'Cake Flour' (or similar) for North American recipes

coffee to go

Hey folks,

Anyone got any input here?

As Canadian ex-pats, we cook a lot of North American recipes (cakes and pies especially). At the minute we find that we have to get flour posted from home, as Irish 'Plain Flour' has a much higher gluten content, and doesn't really work for such recipes (dense claggy cakes are the usual result).

Is there anywhere close to Dublin that sells imported flours etc?

Alternatively, as far as I know, 'extra-fine plain flour' may be much closer to the 'cake flour' back in Canada. I don't think Odlums or the like do this, but some British companies do it I think - Anyone seen such stuff around?

And one more thing - Anyone know where to get Lard for making flaky pastry here? (Shipping this in too!)

Many thanks in advance for any advice!

rockbeer

Most Irish 'plain' flour is anything but. I was aghast when I moved here (from the UK) and discovered it all contains raising agents.

Closest thing I've found to what I would call plain flour is Lidl own brand (in the red bag). Try it, it might just be what you're looking for.

Can't help you with the lard I'm afraid - always use butter myself.

Tree

plain flour doesnt have raising agents. that's the self raising flour. plain flour just has anti caking agents.

Have you tried the flour from the Polish food second. They have one with a picture of a cake on it. Maka is flour and Tortowa is the name of the type of flour.

cookiequeen

what about italian 00 flour its an extra fine flour! I know nigella only uses thiss flour for baking

oblivious

cookiequeen wrote: »

what about italian 00 flour its an extra fine flour! I know nigella only uses thiss flour for baking

Its also a strong flour


you can substitute for 1 cup cake flour use 7/8 cup all-purpose flour + 2 tablespoons cornstarch.

Toto Wolfcastle

Can you not get lard in your local supermarket? I thought it was fairly common really. Even my local centra had it last time I checked.

Tree

by lard does teh OP mean solid fat like frytex or cookeen?

coffee to go

Hey guys - Thanks for the feedback.

In response to some of the above posts:

Irish 'Plain' flour is rarely as 'plain' as it suggests (we've researched this). Most, (Odlum's, etc) contain some raising agents (self-raising appears to add a few more on top of this). Only the very budget flour like Tesco Blue and White stuff is just flour and nothing else. Still doesn't work as well as cake flour though. I will deffo try the constarch trick though - sounds intriguing.

Have seen 00 flour in Sainsbury's up North - where to get it here though?

As for lard, I was referrring to real non-hydrogenated animal fat as opposed to the hydrogenated veggie oil that makes up Cookeen etc. You can get it in the UK (haven't tried it yet). I have a feeling it may also be found in the Polish shops. Just thought someone may have seen it on their travels.

In case any other homesick Canadians or Americans come across this thread, we have managed to get other hard to find ingredients like corn syrup, Aunt Jemima products and Fairco marshmallows in Fallon and Byrne on Wicklow St (the latter are also in in Harvey Nichols Foodmarket in Dundrum).

Thanks again.

rockbeer

Fallon & Byrnes also do 00 flour, so you can pick everything up at once

Failing that, there's an Italian deli that does it in the so-called "italian quarter" (North Side, nr. Jervis St). It sounds fantastic but it's really just the deli and a couple of cafés so don't get too excited!

Alun

Just thinking aloud here ... what is it about these US/Canadian recipes that makes them different to ones from here, and that makes them only work with certain kinds of flour? I mean, it's evidently not impossible to make good cakes using the types of flour we have here, so maybe there's subtle differences in the recipes that have evolved to match the kinds of flour we get here, I don't know.

Anyway, speaking as someone who has moved from country to country a bit myself over the years, I find it much more interesting, cheaper, and ultimately less frustrating, to adapt the kinds of things I cook and eat to local circumstances rather than constantly trying to recreate the things I was used to 'back home'. Just a thought.

Sorry forgot about the Lard.....they also have this in the Polish refrigerated food section.

I should be getting extra loyalty points for selling Supervalu so much!

LilMrsDahamsta

Baking ingredient substitutions

The Sweeper

As Alun says, you'll probably find the recipes don't work because your OTHER ingredients, like butter, milk, eggs and anything else used to bind a cake, are measured in the recipes you are used to so that they match the ingredients you are used to. Your recipes also might not have baking powder or bicarbonate of soda or some of the other tiny increments of magic that are added to Irish flour to make recipes work.

As for buying Lard to make flaky pastry, try buying some of the frozen pastry sheets in the supermarket. I'm sure you can get flaky pastry, and I know you can get puff pastry (which might do in a pinch, though the ratios of fat and water are different). The frozen pastries are actually pretty damn good.

Magic Monkey

coffee to go, in Dublin you can can get Royal Brand cake flour in Asia Market on Drury St. (it's in the thai section, second aisle from the left as you walk in, at the back, on the left), and lard in Paprika Stores, a hungarian speciality shop beside Cineworld cinema on Parnell St. Good luck.

antoniosicily

For my cakes I use the Odlum's cream, I know that it has raising agents anyway (which are *not* anticaking); a flour without raising agents can be found in LIDL (red bag, as rockbeer said), or M&S has a good plain flour.

Anyway I think that the general quality of flour in Ireland is good, and you can have good choices.

ningning

Hi ....i am also in search of cake flour for the past many many months...i finally found a very close substitude. As i need cake flour for making chiffon cake..so initially i mixed plain flour with 2 tbsp of corn flour, but the result is not that good...so i read on and found chinese flour called special bun flour. this is used for making chinese buns. the chiffon cake i made from this flour is as fine as those i have at home. i bought this from Asian Market. they have many branches. i went to the Hq, located in walkinstown. Brand of the flour is Purple orchid. Hope this help

gooselein

Great tip from Magic Monkey, i'll be going there....I recently discovered 'cake flour' in Melbourne when my sister did a 'cupcake making course' and i will attest to the euro-sceptics that in fact that it really does make an incredibly light cake. I would urge you all to try it...there is no comparison....if thats the sort of cake or cupcake you like...

The Hungarian shop in Parnell St is wonderful, if you have ever had a real Hungarian smokey Bean Soup (Bableves) they have all the essential ingredients,reasonable prices. Lard, salamis and smoked bacon are of course staples in Hungarian cooking( hence the shocking heart disease statistics)

There is also a great Moldavian shop in Capel St, having looked for Quinces in Ireland over the last 12 years (finally 2.20 euro EACH in Fallon and Byrne!) this shop had a mountain of beautiful Quinces at half the price. Its really worth looking in these ethnic stores, Dublin has some great ones...

Dizzyblonde

Hi gooselein, welcome to Boards. As a general rule we don't revive threads that are more than 6 months old, and this one is 5 years old so I have to close it.