Bread bakers resource center - Can't find the flour you want locally?

[housewolf]

Check this out, a small company in San Diego buys flour in bulk from all over the country and ships out home-baking size quantites. He ships individual flours as well as these packages, each package is $16.95 plus shipping. Flours are also all available individually in:

NYB Baker's Basics FlourPantry
Five pounds each of the flours every bread baker should have:
All Trumps (14.2% protein), KA Special (12.7%), Euro-Style
Artisan (11.0%) and GM Stone Ground Whole Wheat (13.7%).

NYB King Arthur FlourPantry
Five pounds each of King Arthur’s best-selling bread
flours: Sir Lancelot (14.2% protein), Special Short Patent
(12.7%), and Sir Galahad (11.7%).

NYB Artisan FlourPantry
Find the right flour for your artisan hearth breads. Three pounds
each of NYB Euro-Style Artisan Flour, Giusto’s Artisan Unbleached
Flour, and imported Italian Tipo 00 Rinforzato Flour.

NYB High-Gluten FlourPantry
Compare and contrast the strongest flours available. Three pounds
each of KA Sir Lancelot (14.2%), GM All Trumps (14.2%), GM
Remarkable (13.6%), and Pendleton Mills’ Power (13.5%).

NYB Wholegrain FlourPantry
Incorporate whole grains into your baking. Five pounds each of
GM Stone Ground Whole Wheat, Bay State Wingold Dark Rye,
and Montana Milling Whole Spelt.

NYB Four Wheats FlourPantry
Explore wheat and its relatives. Three pounds each of GM Stone
Ground Whole Wheat, Ultragrain® White Whole Wheat, Montana
Milling Whole Spelt, and Sperry Durum Patent Flour.

NYB European FlourPantry
Our assortment of imported and Euro-style flours. Three pounds
each of Tipo 00 Pizzeria, Tipo 00 Rinforzato, NYB Euro-Style
Artisan Flour, and NYB Farine de Campagne.

NYB Rye FlourPantry
Experience the many faces of this extraordinary grain. Three pounds
each of Bay State Wingold Dark Rye, Wingold Medium Rye, and White
Rye, plus one pound of Coarse Rye Meal.

NYB Specialty FlourPantry
Four hard-to-find flours in one box. Two pounds each of Idaho Pacific
Fine Potato Flour, NYB Barley Flour, NYB Oat Flour, and NYB White
Rice Flour.

There are several types of yeast, some bread baking equipment and a several free sourdough starters.

Check it out:
http://www.nybakers.com/index.html


Personal note: I haven't dealt with this source at all yet, but this is an idea I wish I'd come up with!

[wildflower]

1. Ooh, thanks!

Perusing it now! :hi:

[Warpy]

2. I learned how to bake bread with King Arthur flour

and, after 10 years in a wretched wasteland of organic unbleached McFlour in bulk, I can now find King Arthur in several stores here. It's expensive as hell, but it makes enough of a difference that I can justify it.

Good flour really does make a big difference in the final product. Commercial bakeries use all sorts of dough conditioners (I did the nutritional labeling for one of them) to make up for poor flours. Home bakers don't have that luxury, lecithin plus fat are about all we've got.

Potato flour and rice flour come in handy if you do pan gravies because they stir in with no lumps. Other than that, I generally don't use many boutique flours.

Just don't take away my King Arthur, please. Not having it for ten years made me appreciate it all the more.

[FarPoint]

9. Ditto on that one.

King Arthur every day for me!

[shireen]

10. i've become a fan too ...

I started baking my own bread recently after getting a small Breadman. Very pleased with the results. My local grocery store only has the KA whole wheat and white bread flours. So I ordered some of their full grain supplements and a few mixes for days when i just want to throw something into the machine. Their website is full of ideas, and they seem to be quite responsive to their customer's comments.

[hippywife]

3. Thanx for that link, B.

I would love to get my hands on some 00 flour and this may be the only way to do so. :loveya:

[EFerrari]

4. Seriously, what a GREAT idea!

[pscot]

5. Part of the reason I make bread

is that I'm too cheap to pay five bucks a loaf for decent store bought. I have habits learned in poverty. I'm not poor now, but paying $7 a pound for flour is pretty much impossible. Specially since I can buy a 10 pound bag of locally produced bread flour for $7.50.

[hippywife]

6. I usually use KA anymore,

and I'm usually a big proponent of local products, but just for fun I think it would be okay just once to buy something you may have wanted to try but don't have local access to. And I'm not sure which flour on that site you were looking at but they run $7-something for a FIVE pound bag, not for just one pound.

I would love to have some of that 00 artisan flour for pizza crusts. :9

:hi:

[Warpy]

7. King Arthur is six bucks for five pounds

and had I not inherited wisely, I'd still be using the cheap McFlour, too. My habits were also learned in poverty and the main thing I learned is that store bread sucks.

Still, that's as gourmet as I get. I still buy whole wheat and other whole grain flours in bulk at a store that has a rapid turnover.

[pscot]

8. These guys did a test

http://home.earthlink.net/~ggda/flour_test.htm

The small study described herein was undertaken to see whether or not any particular flour in our small sample of the many flours available across the United States would distinguish itself. In many ways it was an undertaking which was designed to see whether or not the flour we most use was indeed the best for our types of breads. Was there a flour available, one which we could easily purchase, and which might be as good or better than the one we most often use? Having completed this undertaking, we decided to share the results with visitors to The Artisan.

I'm experimenting with different flours. Right now I'm using Stone Buhr bread flour which is allegedly 16% protein. I've also used Bob's Red Mill, which I liked. I keep Bob's rye and whole wheat on hand. I'm going to try the Gold Medal all purpose if I can find some unbleached.

[Blues Heron]

11. Thanks for posting this!

Some of those assortments look mighty tempting, esp. the wholegrain one and the rye one. Thanks! By the way, I've been very happy lately with the Whole Paycheck Brand 365 AP flour, $3 for 5/lb