Flour

Choose your flour carefully; it is the most important part of bread baking.  I have explored many flours over my time as a baker.  Here, I list and analyze each flour by type considering price, usage, and ease of purchase.

White Flour: 

Central Milling Company Organic Unbleached All Purpose

•  Intermediate cost:
• 20 lbs / $12 = 1.67 lbs/usd
• ~ $0.66 / large tartine country loaf
• ~ $0.44 / small tartine country loaf
• Excellent flour for bread and pastry
• Purchased at: Costco in Mountain View or Santa Clara
• Conclusion: My favorite all purpose flour for the price.  Best value for the quality. 

Con Agra Harvest White All Purpose

• Inexpensive 
• 25 lbs / $8 = 3.13 lbs/usd
• ~ $0.35 / large tartine country loaf
• ~ $0.24 / small tartine country loaf
• Suitable for quick yeasted breads (Jim Lahey's no kneed)
• Purchased at: Any Costco
• Conclusion: A good introductory flour for a beginning baker.  I learned on this flour

Con Agra Harvest White Bread

• Inexpensive
• 25 lbs / $8 = 3.13 lbs/usd
• ~ $0.35 / large tartine country loaf
• ~ $0.24 / small tartine country loaf
• Very suitable for quick yeasted breads
• Purchased at: Any Costco
• Conclusion: A very good bread flour for a beginning baker.

Giusto Vita-grain Organic Unbleached All Purpose Baker's Choice

• Expensive
• 100 lbs / $91 = 1.11 lbs/usd
• ~ $1.00 / large tartine country loaf
• ~ $0.67 / small tartine country loaf
• Absolutely exceptional bread flour with 11.5 % protein.
• Develops gluten far superior to KA AP and slightly superior to KA bread.
• Purchased at: Speciality organic food stores (IV Co-op)
• Conclusion:  My favorite bread flour.  I cannot recommend it enough. The only disadvantage to this flour is that it is rather hard to find a vendor.  The IV Co-op sells it in 25 lb bags or 50 lb bags if you special order it.  Lazy acres refused to sell me the flour.  I have not found another vendor.

King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose

• Expensive 
• 5 lbs / $5 = 1.00 lbs/usd
• ~ $1.10 / large tartine country loaf
• ~ $0.73 / small tartine country loaf
• Exceptional all purpose flour with 11.7 % protein
• Exceptional for pastry and tart crust but not as good for bread as King Arthur bread flour
• Purchased at: Most supermarkets (Albertsons, Vons, Safeway, Lazy Acres, Whole Foods)
• Conclusion: If you are serious about baking, use flour for other purposes than bread, and do not want to stock both bread and AP flour, this is the flour for you.

King Arthur Unbleached Bread

• Expensive (5 lbs / $5 = 1.00 lbs/usd)
• 5 lbs / $5 = 1.00 lbs/usd
• ~ $1.10 / large tartine country loaf
• ~ $0.73 / small tartine country loaf
• Exceptional bread flour with 12.7% protein.
• Soft, stable mixes well
• Purchased at: Most supermarkets (Albertsons, Vons, Safeway, Lazy Acres, Whole Foods)
• Conclusion:  Top tier bread flour.  Makes exceptional bread.  Every time I need flour on short order, I buy KA bread flour.  It feels almost the same as Giusto AP.

Wheat Flour:

 

 Golden Temple Durum Atta:

• Inexpensive
• 20 lb for $10 = 2 lb / usd
• I have only used this flour for yeasted whole wheat (~1/4 whole wheat), sourdough starter, and dusting.  
• The flour is exceptional at dusting.  I dust all my cloths, bowls, and pots with this flour.  Things stick less to this flour.
• It is perfect for a lazy man's sourdough starter.  There is enough complex starches to keep the starter busy for an entire day in warm weather.  When I ran out and had to switch to white flour or even Trader Joe White Wheat, the starter needed to be changed much more often.  I have fed my starter with this for 6 months with no negative side effects.
• Purchased at: Costco in Santa Clara or an Indian food store.
• Conclusion: I highly recommend this flour for dusting and sourdough starter.

King Arthur Whole Wheat:

• Expensive
• 5 lb for $5 = 1 lb / usd
• ~ $1.10 / large tartine country loaf
• ~ $0.73 / small tartine country loaf 
• KA whole wheat is an excellent whole wheat bread flour.  If I make whole wheat bread (~100% whole wheat), I use predominately this flour.
• It's price demands I not use this flour unless I can taste it (starter, levain, white loaves)
• Starters do love KA wheat.
• Purchased at: Most supermarkets (Albertsons, Vons, Safeway, Lazy Acres, Whole Foods)
• Conclusion: The best whole wheat flour I have found for bread.  Feeding a starter with it is a waste of money.

Stone-Buhr Whole Wheat:

• Expensive
• 5 lb for $5 = 1 lb/usd
• ~ $1.10 / large tartine country loaf
• ~ $0.73 / small tartine country loaf
•  A very chewy flour with lots of large wheat particles.
•  Difficult to use in a bread by itself.  It feels like there are large grains of sand in your flour mix.  
• It is good in mixes with good white bread flour (1:1 mixes).
• Purchased at: Some specialty supermarkets.
• Conclusion: A good hardy flour with lots of texture. Difficult to use alone.  A waste compared to KA wheat.

Trader Joe White Whole Wheat:

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•  Inexpensive
• 5 lb for less than $3 < 1.66 lb / usd
• A perfect flour to add to white loaves.  
• Whenever I add flour to white loaves, I increase the amount of wheat flour by 70 to 150 % and use Trader Joe's White Wheat.  It adds gluten and texture.
• Make sure to mix this with other flours.  It has a similar grainy feeling as Stone-Buhr's wheat.
• Perfect for levains.
• Purchased at: Trader Joes
• Conclusion: I always have a bag of this around the house.  I use it in every bread I bake.  I use it in every levain I make.  Some brioche and croissant receive all white levains, though.

 Rice Flour:

• Inexpensive (if found in the correct store)
• 1lb for $0.79 = 1.26 lb/usd
• You only need a spoonful per tartine loaf for dusting the cloth, so this lasts quite a while.
• While not necessary, I strongly recommend it for dusting.  Your bread will stick much less if you use it.  Refrigeration also helps.
• Try to avoid sweat rice flour.  It is sticker and hence defeats the purpose of using rice flour.
• Try and purchase from an Asian store.  It is less expensive.
• Purchase at: Asian stores, Chinese stores, most supermarkets (expensive)
• Conclusion: Any rice flour will do.  At less than 1/2 teaspoon per loaf, do not worry about the quality or taste.