Homemade Specialty Flours

Today's another busy day, but no complaints from here! As I was driving to work this morning, I was wondering if there was some time I could borrow from somebody else's day ... if only it worked that way. I then was suddenly humbled by the idea of borrowed time, in reality we are all are using borrowed time. On Tuesday of this week, the young man I mentioned in my May 9th post, lost his fight to ALS at the young age of 34, leaving behind his wife and 6-year old daughter. He surpassed his five year diagnosis anniversary but only by a few months. Our prayers go out to his family during their loss. No moment is guaranteed. I often struggle to find the balance in this - should I slowdown and enjoy life OR make the most of every moment? No matter how busy or slow life may be, I always try to keep my faith on and remember God is in control, I just need to do my part and listen to his directions.

For today's post, I once again ran into an ingredient I needed and didn't have in my cupboard!

Transforming Your All-Purpose Flour into Some More

I will never again let the need for one of these ingredients stop me from trying a recipe. I am prepping for a busy cake weekend and making a first attempt at an old recipe which called for cake flour. A while back I needed self-rising flour and figured out I could make my own (see recipe below), so I decided to start by seeing if I could make cake flour instead running to the store. Sure enough, along with bread flour and pastry flour which I will have to try also at some point ... in all reality I would get a thrill out of being the little red hen and doing it all from scratch (sometimes I wonder if I was born into the right era)!

Homemade Cake Flour

1 cup minus 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons of cornstarch

Combine ingredients. Sift together (A mesh strainer or sieve works great). Store in an airtight container. 

Homemade Self-Rising Flour 

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

Combine ingredients. Sift together. Store in an airtight container. 

I will need to try out pastry flour and bread flour sometime!