On Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:41:52 -0400, "Felice" >
wrote:

>I have a gazillion recipes for Irish soda bread, but I'd like to try a new
>one. It calls for 1 1/4 lb all-purpose flour and 1 1/4 lb pastry flour, a
>combo I've not tried before, and I don't have pastry flour on hand.
>
>My King Arthur cookbook suggests 2 tablespoons cornstarch for an equal
>amount of flour in each cup. I do trust KA, but I'd appreciate hearing from
>someone who has made this substitution with success because I am a cook, not
>a baker.
>
>I suppose I could just order some pastry flour from KA and try this recipe
>later, but ...

The substitute you mention is standard. If you have cake flour, you
can use half AP & half cake flour, too, as a sub.

Pastry flour is made of softer wheat than AP, hence less protein &
gluten formation. Irish soda breads were traditionally made from
softer wheats and that is one reason whey they wound up as soda
breads...the softer wheats could not form decent gluten strands with
yeasts/sourdoughs...or so I was told by a Bread Faerie.

Anyway, the crumb/texture is a bit tougher with AP than with pastry
flour, but you'd be hard pressed to really tell the diff in soda
bread.
>
But what the hell do I know...my only claim to the knowledge is that I
married Irishmen (yeah, plural).

Boron