Great British Baking Show

They call for corn flour in a lot of the recipes. Is that cornstarch in Americanese, or is there a fine ground corn flour that I don’t know about?

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Corn starch is the US equivalent of corn flour. I had the same question, thinking it could be some fancy, upper-class masa.

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What are going to make? :open_mouth:

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To make things even more confusing, there is an actual corn flour in the US.

I hope you have better luck than me. I think in the UK, plain flour and self raising flour is different than our AP flour and self rising flour, respectively. Also, their pan sizes are different.

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Nothing, until I figure this out!

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I presume that’s because we use metric for measurements.

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I dove in to this. What I found in the UK (Amazon.uk) was 1 lb, 2 lb, and 3 lb loaf pans. There doesn’t seem to be any standard size for what a 1 lb pan actually measures. I also found this discussion.

John, how does this line up with what you see in the shops? I don’t recall you being a particularly keen baker. On that note, how about casserole sizes? In the US, in inches, we see a lot of 9x13, 9x9, and 8x8.

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I’m not but Mrs H is.

Perhaps oddly, loaf tins are one of small number of things that we describe in Imperial measures (see also pints not litres of beer in pubs and new born babies). So, recipes will be for a 1 or 2 pound loaf. Herself has both sizes of this make of tin - https://www.johnlewis.com/prestige-inspire-carbon-steel-non-stick-bead-loaf-tin/p5103058

I’m allowed access to them to make pate or, occasionally, an American style meatloaf.

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5 posts were split to a new topic: American style meatloaf

Thanks for this link, shrinkrap, I bookmarked it and then went to Amazon and ordered some corn flour. The right kind, I hope

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My pleasure!! :grinning:I don’t recall the article mentioning masa harina and masarepa. It’s “nixtamalized”, but I wonder if masa harina would work in baking.

Probably not. I don’t know ththey are "completely " different, but here’s what I found.

Masa Harina vs Corn Flour – Are They the Same?

But…“Essentially corn flour is made from cornmeal. So, if you have cornmeal on hand, you can grind it until it’s superfine like flour.”

About masarepa.

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Masa Harina is readily avaiable around here. It’s quite differently processed than corn for cornmeal or flour. From what I’ve seen and read, they really are completely different. I wouldn’t try subbing one for the other. Thanks for the link, it’s educational!

The “corn flour” in UK recipes is “corn starch” here in the US. Did you order corn flour for something else?

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I’m no baker, but I can’t imagine how that would be a big deal in a baking, unless it was for a filling or something similar. OTOH, I am now intrigued with the idea of baked goods using what sounds like a finely ground corn meal. I love the flavor and crunch of corn meal. I wonder if corn flour adds any texture.

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My life companion is the baker of the couple. She tells me that, other than thickening sauces, cornflour doesnt really feature in her baking. Accepting what she says as the gospel truth (as it is always wise for me to do), I’m surprised that, in the OP, Eileen mentioned that it appears in a lot of recipes from the show (or Great British Bake-Off, as we know it)

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FWIW, since I stock bread flour for general use, when I’m making a cake, I sub 1/8 cup of cornstarch in a cup of flour.to decrease protein.

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There is also freeze dried corn powder: https://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Wild-Decoration-Chef-Inspired-Ingredients/dp/B08BJDDCGQ/

For the longest time, I would not accept this was different enough from cornmeal to warrant purchasing.

However, for some recipes, it’s crucial which one (cornmeal/starch/flour/powder) you use. Other times, it still makes a difference, but you might be fine with the results. Cornstarch is the least interchangeable of the four.

For cakes, cornstarch is sometimes used with AP flour to develop a sort of budget cake (low gluten) flour. I assume this is because the corn starch attracts some of the water, but I’m not sure. (More moisture equals more gluten development. But I always thought corn starch had to be heated to hold on to water, so I’m unsure why it works. It definitely does work, as does gelatin. Maybe agar will work, too.)

Edit: @pilgrim basically wrote the same thing. With regular flour, less protein leads to less gluten development.

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Ahhhh!

I seem to remember that from some Milk Bar recipes.

That post says " * Corn powder : You can purchase it online or you can also sub cornstarch, but it might impact the flavor."

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