Is the more expensive bread flour worth the cost? The one on the left 5cents/oz and on the right 10cents/oz. If your answer is yes, the King Arthur is worth the price, then is there anything wrong with using the cheaper flour for starters?
by rgilman67
44 Comments
I use cheap flour for starter and i use cheap store brand bread flour for my loaves and it’s fine 🤷♂️ protein content matters more than brand, and you can probably find that information more easily for a “brand name” flour. But trial error got me dialed in on my store brand options and it’s all i use now
I’ve been having a lot of luck with bobs red mill bread flour. It’s about $7.50 at my local grocery store (I go to the best priced one in the area)
I use reg AP and add about 25 grams Vital Wheat Gluten to boost protein. I’m baking in about 6-7 hours because it bulk ferments much faster.
I use store brand bread flour all the time and just won a ribbon at the state fair
One is an employee-owned, certified B corp company and one is Bezos-owned. If you are able to, it is better to buy the former. If you aren’t able to, there is absolutely no shame in buying what you can afford to feed yourself and/or your family.
Depends if you care about glyphosate
By all means use whatever flour you feel comfortable with but me personally i use organic, unbleached, unenriched flour. One of the main reasons i make my bread for my family is to get away from all the junk that is in store bought bread.
Buy what you can afford. By making it at home in the first place you’re already eating much better than buying store bought.
I have great loaves and a strong starter with Costco AP
Trader Joe’s AP is great and cost friendly.
I use KA’s but not organic, works well. But I’ve also used gold medal bread flour. That’s not bad either. But that organic stuff is REALLY expensive!
If your starter flour costs are too high then you are:
1. Making too much starter and/or
2. Not putting your starter into hibernation (the fridge) between bakes.
If you have enough starter for discard recipes then you are also mixing too much starter.
Sorry for the unpopular opinions… But think about it.
I buy KA flour because it is excellent quality and the company is an employee owned US company. Beyond that, they publish free recipes that have been helpful to me. I choose to support good companies
I’ve been using AP flour to feed my starter. I used Rye flour initially, and have thrown in 100% rye for at least one feeding per week.
So far, my starter is behaving as hoped.
Most of the grocery store varieties are more or less the same with some differences in performance coming from the different protein content etc. They are all more or less some blend of hard wheats that are heat treated and milled with rollers to separate out the bran and germ, which contains most of the flavor and nutrition.
If you really want to explore how different flour can impact performance, texture, and flavor, I recommend looking into heirloom varieties and stone ground flours. These make a massive difference. Check out mills like Barton Springs, Cairnspring Mills, and others. One of my favorite flours to work with is Yecora Rojo. Personally I use Yecora Rojo and Wrens Abruzzi Rye for my country sourdough.
One last thing re: cheap flour for starter. By all means use the cheap stuff for an economical route. The only note I would add is that it’s similar to cooking with wine. The good stuff adds flavor and character to your starter. The cheap flour is fuel and food for the microbes but it doesn’t add much in the way of flavor.
See if you have a bulk food store nearby! Mine has King Arthur High Gluten flour for .99/lb. They also have a variety of other types so you can get just enough to experiment with different recipes!
Why would you not just buy a 50lb bag of Sir Lancelot? It is way cheaper. Get a rolling storage bin for flour.
You are comparing conventionally grown wheat to organic- there is a huge difference.
The food we ingest has a direct impact on our bodies and health. You may not see the difference in the flour and you may not even taste it – but the differs real.
Conventionally grown wheat has chemical fertilizers and herbicides including glyphosate and roundup sprayed on just before harvest.
For me, I do not want to inject this nor do I want to serve it to my friends and family.
We can that all flours are not the same – I buy flours that are grown, milled and mixed for the types of bread I am making.
These are my values and you may share them or not.
I recently paid $10 for a 5 pound bag of organic flour – a mix of wheats that are good for bread ( as opposed to pastries or quick breads). That’s 12 1/2 cents an ounce for really high-quality flower. That’s more than the$.05-$.10. You mentioned
So to answered your question. It’s that for me it’s worth the extra money. I feel I end up with a higher quality and more helpful product.
You can get 50 lbs bags of the KA flour at the food service store like Gordons for $28.
Split it with your friend, its significantly cheaper.
Also, cheaper flour generally has less gluten, so read the packages carefully.
You are comparing non-organic flour to organic. Which type do you want to use?
I prefer King Arthur regular Bread flour or a regional bread flour (Shepherd’s Grain)for my starter. I also found that the Kirkland brand Organic AP flour is very good, but I do not use AP flour in bread so usually my starter just gets the same flour that I have on hand for bread making.
*I am also going to say that there is no circumstance under which I would buy food products via Fresh at this point. I have zero confidence in their ability to warehouse and handle food product appropriately. I received a food product that the bag reeked of some kind of insecticide, so clearly spraying the warehouse without protecting the food products properly. I got no response from them on the issue. I have not ordered from them again.*
If your concern is for cost you can consider purchasing 25-50lb bags of unbleached bread flour from a restaurant supply store. I have also done bread baking with Walmart’s Great Value Bread Flour and found that a good alternative, but prefer the King Arthur flours. I can tell a flavor difference in bread between the various white flours I have used.
I consider also that while many sources say use the cheapest flour you can get for starter, that is going to be 20% of my bread recipe ingredients. So nope, not going to use something dramatically lower quality for that.
I also keep a small starter in the fridge and make overnight levain for any bread I am making. So I have no/low discard. That is probably the most cost effective decision you can make if your starter is mature.
You can get the flour for way cheaper at Walmart
Enriched flour, to my knowledge, is really designed to use in bread makers, as it gives the bread more structure. I don’t think it would matter using it in sourdough, but it won’t add anything that good yeast and good dough won’t achieve.
I buy my KA bread flour from Costco. It’s 7.99 per 10 lbs bag, which comes out to about 0.05/ounce. You can buy any flour of course, but I like that it’s employee owned. I’m trying to not buy as much from huge corporations that make the rich folks richer and give back little (aka Amazon).
I haven’t tried the Amazon brand, but at this point, I won’t, either. I am skipping Amazon in favor of local smaller shops whenever and wherever I am able. I have tried the Walmart brand bread flour, and if you take time to sift it, it would be fine, but I don’t want to do that, so not going to use that. I haven’t tried my other local store brands, yet. KA bread flour is just under $9 for 10# and that is ok for my budget right now, so I will keep using it.
When it comes to what you are putting in your body – highly recommend using the highest quality ingredients that you can afford
When it comes to brands/stores – I choose to purchase from companies that align with my personal values. Some companies (Amazon for example) only care about generating profits and zero about their customers. They are also actively working to control as many markets as possible. I have zero interest in supporting a CEO who would rather engage in a space tourism “pissing” match vs helping the employees or communities in which their workforce live.
These are my values – ultimately you will need to decide your own values and purchase accordingly
As Alton Brown says – garbage in/garbage out, you cannot make quality food with trash
If you put a price watch on Amazon.com, assuming you’re in USA, the KA Organic comes up at $5.99 every so often.
Personally, I use store brand flours, because here (central Texas), the store brand IS the name brand. But overall, it comes down to where you want to spend your money. Flour is flour, overall, and you can get amazing loaves from just about any flour (except rancid flour). The rest is voting with your dollars.
KAF red bags are all you need for sourdough.
So if you have the means, support the better companies since that’s how capitalism works, by voting with your wallet. If you’re on a budget then at least consider organic flour. It’s better for the environment and better for your family since pesticides are bad news for our health either by directly consuming them over a long period of time or indirectly via our water systems. Making bread(or buying local bread) is a wonderful tradition and either way it’s disrupting the status quo by making it yourself and saving your money instead of giving it to for profit corporations. Happy baking!
You’re looking at unbleached enriched vs organic
Unbleached but not organic King Arthur is cheaper
I use KA special patent and get it at one of the Amish stores near me as they buy it in the big 50lb bags and break it down into 5lb bags so it’s cheaper than buying it at the conventional grocery store as I pay 89 center per pound. So see if you have any bulk buy stores near you.
Bjs wholesale by me sells the King Arthur $9.49 for 10 pounds. Comes out to about 6cents/oz
That’s a good deal to me
Bezo’s flour. It’s always cheaper and it’s always the wrong choice.
Support small businesses and integrity. Not worth the low cost.
KAF is a high quality company. There is really zero comparison.
It seems like nobody is answering your question! If you’re asking what I think you are asking, then the general rule of thumb is to try to use the same flour in your starter as you plan to use in your bread. The reason for that is that the yeast and bacteria take time to adapt to the media they are living in. It is entirely possible that you have an active bubbling starter and then introduce the starter into a new flour and see reduced performance, which can result in an under-proofed loaf. Starter fitness is critical to getting a good loaf. That’s why that rule of thumb exists.
KA is the best flour currently on the market. It’s all I use.
Bob’s Red Mill is also a little more and 100% worth the extra cost. Excellent flour from an excellent company.
I use regular AP which is perfectly fine for sourdough provided the hydration is not too high. For a higher hydration you will need flours like bread flour but if they are both saying the same thing then it is down to which brand do you want to support or what you can afford.
Why do I feel like Amazon Brand flour will have Victorian era fillers in it??
I buy KA cause they’re employee owned and I really like the product itself. So I don’t deviate from that. It doesn’t mean I’m right or there’s anything wrong with another flours.
With food costs the way they are I 100% understand buying cheaper flour and ignoring that nagging feeling you get when you support the oligarchy. But I use King Arthur for a lot of the same reasons listed below. Or Bob’s Red Mill. Or I find a local miller I can buy from. They are usually easier to buy in bulk if you are making that much bread.
I do find the consistency between all the millers to be wildly different. A smaller place will have more consistent flour from bag to bag than a huge place. But also my local mill makes flour that needs a ton more water to hydrate it. I like working with that because higher hydrated dough is actually easier to work with. It’s just a little more expensive and a little more difficult to obtain.
It’s all about what fills your needs. (I personally get annoyed at the Amazon smirk. Who designed that?)
I don’t know these brands since I’m not American, but I think of it this way.
Home baked sourdough bread will be about 10-20 % of the price compared to buying sourdough bread from a bakery. You’re paying with your time and effort. Even if the flour is twice the price it’s still a bargain. If you’re putting in all that time and effort, why not make it as good as possible?
evil oligarch bezos, currently fighting against his workers right to unionize, doesn’t deserve anyone’s money
The non-organic King Arthur Bread flour is significantly less expensive than organic, so that’s an option. You can look at other brands, too. Actually, though, I use all purpose for starter, not bread, so that might be cheaper too. I just use bread flour when I bake. But you do you. Like others, I would not go with the cheaper one pictured because it’s Amazon, and there are likely other store brand options you can consider in lieu of KA.