose flour and add your own leavening. Cake flour is not necessary.

So, in short, you have the right kind of flour and you should add baking powder/ baking soda, salt, or whatever the recipe instructs.

[pangaea]

Exactly what I needed to know! Thanks!

[interestedinhanguk]

No, the flour with pictures of cookies is cake flour (unless this is a brand I haven't used). Cake flour is low-gluten. It's called 과자용밀가루. This is an example http://tinyurl.com/29mj3r7 You don't want this unless the recpe calls for it.

You want the stuff that's got the picture of noodles. That's regular AP flour. Just called 밀가루.

(The one with a picture of bread, 빵용밀가루, is high-gluten).

[Lynns]

Actually, you could be right that it's cake flour. Its consistency is very light and fine, fluffy when compared to other flours which are a little clumpier. I use it as my general purpose flour, adding leavening to it as needed for cakes, cookies, or quick breads, and it works perfectly, exactly like the pre-sifted all-purpose flour I use in the U.S.. It could be cake flour, but I really doubt that it's self-rising cake flour--are you saying that it contains leavening? It doesn't taste like it.

There's no problem with with using cake flour for cookies and other baked goods. It's just a softer wheat. I guess the noodle/dumpling flour would also be OK, if that's an all-purpose flour.