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Is posible to get unbleached flour un Mexico?

claudiarana's picture
claudiarana

Is posible to get unbleached flour un Mexico?

Hello everybody,

Im from Mexico, and I just tried King Arthur flour WW and its amazing!

Now I can see what´s the deal about unbleached flour , problem is, that i can´t find any unbleached flour here yet.

Does anyone knows a brand of unbleached flour here? Its really expensive to import good flour from USA

For the record: I have search for a while with no luck, i found a good brand of bread flour in mexico (i live in monterrey, nuevo leon) its name is bizkaia, its better than any other weak bread flour here, but isnt unbleached, im open to use a grain mill, but im not sure if i can get the right wheat in here.

Thanks for your help!


 

RamirOk's picture
RamirOk

Hi Claudia, I'm from Monterrey too and I also struggle a lot to find good flour. (I'm writing in english to follow the rules of the forum)

First. It is expensive to import flour, I look for a lot of options for import different flours and I find that is not worth it.

My favorite flour is Hoja de Plata, is from Mexico city is not organic but is pretty good. Is the only flour that I can make sourdough bread, the only that work with my starter.

You can find it in the Central de abastos la estrella in San nicolas. Bodega 409 and 410 (http://goo.gl/maps/W0sQ2) the problem is that they only sell the 44 kg bag. So unless you need this much, I would recomend to go to the bakery Panaderos Artesanales. They use that flour and they sell the bag of 1 kg for $12 pesos.

If you want a US organic flour you can find in Carrot organic food is in Río Colorado 226, Col. Del Valle, 66220 San Pedro Garza García and in Aladinos in San Pedro 400
Fuentes del Valle, 06030 San Pedro Garza García.

I hope you find this information useful and write if you have any other question, I know that is not very easy to find good flours here.

Happy baking.

claudiarana's picture
claudiarana

I buy a "costal" if is necesary! 

I buy one those big bags every 2 weeks or so! my big concern isnt the organic thing, is if it is unbleached, is it? the flavor is so much better if is unbleached!

btw, either way, if is not, im going to buy it and try it, muchas muchas gracias!

RamirOk's picture
RamirOk

I don't know for sure if is in fact unbleached but the other flours were killing my starter and one of the main things that do that is the flours that are bleached so when I use Hoja de plata on my starter it became very strong and full of life.

BTW can you tell where I can found the bizkaia flour? I might wanna try it.

claudiarana's picture
claudiarana

I think that it might be bleached, those which are show that in the cover. Either way, ill try it.

this is the site of harinera anahuac: http://www.harineraanahuac.com.mx/

You can find it in mercado de abastos de guadalupe, is in the first rows at the begining the place is "Forrajería la Milpa" also sells fresh yeast, "cal", la perla flour wheat by kilo, bizcakia is in bulk only 44 k $360 aprox

If you want to try it, i can give you some, i have at least 15k left

I have succesfully made: sandwich bread, ciabattas, croissants, and some other stuff, and my "masa madre" is made with a mix of wholewheat la perla and this one.

 

RamirOk's picture
RamirOk

Thanks, does Bizkaia gives you something different from La perla besides his protein content?

 

claudiarana's picture
claudiarana

well, la perla is whole wheat thats the second biggest difference. I like to have my "masa madre" with whole weat because that makes it stronger and richier, and la perla is the only one that i could find here. 

White la perla flour, didnt fill my expectations, it was a mess, a 44k mess :(

I use to put bizkaia + wheat bran at my sandwich bread, but the bran doesnt have good quality, sometimes is too big, and sometimes it comes mixed with other seeds, so i switched back to bizkaia+perla whole wheat, its more difficult to handle (because of the lack of protein), but the result is better.

 

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne

Claudiarana,

 

Hi, I grew up on the Arizona - Mexican border (near Yuma).  We would sometimes get bread from a Panadería in the border town, the rolls looked just like that in your picture with the "Hoja de Plata" flour and they were so good.  Do you have a good recipe for these rolls? 

 

Thanks and good luck on you search for unbleached flour, Dwayne

claudiarana's picture
claudiarana

Hi Dwayne!

I dont have any recipe here, but ill ask a friend that has one, the name of that bread is "bolilllo" or "pan francés" i asume that you tried the one that is crunchy in the outside with thin crust and super fluffy in the inside?

If is that one, i think that a baguette bread recipe is the same, is just the shapping and the ammount of steam to achieve the crusty outside.

I found this video that might help you in the shapping process:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anrtT6bpv9g

The only difference between recipes of this type of bread, is that some bakers put sugar or shortening, but the one that i like doesnt have any of them.

 

baybakin's picture
baybakin

Hey Dwayne!

I started a quest to duplicate these very same rolls (bolillos) after I moved from San Diego a year and some change ago.  I hate to plug myself here, but http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/29383/bolillos-poolish is the recipe I use, and I use it quite often.  I hope it works well for you, and I can provide help with the recipe if you need it.

Happy Baking!

I'mTheMami's picture
I'mTheMami

Thank you so kuch for posting all this info! I am in Mexico City and looking for good flours as well. Will definately swing by the bakery thhough, mi gordito might have a heart attack if I bring home 44 kilos of flour without being sure we like it or not! 

Do you happen to know where thbakery is off the top of your head? I can go google it i suppose! Mil gracias! 

 

 

I'mTheMami's picture
I'mTheMami

Just thoguht I would post in case someone else is reading this thread. Hoja de Plata is indeed bleached flour. Hre is the PDF from their website which includes 2 different bleaching agents (peroxido de benzoilo and the azcarbonide one that immediately follows in the ingredients list.) 

 

http://www.harinaselizondo.com/pdf/plata.pdf

(Here is a link explaing the second ingrdient , which I horribly mispelled ;) ) 

http://blog.fooducate.com/2012/12/04/whats-azodicarbonamide-whats-it-doing-in-your-bread-and-how-to-pronounce-it/