self-raising flour

1 3.0

Flour with baking powder and salt added so baked goods rise

noun

: harina leudante

The recipe calls for self-raising flour to help the bread rise nicely as it bakes.

Examples

For fluffy pancakes, use self-raising flour instead of regular flour.
She decided to bake a chocolate cake using self-raising flour for a lighter texture.
Upon arrival, I made the dumplings with beef suet, self-raising flour, and water, and then popped them on top of the dish and back into the oven for another hour or so.

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Synonyms

self-rising flour

vsself-raising flour

1 3.0

Flour with baking powder and salt already mixed in to help dough rise

has the same meaning but is a variant naming form

Surface Forms

self-raising flour singular

self-raising flours plural

Morphology

self-raising + flour

The meaning 'flour that raises by itself' is directly derivable from the constituents: 'self' (by itself) + 'raising' (making rise), so a learner who knows those words can infer it contains a leavening agent. This is a productive, compositional English compound (and has clear parallels in other languages), making the expression immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Self-raising flour comes from a simple baking idea: the word self means 'by itself' and raising means making dough 'rise' because bakers mixed baking powder into the flour. So, it means flour that already helps cakes and breads get light without adding anything else.