Deciding the type of flour you should use when baking can be difficult as it depends on the product you are making. Like if you want an airy and light baked item or some thick and gooey stuff. Self-rising flour works alone for making the bread rise however yeast should be added along with all-purpose flour.
Self-Rising Flour
The easiest way to understand self-rising flour is it is a kind of flour that comes with added baking powder. It also has a little bit of salt and it can be used in baking recipes. Since self-rising flour has baking powder already added to it that is why the recipes that require self-rising flour do not ask you to further add baking powder.
Self-rising flour can be made with almost any kind of flour, however, it should be made from flour that has low protein content. The protein in the flour causes gluten formation which makes the dough thick and sticky and the self-rising flour should be airier and must have a fluffy structure.
Those bread products that are made using self-rising flour are more tender and soft than the products that require all-purpose flour with yeast. Since self-rising flour has low protein content it is mostly used for making different baked light items like biscuits. It is preferred for making pancakes and bread as well.
Yeast
You better call it Baker’s yeast! Yeast is a strain of fungus and is widely used by scientists as well. However, Baker’s yeast is most commonly used for making bread and different bakery products. It is a leavening agent that makes the bread rise and it gives a light and soft structure to the bread.
Yeast works in a way in which it converts the fermentable sugars into carbon dioxide and ethanol that are present in the all-purpose flour. Self-rising flour does not come in different types however yeast is available in various forms including cream yeast, compressed yeast, active dry yeast, instant-yeast, rapid-rise yeast, and deactivated yeast.
The cream yeast is most commonly used by industrial bakers and is available in slurry form. However, the compressed yeast comes with almost all of its liquid removed and can be perfect for consumers. The most common type of yeast used is deactivated yeast which is added to pizza dough.
Self-Rising Flour vs Yeast
Rising Time
The difference between self-rising flour and yeast is yeast requires time for making the bread rise. The rising ingredient in self-rising flour is baking powder and it works differently than the yeast. The extra time that is required by yeast to perform its action is because it does fermentation or feeds on the dough which makes it rise and become fluffy.
However, the baking powder starts working when it gets hydrated which requires very little time. This is why, if you are planning to use self-rising flour as an ingredient, then you must pick a recipe for a quick bread that does not require yeast rising. An example is Irish soda bread and basic quick bread loaf.
Heat Requirement
Yeast does not require heat to start working, unlike baking powder which is the main ingredient of self-rising flour for rising the dough. Baking powder is sodium bicarbonate which is mixed with some acid too. It works by releasing carbon dioxide which in turn gives rise to the dough.
However, unlike the fermentation process, it requires heat to start working and this is why dough with baking powder only rises when it’s put in the oven. Baking powder, unlike yeast, does not require resting time.
However, there is a single-acting baking powder that involves only a single initial activation process that starts instantly once the liquid is added. It occurs because the acid and base are already combined in the mixture because of the liquid.
Type of Reaction
Baking powder rises the bread in a similar way to the yeast, however, the reaction type is way different for producing the carbon dioxide. Baking powder works with chemical reaction however, yeast works with biological reaction.
Both of these dough leavening agents work well in their suitable recipes. Hopefully, this blog helped you in deciding which one you want to go for.