September 7, 2016 - 8:55am
strong bread flour uk
hi guys i am looking to buy strong bread flour in UK need to know where does everyone buy theres from and for the best price all so i have used shipton mill buy from there website it is very nice flour but its 20 od quid for 15kg sack of strong white organic bread flour priitty steep but its very nice flour very nice lift in my oven all help please thanks
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15 kg of flour makes quite a lot of bread, in my case, at least ~35 loaves of the size I most often bake. So, when I look at the difference in the cost of flour on a per-loaf basis, the difference between using different qualities of flour is relatively small. For example, here in Canada, buying AP when it's cheap would work out to about 25 cents per loaf. But I don't hesitate for even a moment to use flours that raise this to 75 cents, a dollar, even more. I get better bread than I would with the AP, and the cost is still far lower than what I'd have to pay for quality store-bought loaves. Of course, that's just me applying my values within my own situation; you should decide for yourself.
Costco sell Marriage's Manitoba Flour 16kg for about £12 per sack (online it is more expensive as delivery is included). It is a very strong white Canadian flour.
nice victor that is cheap i might have to go to costco but i am not a member atm can you buy from there webiste and they deliver?
I use Waitrose Canadian bread flour. It is very strong and very good. Currently £1.69 per 1.5 kg so works out at £1.13 per kilo :)
Just noticed they also have Duchy organic white on offer at £1.01 per kilo :)
It is £18.99 delivered on the website but there is a 5% surcharge for non-members. Take a look at their website.
Check out Heygates Mill at Bugbrook, Northants. Their Canadian and Springs @ about £15 for 16kg, it bakes up well and is reliable quality, but you have to collect as they don't deliver. Shipton Mill has a non-organic Strong Canadian at about £15.50 for 16kg, and they deliver free if you order above a set level (I make up to the free level by also ordering French T55, Italian 00 and spelt).
On the cost question, has anybody ever worked out the cost of a home baked loaf in fuel? I pre-heat my oven on maximum (260c) for about 45 minutes before I bake which is maybe more than the cost of the flour. As you can tell, I'm a crust and oven spring kind of a gal.
I've run into this term lately when I've found UK recipes that sound good. What are the characeristics of this flour in terms of protein & ash, type of grain, etc.? Thanks!
Shipton Mill is under £1/kilo when you buy in 25Kg sacks. I used to use their No. 4 flour - organic white flour, 12% protein. I think it works out to about 89p/Kg but I'd need to check.
(>= 12% is considered strong bread flour in the UK)
The down-side with Shipton Mill (and all mills in-general) is the delivery costs - if you can get your Shipton order to over £30 then delivery is free.
I don't use Shipton Mill anymore, but moved to FWP Matthews when my quantities started to go up, so my last order was 300Kg on a pallet - free delivery and it's even cheaper in those quantities.
So it's all about quantity. It's worth while looking at Shiptons "Flour Direct" service if you can get an order over £30. Remembe white flour has a 12 month shelf-life and wholemeal 6 months, so if you have storage space its well worthwhile.
A lot will also depend on what your target audience is - if you/they don't care about organic, UK grown small mill milled flours, etc. (hard to get 100% UK grown to 12% though) then you can get it cheaper from the likes of the cash & carrys, etc.
-Gordon