A quick response to the questions of why use self-rising instead of all purpose is the lower protein content. As a loyal North Dakotan I use Dakota Maid all purpose flour from our state mill, and it is high protein, more equivalent to a bread flour.than to most all purpose flour. That high protein means that it works really well in yeast breads, and in any cookie where you want a chewy or firm texture, but it's really hard to work with for quick breads, biscuits (and scones) and cakes where you want a tender or crumbly texture. After years of using cake or pastry flour, or biscuit mix for some things, with varying results, I'm now experimenting with self-rising flour and it works so much better in coffee cakes, muffins, and biscuits/scones. I do need to use less (usually about 3/4 the amount called for in my local church cookbooks) liquid, and in some cases more baking powder, but I can finally make tender crumb cakes and muffins. The only real disaster has been my favorite banana bread recipe that uses a lot of butter to tenderize it, and the self rising flour is too soft/low protein so it ended up falling apart - as have my daughters attempts to make it gluten free. It seems heretical, but we ended up having to use less butter. For myself I'm going back to the original with high protein flour and a lot of butter.

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