where to find european style bread flour

[sooyoo]

hello all,

does anyone know where i can go to purchase european style bread flour? i tried calling a few stores - Pusateri's, Whole Foods, Loblaws - but no luck.

i checked quickly online and found King Arthur, which does not seem to deliver to Canada.

any help would be appreciated.

thx,

s

[Kenk]

Could you be more specific.

Canada produces some of the best hard wheat in the world. What is european style bread flour?

[Barb]

I don't know if they have what you're looking for but Arva Flour Mills is worth a try. It's a great little family-run flour mill just outside of London, Ontario. I buy my flour and baking supplies from their store but they also do mail order.

[CRUZMISL]

I could ship some KA flour if you want to pay for it.......

Joe

[sooyoo]

thanks all for your replies. as it turns out king arthur does ship to canada, you just have to phone instead of ordering online. but i have found a number of other suppliers as well.

what i meant by european style flour was stone milled high protein.

thanks.

[Larry]

I read that Steingarten uses Giusto's bread flour for perfect results.

[Kenk]

Hello sooyo

I would like to know why your preferences are in with the King Arthur Flour.

If you look at common Canadian brands bread flour, their protein content is higher. Robin Hood is 13.1% protein, King Arthur is 12.7%.

Do you prefere the taste texture, whole wheat, unbleached, colour, smell of the King Arthur?

I have quit a few bread making fanatic friends, I would like to know if I should recomend King Arthur.

[sooyoo]

hi kenk,

actually i have never used it myself. i've just started baking bread, an obsession for the last two months... still with less than spectacular results.

i'm curious to try it tho as it has been recommended in nearly every baking book, discussion forum and article i have read on the subject. prob b/c most of these sources are all american.

do you know which brand of flour your baking friends use? the supermarkets do not seem to offer much. do they all mail order from mills or do they purchase their flour at a specialty retail shops?

s

[SteveW]

There're only about 3 Canadian flour brands. And I think they all have a higher protein content than King Arthur Flour. Some consider Canadian flour the best in the world, because of its protein content. Canadians should adjust slightly the flour(use less flour), when using American recipes requiring flour.

-Steve

[Kenk]

It is a hard question to answer what brand is best. It is also hard to answer if you should use bread flour(hard wheat flour) or all-purpose flour. My friend has moved from no name flour to Robin Hood to Five Roses. You can also use all-purpose or bread flour or a mixture of both. This decision very much is a question of preference and experience the recipe or what is on sale. I would stay with Canadian flour.

I prefer to use unbleached flour that I buy on sale.

Finding the exact flour can be hard. I like shopping for food so I end up visiting many supermarkets and buy when I find it. I do buy from Bulk Barn. They have a good selection of specialty flours and the stores are easy to find. I also bag the flour in pre measured amounts so I can use one bag per recipe. This is an excellent source of baking raw material to start off with when you are still settling on your preferences.

I looked at Barb's recomendation and it looked interesting. If I was in the London area I would give it a visit. They deliver.

I am going through a dry yeast problem right now and recommend using fresh yeast especially in winter when it is colder. You will find fresh yeast at many Italian Supermarkets. My dry yeast seems to have limited OOMPH.

Here are some resources

Robin Hood

Five Roses

BetterBaking.com

[snowman]

I've been baking overnight-fermented bread with the Robin Hood "Best for Bread" flour for about the last year, and been quite pleased with the outcome. I wish it were cheaper flour, but it seems to be priced up for some reason.

I don't know if the RH flour has the same exacting levels of precision as has KA, but so far, it's made at least 100 good loaves for me.

[BettyK]

Canadians should adjust slightly the flour(use less flour), when using American recipes requiring flour.

Not necessarily.

I've been baking overnight-fermented bread with the Robin Hood "Best for Bread" flour for about the last year, and been quite pleased with the outcome. I wish it were cheaper flour, but it seems to be priced up for some reason.

I don't know if the RH flour has the same exacting levels of precision as has KA, but so far, it's made at least 100 good loaves for me.

Same here. I've used Robin Hood "Best for Bread", Whole Wheat, Unbleached and All Purpose.

They all work well. I don't see the need to import flour when we get the best flour here, specially for bread.

Edited December 3, 2003 by BettyK (log)

[sooyoo]

bettyk and snowman,

what kinds of bread have you been baking? i'm asking about the types of bread to see if you've had success baking artisan type breads with robinhood brand.

i've been trying to perfect a french baguette. but i'm still not satisfied with my results. i've also tried pain au levain, the last batch came out with a nice chewy crust and smelled very nicely of wheat but the crumb was a little tough.

s

[BettyK]

I've tried different kinds of bread except sourdough cause I don't care for it. I use the bread machine but I've also made a few loaves by hand. I've been baking bread almost everyday for the last 3 years. To tell you the truth I cheat a bit sometimes. I use the bread machine for kneading and then shape and bake in the oven. Which book are you using? I've had great success with Peter Reinhart's book. Baking bread takes a lot of practice. I'm still learning.

Good luck.

[snowman]

About a year ago (when I got a KitchenAid mixer and a digital scale for Xmas), I started to bake bread from the book _Artisan Baking across America_. I've made several changes to the recipes from it (mostly, I make much smaller loaves, as bread's primary purpose in my household is for breakfast, and so 200-300 g loaves are ideal), but I otherwise mostly follow them. Primarily, this has been country French bread (slow-risen multigrain bread), focaccia, herb breads, and bagels. I did do some baguettes, just to try it (I have a hard time shaping them, honestly), and they were mostly fine.

(I also have made plenty of other loaves: raisin breads, dinner rolls, etc. But that's not the style you're really asking about.)

Since my life doesn't allow daily baking, I tend to bake every 3 weeks or so, and do about 16 loaves at a time, storing them in the freezer.