.. wrote:

> On Thu, 10 Nov 2005, Alric Knebel wrote:
>
>
>>I've been trying to find a recipe for crispy peanut butter cookies. A
>>recipe I found online didn't stipulate that it would produce crispy
>>cookies, but years ago, a woman gave me a recipe that would make the
>>cookies crispy if you add some water (a small amount, like one-fourth
>>cup) to the final mixture. Anyway, this recipe I located called for
>>flour and baking soda. The woman I live with said I could eliminate the
>>baking soda because we were going to use self-rising flour. I'm not an
>>experienced baker, so I prefer to follow the recipe exactly, until at
>>some time in the future I'll know what ingredient causes what. I
>>followed her instructions and left out the baking soda. I also added a
>>bit of water to the recipe, hoping the cookies would turn out crispy.
>>The result: they SUCKED. So I found a new recipe, and it too called for
>>both baking soda and baking POWDER. There was no mention of self-rising
>>flour.
>>
>>Here are my questions. What makes the cookies crispy? Can baking soda
>>and baking powder by eliminated and self-rising flour used instead, and
>>will it make my goal of crispier cookies impossible to achieve?
>
>
> First, self-raising flour is simply flour with leavening agents added. If
> a recipe calls for one cup of self-raising flour you can use one cup of
> all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt.
>
> Conversely, if a recipe contains all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt
> you may be able to use self-raising flour. For example, if the recipe
> calls for 2 cups of all-purpose flour, 4 tsp of baking powder and 1 1/2
> tsp salt (I'm just making these up; they probably would never be found in
> the ratio in a real recipe). If I change the 2 cups of all-purpose flour
> to 2 cups of self-raising flour there is probably 3 tsp of baking powder
> and 1 tsp of salt. I would therefore reduce the baking powder to 1 tsp (4
> - 3) and add no additional salt.
>
> As to why your cookies "SUCKED" we'd have to see the entire recipe and
> what subsititutions you made.
>
> On a guess, if you reduced/eliminated the baking soda but didn't change
> the salt you are going to get different results. Were your cookies too
> salty?
>
> Additionally, substituting baking powder (what is usually in self-raising
> flour) for baking soda is not that straight forward. I believe, if the
> recipe calls for 1 tsp of baking soda you need to include 4 tsp of baking
> powder.
>
> For example, if your recipe calls for 3 tsp of baking soda then you will
> need 3/4 tsp of baking powder. Since a cup of self-raising flour has 1 1/2
> tsp of baking powder and you need to reduce that to 3/4 tsp (half), you
> can only use 1/2 cup of self-raising flour. What if you need 2 cups of
> all-purpose flour? You cannot substitute it with self-raising flour.
>
> Bottom line, if you are going to be doing substitution then you will need
> to know a little math and a little chemistry.

What my problem is, not knowing how much baking soda (or baking powder)
is in self-rising flour per proportion, so I can't tell how much of the
baking soda or baking powder to add, if any. My girlfriend's premise
was, you could eliminate the need for baking soda and salt by using
self-rising flour, which she had on hand. I was questioning the
veracity of that premise. From your response, I take it that it's not
straightforward as that, therefore the simple answer is "no": you can't
just substitute self-rising flour and simply eliminate the need for salt
and baking soda. Am I understanding you correctly? If the substitution
is NOT that straightforward, then the most straightforward solution for
an inexperienced baker would be to follow the recipe as written.

As for why the cookies sucked, well, they were simply bland. They
definitely were not salty, and they weren't crispy, which is really what
I'm aiming for. You know how when you buy cookies in a store, they're
crispy? That's the texture I'm aiming for. Keep in mind that I altered
the recipe by eliminating the baking soda and salt under the
misconception that self-rising flour was the clear substitute. I was
immediately suspicious of the recipe to begin with. I had had a recipe
someone else gave me some years ago, and it was pinned to a board in the
kitchen. But the recipe was lost during the Katrina cleanup of the
house. That recipe was WORK (which is why I used it maybe only five
times), while this new recipe wasn't. I didn't have confidence in it,
and I didn't have confidence in my girlfriend's substitution ideas.

Alric Knebel