[Aunt Sally]

Self raising flour will be made from soft wheat.  Not enough gluten in it to give a good rise and texture for bread.

[snowdrops]

Why is it used? 

As a source of Vit' C or does it improve the texture, appearance or flavour of the loaf?   Cheers,     Tony.

It is also used as a preservative, I believe.

[Trillium]

This is interesting. I've never, ever, heard of using ascorbic in bread making, and believe me, I've read a lot of books on bread recipes.

Does the ascorbic also help with bread preservation? We've been buying store bread lately since we've been too busy to bake and notice it goes moldy very quickly.