SC - corn flour? - oop

[Decker, Terry D.]

You are correct that "soft" and "hard" mean low-gluten and high-gluten
respectively.  The terms appear to come from the technique of squeezing a
handful of flour to feel the hardness of the flour.  The harder it feels,
the more gluten.

"Plain" usually means that the flour has not been bromated (to improve the
rise) or had other chemicals added.  IIRC, "plain" does not cover bleached
or unbleached, as the bleaching does not modify the baking properties of the
flour.  Since whole wheat flours are labelled as such, plain flours will
tend to range from brilliant white to light ivory in color, the baker's
whites.

In the context of the recipe, I would use a pastry flour, but if you don't
have the specialty flours, all-purpose flour be fine.  The mix of
all-purpose and Softasilk (superfine cake flour) is a nice touch.

Bear



> Yes, I believe so. In addition, I think the "plain soft flour" means a
> white 
> flour with a low gluten content, like our pastry flour, or maybe cake
> flour. 
> Actually, this is an extrapolation - I find "plain strong flour" defined
> as 
> high-gluten flour for breadmaking, with additional description of the 
> "strong" part to confirm that, and the "plain" flours seem to be white 
> flours, but I have not been able to find a straightforward statement that 
> says "plain" flours are always white. Perhaps someone else can clarify
> this? 
> In the meantime, I am assuming from Elizabeth David's description that our
> 
> all-purpose white flour (unbleached?), though slightly higher in gluten 
> content than British "ordinary plain household flour", would do just fine 
> for this recipe. (BTW, I like using half unbleached all-purpose flour and 
> half cake flour (Softasilk brand, and always bleached) for shortbread 
> cookies.)
> 
> Morwyn of Wye, O.L.
> 
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