If you have all-purpose (AP) flour on hand, bleached or unbleached, some salt and baking powder then you are all set! If you have pastry or cake flour, even better! Using pastry or cake flour is discussed at the bottom.
Ever since I accidently used AP instead of self-rising in a family recipe, I’ve made my own self-rising flour, it’s super easy. (spoiler: it spoiled the recipe substituting just AP for self-rising!)
Combine together: 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 teaspoon table salt*, 1 and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder.
For most recipes, this quick volume measurement will work great, it doesn’t need to be exact. Biscuits and banana bread are pretty forgiving.
*Note: different salts weigh different amounts per teaspoon volume. For example, Morton’s salt weighs 18 grams per teaspoon, kosher salt is about 6 grams per teaspoon, sea salt is about the same as kosher – but, it can very by a couple of grams depending on how coarse it is ground. If you are using a kosher or sea salt, you have some options:
1. weigh your salt instead (you need about 5 grams of salt per cup of flour),
2. make sure it is ground to the consistency of a common table salt before measuring by teaspoon, or
3. plan to add three times as much of the coarser salt (3/4 teaspoon instead of 1/4 teaspoon)
If you are making something where the exact measurements are more important or you like to be precise, you will want to use weight measurements instead. This kitchen scale is similar to the one I use for 99% of stuff I bake, and this one for when I need super specific small (down to 0.01 gram) measurements. As of 2023, the digital scale I use is no longer made, but it’s a plain digital scale that weighs in grams, ounces, pounds & ounces, and milliliters and the linked ones are similar.
Weigh on a kitchen scale and combine together:
125 grams of all-purpose flour, (or 128 grams of pastry flour)
4.5 grams salt (or round to 5 grams*),
7.5 grams of baking powder (or round to 8 grams*)
*Note: if your scale’s smallest measurement is grams, just round up to the nearest whole gram.
So which flour should you use?
Most people have plenty of AP on hand and AP will work wonderfully for most recipes that’s why most substitutions recommend it. If you are making something a bit more delicate or something you with a more tender crumb – then using Pastry Flour instead of AP is the best substitute. Pastry flour and Self-rising have the closest protein content (both are 9-10%) in store bought bags. (see this article for more information)
If you have cake flour, in can also be used in place of the AP flour. Cake flour has a lower protein content than pastry flour, so a mix of cake and AP would be better if you have both on hand:
- Start with 2/3 cup (80 grams) of cake flour per cup of flour needed.
- Add 1/3 cup (42 grams) of all-purpose flour per cup of flour needed.
- Then add the salt and baking powder as described above.
Click Here for Volume to Weight conversions for common ingredients.