The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

A Sacramento Shopping Trip

ph_kosel's picture
ph_kosel

A Sacramento Shopping Trip

I went on a shopping trip today here in Sacramento, visiting some bakeries I've never been to before and fetching esoteric flours I can't get at my neighborhood grocery.

Here's what I bought where, and what I thought of it:

1.  A baguette from Freeport Bakery on Freeport Blvd (Tasted like day old bread made with cake flour, weightless squishy stuff, didn't care for it at all!)

2.  A loaf of Deli Rye with caraway seeds from The Bread Store on J Street (A beautiful nearly spherical loaf, chewy and delicious, loved it!)

3.  A loaf of Vollkornbrot 100% rye with sunflower seeds from Grateful Bread Co. on Fair Oaks Blvd (A nice, very dense rectangular loaf, very chewy and delicious, loved it!)

4.  Dark Rye Flour from the bulk foods section of Winco Foods on Sheldon Road (I use this because it's the cheapest rye flour I've found in Sacramento where rye flour isn't found in most grocery stores.  The only problem is Winco's plastic bags tend to leak.)

5. Golden Temple brand Durum Atta Flour from the import section back in the "vegetables" aisle of Food Maxx on Florin Road (Haven't used it yet, 10 bucks for a 20-lb sack is a great price and it smells delicious!)

I also stopped at Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op on Alhambra Blvd at S Street.  The only rye flour they had was dark rye and their price was a tad higher than Winco's.

I'll try to post pictures of the loaves I bought tomorrow.

Comments

ph_kosel's picture
ph_kosel

The loaves I bought, uncut

The loaves uncut^

The Deli Rye crumb^

The Vollkornbrot crumb^

Both loaves are tart and chewy and delicious.  Now I have a level of quality to shoot for - if I could make bread this good I'd be overjoyed!

weissonthego's picture
weissonthego

You don't know how lucky you are to have a Winco near you.  I have been all over the country and NOBODY has the choice of flours and low prices they have in their bulk food section!  If you are interested, the Whole Wheat Bread Flour and Bread flour is excellent, (Bobs Red Mill) and the price per lb cannot be matched.  If you are having a problem with their bags, use two, I do, and you will not have a problem.  I just arrived in LA and went 30 miles away to Pomona to shop there.

ph_kosel's picture
ph_kosel

I've now tried the GoldenTemple Durum Atta flour (bought on my recent shopping trip) a couple of times, once in a sort of rye loaf and once all on it's own. I don't think I'll be buying the stuff again now that I've had a little experience with it. 

What I was hoping for was a nice extra-high-protein bread flour. 

The GoldenTemple Durum Atta has quite a bit of rather coarse bran in it which tends to make the dough tear rather than stretch when you knead it.  Additionally, the bran or something seems to me to give the resulting bread a bit of an off taste.  I rather dislike the taste of bran generally, whether in breakfast cereal, whole wheat bread or whatever. Just my own personal taste, no offense to those who want/need fiber in their diet.

 

gcook17's picture
gcook17

The pugliese from Corti Brothers  in Sacramento is really, really good.  It's well worth a taste if you ever get over to that part of town.