Either one will work. Mix flour and water or soup stock in a cup, bring the soup to slow boil and stir the flour mixture in slowly until it is the desired consistency. Corn starch is probably better choice.
Yes but only if you make a roux ( equal parts butter and flour ) to thicken it up. However, this only works if you're trying to thicken up a sauce.
To make a roux, take (for example) 1 cup flour and 1 cup butter. Melt the butter in a sauce pan and then add the flour all at once and mix continuously until it becomes like a pasty doughy texture. You'll know its done when it doesn't stick the sides of the pan. It cooks very quickly, and the flavor varies depending on how long you cook it for.
If you want a light sauce, remove it from heat as soon as it stops sticking and add it to your sauce. If you want it darker, let it get to a light brown. You'll know that's done when it begins to smell slightly nutty, but be careful not to burn it.
You can also add rice and then blend the mixture to thicken it up, but that's mainly only for soups or chowders.
Hope this helps!
possibly but the taste might be changed. It is the preferred method. Make a rux, melt 1 part butter and add 1 part flour. When the mixture has thickened and relaxed again add cold water slowly while whisking. The mixture will thicken as it begins to boil. Stop adding water at a point just before it reaches the thickness you desire. Boil for another minute or so to cook the flour in the mixture. The gravy will thicken as it cools.
Mix it with water first and then stir it in. Don't over do it, you can always add more later.
Corn Flour is used to thicken sauces and gravies.
The flour will gelatinise, but does not contain the same starches as cornflour, so if youre just trying to thicken a mixture, flour can be used, otherwise, if its the same texture youre after, probably not a good idea to sub flour instead
No. cornflour 'hardens' the mixture so it will keep its shape, normal flour doesn't do that.
Not in all recipes; for most baking recipes substituting plain flour for cornflour will not work, since cornflour has no gluten (which is what makes dough springy) and it requires far more hydration. Adding some cornflour to the flour in baking will result in lighter baked goods, but only until the total flour is 5% cornflour; after that the baked good gets progressively more dense and inedible. Cornflour is useful for thickening custards, which plain flour is not so good at. But you cannot bake normally with cornflour. Both cornflour and wheat flour have a similar calorie content, wheatflour is lower in the glycemic load (GL) index compared to cornflour, and whereas cornflour is considered "highly inflammitory" (i.e likely to cause a reaction), wheatflour is only considered "inflammitory."
The only alternative to cornflour I know is to mix equal parts of softened butter and plain flour to form a paste and use the paste instead of cornflour.
No. But cornflour is often used as an ingredient along with others to make a custard pudding.
cornflour and water
For baked custard, no starch is used. The egg thickens it. For packaged custard mix such as Birds Custard, the thickener is cornflour or cornstarch and there is no egg.
A thickening is a substance used to thicken foods such as sauces, gravies soups and stews. This can be a roux made of oil and flour, cornstarch, etc. Instant potato flakes can be used to thicken some foods. There are several ways to thicken foods.
Flour is used to thicken gravy.
No, cornflour would not be a good substitute for wheat flour in cakes. The cornflour would produce a very different taste and texture than the whet flour, and the resulting cake probably would not look or taste as it should.
If I'm not mistaken cornflour is called corn starch in the States, in which case I would say: go for it. The difference will be that you will probably need less of it because it is a potent thickener.