Need to switch flour due to cost

[passioncook]

Well, flour is ridiculous these days as most of us know. I always buy KA flour (both bread and AP) and today at the store it was $5.50 a bag. Sheesh! I do a lot of baking and go through a lot of flour and this just isn't feasible.

Are any of the other brands decent - like Gold Medal, Pillsbury, etc.? I was going to buy it direct from KA but that doesn't end up being any cheaper, in fact its a bit more expensive by the time you add in shipping.

 

[suziquzie]

They are all just fine and all cost just the same. I paid 5.50 for Pillsbury today. Thats just the way it's gonna be.

 

[merstar]

I'm a prolific baker and have used Gold Medal unbleached all purpose flour for many years - it's excellent.

 

[Dave Hutchins]

I like Gold Medal Bread flour for all of my bread formulas

 

[AMSeccia]

We really do prefer King Arthur, and have tried a couple other like Hodgson's and Bob's (not sure if I got those names right, but they seem familiar), as well as Pillsbury and Gold Medal. Since we're just baking for family consumption, I'm in a place where I have to buy what's affordable, even if that means the store brand. I do notice a bit of difference on some things, but it's still good home cooking and all you can do is all you can do! I'm running out of things to cut back on ...

 

[LadyCook61]

We really do prefer King Arthur, and have tried a couple other like Hodgson's and Bob's (not sure if I got those names right, but they seem familiar), as well as Pillsbury and Gold Medal. Since we're just baking for family consumption, I'm in a place where I have to buy what's affordable, even if that means the store brand. I do notice a bit of difference on some things, but it's still good home cooking and all you can do is all you can do! I'm running out of things to cut back on ...

I've been doing test baking with store brand Shoprite unbleached AP , it really isn't bad, good enough for the artisan and no-knead baking I do. I do have more expensive flour too and probably will not buy more of those. The breads and cakes are good enough for hubby and me.

 

[pacanis]

I bought some KA bread flour last week at Wally World and it was $3.89/5 lbs.
I haven't boughten bread in so long, is that going up, too?

 

[whole milk]

Count your blessings. Where I am (Japan) 2.5kg (5lb) bag of flour is 10USD. Butter is 7USD for four sticks and milk, eggs, meat -- everything -- is continuing to rise.

But I feel your pain -- but it's going to get worse before it gets better.

 

[bethzaring]

I can get King Arthur Traditional Whole Wheat flour for $3.18 a 5 pound bag at Wal-mart. I will pay what ever it takes to buy King Arthur ww flour. Bread is a significant part of our diet, we will sacrifice to eat nutritious bread. I do not compromise when it comes to bread ingredients.

 

[JoeV]

Here in NE Ohio we have a chain store called Marcs (discount grocery store), and I just bought two 5# bags of Bob's Red Mill unbleached bread flour for $2.58 per 5# bag. Guess I'll have to go stock up and get 8-10 bags if the price is going that high. Just ran some numbers the other day and figured that with premium ingredients my bread costs right around $1 per loaf. Compared to the store prices of $2.38 +++ per loaf, I'm still ahead of the game. I didn't realize flour prices were that volatile. I think someone along the way is cheating the public, especially if I can get Bob's Red Mill shipped from Oregon to Cleveland, Ohio and buy it for $2.58 a bag, and I have to presume the grocer is making SOMETHING on the sale. Something is fishy here, and I'm not sure this is all market driven. Call me cynical, but I'd say there's more opportunistic greed at work here than just changing market conditions (international situations excluded).

Joe

 

[mcnerd]

I bought some KA bread flour last week at Wally World and it was $3.89/5 lbs.
I haven't boughten bread in so long, is that going up, too?

You are lucky to get it at under $4/bag, but there are spot places where you can still get such low prices and people should be taken advantage of while you can. It will not last long.

 

[Katie H]

Currently KA flour is $3.19/5-pound bag at our area Wal-Mart stores. Last week a local market had Gold Medal on Saturday Special for $.99/5-pound bag. I bought 2 bags because I was nearly out of bench flour. Normally I use Aldi's house flour for bench flour, but their flour is now up to $1.69/5-pound bag. I use bench flour for breading, etc. so I don't have to "sacrifice" my prized KA flour for those tasks.

As an experiment, I purchased a 25-pound bag of Sam's bread flour a few weeks ago. It was less than $11. I'm going to do a side-by-side comparison with bread made with KA flour and the same bread made with Sam's flour. We'll see.

My current plan is to buy extra flour when it goes on sale and vacuum seal it and store it in a cooler/darker area of the house. No room in the freezer or I'd store it there.

In the end, we all do what we have to do when things get tight. One thing I know Buck and I won't do and that's give up our homemade bread. Actually, we couldn't afford commercially-produced bread. That's gone way off the scale price-wise.

 

[jennyema]

KA bread flour was $3.29 for a 5 pound bag last weekend at my reg supermarket.

My father and grandfather worked for General Mills and we were forbidden to use anything but Gold Medal flour and GM products.

But now that I'm a grown up, I won't use anything but King Arthur.

 

[AMSeccia]

OMG, I was in Sam's the other night and their bread flour was $26 ... you better get back there Katie, before it doubles again. I didn't get the AP flour there because it was bleached, and I prefer the unbleached. I can't remember the exact price, but it was a bit less than the bread flour.

 

[Katie H]

OMG, I was in Sam's the other night and their bread flour was $26 ... you better get back there Katie, before it doubles again. I didn't get the AP flour there because it was bleached, and I prefer the unbleached. I can't remember the exact price, but it was a bit less than the bread flour.

Thanks for the "heads up," Andrea. I'm doing my side-by-side experiment this weekend and will be back at Sam's next Wednesday. My test will determine if I buy any more of the flour at Sam's.

 

[Wart]

Another NE Ohio price report ...

Paid $5.12/10lb at one Super Wally World last week, $4.94/10lb at another Super Wally two nights ago.

Real tempting to buy whatever they have left. The small sacks are still in the $2 and $3 dollar range.

How long will flour keep both at room temp and frozen? Freezing would be done in air evacuated poly bags.

 

[Chef Mark]

suggestion Katie...go to your favorite bakery-request owner to order you a case...maybe because I live in small community this is possible...if not a corp or chain...rest owners will do it too...King Arthur-maybe because I am a Medieval fanit is going to go up - so - get ready...we'll be paying Japan's prices before long-hope I'm wrong-don't think so

 

[JoeV]

Let's see... Chicken Little just told Goosey Lucy that the sky is falling... No, no, no, it's the Flour is Rising...Whatever!!! I'm headed to the store and getting several of those $2.58 bags of Bob's Red Mill unbleached this afternoon (just in case). While I'm there I think I'll buy a couple of chickens to see about bringing down my egg prices. $2.29/dz for large at the discount grocer.

Off to the store....

 

[Fiona]

I'm shocked. Here in Paris I pay about Euro1 per kilo!!

 

[JoeV]

I'm shocked. Here in Paris I pay about Euro1 per kilo!!

That's probably because France is not taking all their food crops and trying to turn them into some weird fuel (that actually gets worse mileage) to appease a few splinter groups of people who still dress like Hippies. We tend to do things somewhat knee-jerk on our side of the pond, often without a great deal of thought going into it for the long range outcome. We have found the enemy, and...

I digress before I get banned before I reach 20 posts. (My halo is tilted)

Joe