Substituting one kind of flour for another

Can I replace plain flour or self-raising flour in a recipe with wholemeal flour? For example in a muffin recipe. I was thinking of trying just replacing a quarter of it to start with to try it out, but what would you do with self-raising? Do you need to add something else in to still get the 'raising'?
Thanks

Self raising flour is white flour mixed with baking powder - hence why it "rises" the baking.

If you substitute with wholemeal then you need to add a few spoonfuls of baking powder for the rising agent that is missing.

Also what is called wholemeal in this country is not wholemeal of course as whole meal has no shelf life - it gets rancid.
So you are buying white flour with "sanitized" bran (meaning all the fatty bits are removed and fed to the pigs - lucky them! - so it doesn't go rancid in the many months until you buy it and use it) - which you could have much cheaper by buying bran and white flour and mixing it yourself ... LOL :)

In case you truly want "real" wholemeal you need to buy it from an organic health food shop and hopefully they can mill it fresh on the premises. I would be very wary of packaged stuff as you have no control over how that was stored - it should be in fridge or freezer all the time once milled.

Best option: buy a flour mill (with stones not metal discs) to mill your own when you need it. Expensive but way to go if you want to bake a lot yourself.

Good luck!

Well you learn something new every day uli. I didn't realise that the fatty bits were removed. I have always wondered how it was that wholemeal flour didn't go rancid. I think I will get onto Edmonds and ask them if they sanitise their stoneground wholemeal flour.

And yes you are right about the mill. I have been hovering because I am not sure quite which one to buy - electric or hand.

As a woman I am quite tactile and in the case of something as important as this I would really like to see, touch and probably turn the handle (like kicking the tyres on a car) before I bought.

However, I must make a decision soon. After 3 months of not making bread because I was trying to eat up the excess loaves in my deep freeze I have started again and want better quality flours.

Can anyone tell me how much baking powder to add to the wholemeal flour if substituting it for self-raising, ie: tbsp per cup? Thanks

For 1 cup self-raising flour you can substitute 1 cup all-purpose flour or wholemeal flour plus 1 tsp baking powder.

Also what is called wholemeal in this country is not wholemeal of course as whole meal has no shelf life - it gets rancid.
So you are buying white flour with "sanitized" bran (meaning all the fatty bits are removed and fed to the pigs - lucky them! - so it doesn't go rancid in the many months until you buy it and use it) - which you could have much cheaper by buying bran and white flour and mixing it yourself ... LOL :)

News to me... ... ... ... . sorry but I'm a Flour Miller and the only thing taken out of wholemeal flour is the wheatgerm! The bran and pollard (broll) are all put back in at the blower seal.

Wow - so you do not know that the wheat germ IS the fatty bit? The part of the grain that would start the sprouting? Surely you know that that part is the most nutritious of the lot?

The rest is just carbs - stored as starch for the seedling to turn into sugar and grow once it hits the ground and gets water to swell up. Without that part all you have is starch and fiber with basically no nutrition at all.

Sure it will fill up your tummy for a couple of hours, but that is about it.

Thanks for the answer on substitution quantities.

Just curious. These wheatgerm/fatty bits that are so nutritious - what kind of nutrition do they provide?
You say carbs and fibre are still present - additional fibre's what I'm after for my child so I'm happy - but what's in the wheatgerm that's so good?
Ta.

I could give you a lot of advice here - but I have been called names so often here that I am giving up.
So basically if you are keen to learn then google it:
http://www.google.co.nz/search? q=nutrition+wheat+germ&ie
=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org. mozilla:en-US:offic
ial&client=firefox-a

You might be surprised - or you might think it doesn't matter.

Whatever - it is your choice and your call.