Things that are "best before"

mirko

I do quite a bit of baking (cakes etc.) and thought I was being very clever by buying 7 x 1.5kg bags of both plain and self-raising flour.

All very good.. but I realised today that the BBE date on it is Oct 2010.

Apart from cooking the world's biggest:
:bdaycake:
I wondered what I could do with it all to "get rid of it quickly"? Any ideas?

I often use stuff that's past its BBE date, and I'll probably use this after BBE too. Any risk of doing that with flour? I think there may be an issue with the self-raising not raising? Does that make it self flour?

funtime.franki_2

I'd use to be honest and sod them with these BBDs. They really tick me off. If it ain't gonna kill you then eat it.

Maybe just do a "test" cake with the SF to see if it does rise. If it doesn't rise I'd through in a bit of baking powder extra, or other raising agent and hope!

Alternatively, making the world's biggest cake could be very fun, and you would make a lot of friends.

funtime.franki_2

You could also just make a lot of smaller cakes and freeze ?

mirko

funtime.franki wrote: »

I'd use to be honest and sod them with these BBDs. They really tick me off. If it ain't gonna kill you then eat it.

Maybe just do a "test" cake with the SF to see if it does rise. If it doesn't rise I'd through in a bit of baking powder extra, or other raising agent and hope!

Alternatively, making the world's biggest cake could be very fun, and you would make a lot of friends.

I've added baking powder to Plain before now when I'm out of Self-Raising. I was amazed when I found out I could do that - I am very easily pleased obviously.

geordie_joe

There will be no risk in using the flour after the bb date.

"Use by" and "best before" dates are dates the producer says are the least amount of time the product will last for. Normally the product lasts a lot longer that these dates (unless it something fresh like fish or chicken).

Self raising flour is just plain flour with baking powder added. The baking powder can't read, so it won't stop working on the date the label says.

If you are worried that it will, just add more when you use the flour, it will tell you how much to use on the baking powder tin/plastic container.

mirko

funtime.franki wrote: »

You could also just make a lot of smaller cakes and freeze ?

The freezer is full (am working on it!!), unfortunately the cupboard isn't bare!

mirko

geordie_joe wrote: »

There will be no risk in using the flour after the bb date.

"Use by" and "best before" dates are dates the producer says are the least amount of time the product will last for. Normally the product lasts a lot longer that these dates (unless it something fresh like fish or chicken).

Self raising flour is just plain flour with baking powder added. The baking powder can't read, so it won't stop working on the date the label says.

If you are worried that it will, just add more when you use the flour, it will tell you how much to use on the baking powder tin/plastic container.

I'm not too worried, just wondered if there was anything specific with flour to look out for (in addition to the raising part of the Self-Raising flour). I've had "weevils" in my flour in the past - though that was probably down to shoddy storage more than anything else.

Cheers.

geordie_joe

mirko wrote: »

I've added baking powder to Plain before now when I'm out of Self-Raising. I was amazed when I found out I could do that - I am very easily pleased obviously.

Me too, I even add some to SR flour when baking cakes to give them an extra boost.

There was a tip on the old style board, to save money by buying plain flour and adding baking powder to make SR flour. But that was in the days when SR flour was more expensive than plain flour.

I did a search of the top 4 supermarkets, plus my local Morrisons a couple of months ago, and found that SR flour was the same price as plain,. When you compare the same brands. So I guess the tip doesn't apply now, but if you want an extra rise to your baking, add a bit more baking powder to your SR flour.

JayJay14

I only ever buy plain flour (and the smartprice one at that) but it is purely so that I only have to store one bag at a time rather than two. I have always added baking powder - even been known to make my own from bicarb and cream of tartar, but that was only in an emergency.

The baking powder in the SR flour will lose it's potency over time, so you will just need to add a little more to it if it is past it's prime.

Teahfc

Bake some cakes for friends or local W.I or a charity ..... cheer people up and feel good about it :T

paulwf

geordie_joe wrote: »

"Use by" and "best before" dates are dates the producer says are the least amount of time the product will last for. Normally the product lasts a lot longer that these dates (unless it something fresh like fish or chicken).

Although this is true there is a very important difference between the two terms.

"Use by" means the shop can't legally sell it after that date because there is a risk of food poisoning or spoiling of the product after that date. This applies to fresh products such as milk, eggs, soft cheese etc. If you eat food past the use by date you're at risk of eating bad food...and you don't know what the odds are as you don't know the how the shop and supplier has looked after the food and you can't always see, smell or taste food poisoning bacteria.

"Best before" is used as a guide to the freshness of the product. Tinned food can in theory last forever (certainly over 50 years in some cases) but is usually given a 1-2 year life as it will degrade. A coarsely milled wholemeal flour will probably only be fresh for 3-4 months before it starts to degrade but could be used for years as long as it doesn't get infested with flour weevils. White flour which is more processed should last quite a while.