The Fresh Loaf

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Lina Stores now sells Caputo flour (London, UK)

Anonymous baker's picture
Anonymous baker (not verified)

Lina Stores now sells Caputo flour (London, UK)

I've been buying my durum flour from Lina Stores in London.

After not having any in stock for a little while as there was an issue with their suppliers I'm pleased to say they will now be selling Semola Rimacinata by Caputo.

I've used this before and it's a good brand.

Just a heads up for all Londoners out there who wish to buy a good quality durum flour from a lovely Italian store in the heart of Soho.

not.a.crumb.left's picture
not.a.crumb.left

I am planning a trip to London and may end up going back to Suffolk with some of that in my bag. I used to work in Soho and will be great to go down memory lane.....

Thank you, Kat

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Right now they have managed to stock some of the De Decco durum flour https://shop.dececco.com/hr_sh/semola-rimacinata-di-grano-duro.html

But soon they'll be switching over to Caputo. The De Cecco flour is very high quality so if you go soon then you can treat yourself to that too. 

It's always worth calling them first and perhaps they can put some away for you. 

pasdedough's picture
pasdedough

I buy durum flour from the wonderful Turkish Food Centre (TFC) in Leytonstone, where it is labelled 'village flour and sells for about £1.20/kilo I believe. It makes lovely bread!

TFC is my favourite supermarket & I find new and delicious things (frozen boreks, Cypriot sausages, huge amounts of dried fruits etc, as well as baklava and olive counters) every time I go there. Next on my wish list is trying both to find out the difference between Cypriot and Bulgarian feta?!

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Leytonstone is a bit way out for me but durum flour at that price is very good indeed!

I can only speak for De Cecco and Caputo of being very high quality. Just been looking up Village Flour and while I haven't used it I see it's durum wheat + enzymes + ascorbic acid. The protein % is around 11.7%. 

The De Cecco is 14% protein and is pure durum flour.

The Caputo is is coming it at around about the same protein as village flour but is also pure durum flour.

I haven't used or seen village flour so can't comment on quality or grind but if it makes lovely bread and at that price then excellent. 

De Cecco is quite expensive at around 2.5x the price, Caputo is more reasonable at around 2x that price.

Village Flour is coming from Cyprus I believe and the other two are Italian. So there's a little compare and contrast. 

WatertownNewbie's picture
WatertownNewbie

Yesterday I made some ciabatta using Caputo Tipo 00 flour, and it was great.  Having some now with basil infused olive oil.  I live in the States but have a fondness for London and especially Soho.  If you are a coffee fan, be sure to visit Algerian Coffee Stores located on Old Compton.  And if you are a fan of the world's absolute best brownies, stop by Paul A. Young Fine Chocolates located on Wardour.  Ahhh .... those of you proximate to London have it made.

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

With basil infused olive oil? Now that sounds delicious. I'm also thinking of topping with tomatoes and mozzarella. Lovely!

Thanks for the tips. I'm going to take a trip there soon and do just that. I normally go there to get my flour and that's it. Sometimes it takes someone who comes to visit from abroad to get good advice on where to go. Otherwise many shops pass me by (or is that vice versa?) because I'm too busy going to and from work without taking time to stop and look.

pasdedough's picture
pasdedough

Now I may need to stop by Lina stores for some Italian durum so I can do a direct comparison...

not.a.crumb.left's picture
not.a.crumb.left

tip was great Abe....It was so funny as the trendy Palace shop was just two houses down and the teenagers were busy roaming there whilst I could blissfully just oogle flours and all the goodies in Lina Stores and could feed the hungry monsters with some amazing sandwiches with parma ham etc. straight from the counter that they made for us whilst I was sipping peacefully my latte and contemplate how time has flown  since I worked in Soho.....

Now..I can't wait to look into some good durum flour formulas and get my hand in dough....The also had a great white Caputo Classico flour there and the protein made me gasp! But I was already carrying 2 bags of the Durum and maybe get that another visit in London or I will send my London friends to Lina Stores when they come up to Suffolk!

Thank you for sharing!   Kat

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Sounds like you had a nice day out, enjoyed walking down memory lane, tasted the local treats and got the flour. A nice successful day Kat :)

It is a lovely quaint store with lots of goodies you wouldn't usually find in the local high street store.

So now you've treated yourself to Durum Flour have you found a recipe you'd like to try?

What was the protein percentage of that other flour?

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

This is a nice recipe...

The only things I have to say are...

1: The starter she maintains is 50% hydration AP flour. What I do is build an off-shoot starter from mine to the right specs and when mature proceed onto the recipe. Bread flour works just fine. Which is what she uses in the actual recipe anyway.

2: You have time to play around with when doing the stretch and folds. You can stretch this part of the recipe out before shaping. There's no hurry. She says to perform them 15-20 minutes apart but you can be less hurried then giving it more time to ferment for a better crumb.

3: It's not clear but the final proof is in the fridge.