Cake Flour?

nledec said:
Does anyone know where I can find cake flour?
You should be able to get it at any supermarket or chino, you basically have to types:" leudante " that already has baking powder or " comun " w/o baking powder , just make sure the packet says 0000 ( 4 zeros ) and not 000
 
Thanks nikad, but neither of those is cake flour. Those are self-rising flour and regular flour. Cake flour is a specialty flour called for in some baking recipes.
 
Nikad is right, the norm in Argentina is to use 0000 (4 ceros) flour for cakes and delicate pastries. You could probably find a better suited flour at a pastry boutique, but 0000 flour and a great sifter is what is commonly used.

reference 1

yahoo answer's in spanish

reference 2

"La clasificación de las harinas es:

cero (0), dos ceros (00), tres ceros (000) y cuatro ceros (0000).

La harina 000 se utiliza siempre en la elaboración de panes, ya que su alto contenido de proteínas posibilita la formación de gluten y se consigue un buen leudado sin que las piezas pierdan su forma.

La 0000 es más refinada y más blanca, al tener escasa formación de gluten no es un buen contenedor de gas y los panes pierden forma. Por ese motivo sólo se utiliza en panes de molde y en pastelería, en batido de tortas, hojaldres, etc.
Según sea la tasa de extracción vamos a tener las diferentes clases de harinas. La tasa de extracción de una harina se mide por la cantidad de kilos de harina que obtenemos moliendo 100 kilos de cereal."

source: http://www.alimentacion-sana.com.ar/informaciones/Chef/harina.htm
 
Perhaps I'm not being clear, there is above and beyond the various types of flours available in the market a kind of flour known in English as cake flour (readily availably in groceries in the US). It has a "refining" process that goes further than what I've seen available here--including the 0000. There are other kinds of specialty flours too--pastry flour for example. I'm guessing that here they would only be available from a purveyor that sells to professional bakeries (though considering the baked goods here what I'm looking for may not even exist).
In short, the question is does anyone know where I can find specialty flours beyond what is readily available in the supermarkets?
 
nledec said:
Perhaps I'm not being clear, there is above and beyond the various types of flours available in the market a kind of flour known in English as cake flour (readily availably in groceries in the US). It has a "refining" process that goes further than what I've seen available here--including the 0000. There are other kinds of specialty flours too--pastry flour for example. I'm guessing that here they would only be available from a purveyor that sells to professional bakeries (though considering the baked goods here what I'm looking for may not even exist).
In short, the question is does anyone know where I can find specialty flours beyond what is readily available in the supermarkets?

Definitions vary from country to country and don't always have exact equivalents. In the UK they have 'weak' flour and 'strong' flour only they call the former just 'flour' and the latter 'bread flour' In the UK you use just 'flour' for baking cakes and pastries and maybe find a particular brand of 'flour' that works best for you. In Argentina most of the retail flour is 'weak' flour and in my opinion, you will find the quality you want by using OOOO grade and trying various brands until you find one you like. My advice would be to buy a bag of OOOO flour and be willing to be surprised.

If it turns out that you are NOT surprised then plan B is as follows. The accepted substitute for what the US calls cake flour is one-and-three-quarters of a cup of flour to one-quarter of a cup of what in the UK they call cornflour and in the US I believe they call corn starch. Whether the 'flour' in this substitution is weak flour or strong flour is left as an exercise for the reader.
 
From what I understand is that 0000 flour is closer to cake flour than all purpose or "regular flour" in the US.

As NoName says above, you can make your a cake flour substitute by sifting your 0000 flour well and as listed above adding maizena/corn starch. Researching online give various proportions though. So, it might depend on what you are making.

Have you tried the 0000 yet? Did your cake come out really flat? I have not yet made any recipe calling specifically for cake flour. But I have made my "regular flour" recipes with 0000 and was pleasantly surprised at how light and fluffy they came out, even my muffins came out super fluffy. (Well, I wasn't happy at what it did to my brownies though! ;)

I'd be happy to help you with your trials!! :D
 
hi:)
i came across this baking emporium while on an obsessive search for pine nuts a couple years back. every so often when a recipe calls for something extra-ordinary i'll look for it here, once i figure out the translation to know what to ask for, ha!

Doña Clara's, Avenida Corrientes 2561 (a couple blocks from Pueyrredon).
http://donaclara.com.ar/ecommerce/
4952.5918.

if you don't find what you're looking for at doña clara's, even after asking them, then you likely won't find it in the country.
add another item to the care packages your friends/family send you;)
good luck:)
 
Hello!

I'm a pastry chef from the States, and yes, at home we do have a ridiculous amount of different flours, but even in the bakeries and cafes I worked in we only ever had pastry flour and bread flour, and combined the two (worked out portions, etc) to come up with cake flour (the in between) when needed. I've baked plenty here with 0000, and it's a fine substitute for cake flour. Doña Clara is a great resource, tho.

Also, keep your eyes open, y'all, I'm gonna start marketing and selling my tasty treats! I'm thinking of having an open house taster thing to kick it all off (anyone interested?), I'll announce more when the time comes (I'm in the early planning stages, still... but I've gotta bake!). Along those lines, anyone know where I can get boxes to package stuff in? Cake boxes, etc?? I haven't checked Doña Clara yet, but didn't see anything like that in there last time I was there. I'm sure I could ask them, though...
 
this is an interesting thread - I was wondering what the numbers meant and I had no idea why my cakes were not so good :eek: now i do.

So related to this, which is the best flour to bake bread (how many 0's), and do they have whole wheat flour here, we miss good brown bread...

Doña Clara?

thnx
 
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