Watty's Awakening

badmemory

I haven't bought SR flour for years now, ever since I discovered you can convert plain.  If you don't use much it can save it going out of date.

Greying_Pilgrim

badmemory said:

I haven't bought SR flour for years now, ever since I discovered you can convert plain.  If you don't use much it can save it going out of date.

I do that too - only have plain in the house and a tub of baking powder.  Think it was a N1gella tip that I latched on to.  There used to be the tsps of baking powder to every XXXg of plain flour info on the tubs a while back, but for the most part, I eyeball, as I ain't cooking for anyone who's a FT judge for the WI 🤣

Greying X

Cherryfudge

It's great 'seeing' your kitchen surplus creatively diminished and some new favourites emerging. DH is currently using up eggs in a Victoria sponge (he'll eat most cakes but only makes the classic ) but when he's had some of that and I've restocked the eggs, I reckon it's far enough on in the year to make parkin and mincemeat cakes (separate things, you understand) and thus make a dent in the long-term stocks.

badmemory

Greying_Pilgrim said:

badmemory said:

I haven't bought SR flour for years now, ever since I discovered you can convert plain.  If you don't use much it can save it going out of date.

I do that too - only have plain in the house and a tub of baking powder.  Think it was a N1gella tip that I latched on to.  There used to be the tsps of baking powder to every XXXg of plain flour info on the tubs a while back, but for the most part, I eyeball, as I ain't cooking for anyone who's a FT judge for the WI 🤣

Greying X

Yes that's who I got it from.  It means only one open bag + 1 ready to go rather than 2 of each.  Can you tell I just can't stand to run out of anything.  This all started over 20 years ago when I miscalculated how much butter I would need to do Xmas day.  Before 11am & there am I tearing out of the house to get to a local shop that is open early morning.  That is never happening again.  Added to which none of them are open at all on Xmas day now anyway.

greenbee

I don't do much baking, but do have both - SR flour is finer, so I tend to use it for rolling out pastry, particularly when I'm trying to get it thin (puff pastry mostly). I have icing sugar for the same reason - rolling out sugar paste. Admittedly I don't use much of that anymore either! I don't even use plain flour that much, as I don't really bake unless I have visitors. 

I've worked out that I need to make seed crackers to use up the pysllium husk, so will make sure I meal plan to include them. I've also remembered that I have rice flour to use too. 

redofromstart

Same herewith just buying plain and baking powder. Herbs and spices I am fairly ruthless
on in that I mostly stick to blends that vaguely match a recipe and I bin anything that is
more than six months out of date. 

ajmoney

I suspect I have some spices that are not really spices anymore! Other than that, I don't think I have anything extra in my kitchen cupboards but I plan to have a look this week.

badmemory

I still have the remnants of some spices that moved here with me over 30 years ago.  So old they don't have BBE dates but smell okay & have been kept dry, cool & in the dark.

Watty1

Thank you all, so helpful.   I might become a kitchen whizz yet.    I checked the pot of baking powder and that is 2 years out of date so I binned that after testing it. I found on google that if you add quarter of a cup of boiling water to a boil containing half a teaspoon of baking powder it should bubble vigorously.  Mine was flat .   I haven't really baked for years, I am just using stuff up that is taking up space in the cupboard so I have learnt that  SR flour is unnecessary anyway if I have baking powder and the raising agent has past its best and my SR flour is best used up as a naan bread.   I've also learnt that I quite like having home made stuff in the house rather than pre-bought  so maybe going forwards the odd Sunday afternoon might be time to make something and now I know why the sugar free Victoria Sponge didn't work I might even make that again for friends even though it was too sweet for me although chestnut flour biscuits and spelt banana bread might be better social offerings as I have a feeling those flours will remain after this purge as I liked the baked goods.

Cherryfudge

You certainly seem to have an instinct for finding good recipes that you like enough to add to your repertoire. Skills-wise, I remember when I first got married I baked scones ad nauseum to build up the skill, until poor DH was fed up and had to ask me to slow down. Many years later, standing in the kitchen at work making scones on a quiet day and chatting to a colleague, I became aware the colleague was watching my hands rather as if they were a test card (showing my age there): something relaxing and satisfying. That led to me realising that somewhere I'd graduated from the learner to the teacher, slowly and over years of 'just doing'. There's nothing like the practice plus the interest for becoming a kitchen whizz!  

I hasten to add I rarely bake scones nowadays so I might need a refresher course.