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Comment by mattrp | Hacker News Reader

We just finished our 25lb bag from the Ebola panic buying days... make sure before you buy a ton of flour you know what you’re going to do with it. Bread isn’t very good without yeast (good luck finding that), cakes aren’t very good with all purpose flour, pasta is really hard to make without a pasta maker, etc... sorry to be a downer but I’m kind of the opinion that while some flour is good, and it’s certainly good to learn how to use it, don’t expect to transform your kitchen into your favorite bakery. Also... this is just my perspective but Walmart and sams are rocking the supply chain... with some few exceptions we’ve not had to look hard for anything we want and their home delivery process is awesome. Amazon has done a great job too... i do not miss two day shipping at all... as long as I know it’s off my to do list and into their queue I’m good.

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Mix flour and water and sugar and in a day you'll have a culture of natural yeast going and you can keep replenishing it as needed. There are also a variety of baking powder/soda breads you can make.

I've been baking cakes since I was about 13 and I have never used anything other than AP flour. OK. I've used bread flour in a pinch, being super-careful to mix it very little because of the high protein content.

Pasta: roll it out thin and cut with a knife. It really doesn't take that much longer. I did it like this forever until I got a pasta roller/cutter.

Not trying to be contrarian, but I felt to point out that nothing here is a show stopper, it just takes a little creativity/experience.

Thank you for adding these points. I did not know about the yeast - so thank you!

> Bread isn’t very good without yeast (good luck finding that)

Yeast is still available online: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HST626C/

> cakes aren’t very good with all purpose flour

We only stock all-purpose, and there are a lot of great cakes you can make with it. Here's one I make a lot: https://www.jefftk.com/recipes/choccake

Before organizing this, we had already gone through about 30lb since we started staying in (https://www.jefftk.com/p/stepping-up-isolation)

Besides yeast being almost-everywhere including the flour itself (the sourdough option others have mentioned) I will point out that you can also leaven your bread with the yeast from beer.

I've become a sourdough bread baker over the past three weeks, going from producing constructionnmaterials (dense bricks) to some of the best bread I've ever had.

Realized yeaast wasn't to be had for love or mone:

https://mastodon.cloud/@dredmorbius/103845407941910287

Starter recipe:

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sourdough-starter-re...

Took about 6 days to get going. 3rd loaf was a winner. Feedback from household and neighbours is strongly positive as well.

Flour sourcing has been spotty, but even that has upsides: testing out spelt and einkorn, along with whole wheat, AP, and (blech) bleached flour.

Loaves, rolls, pizza, crumpets, and more.

Most of this based of Youtube videos:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=BJEHsvW2J6M

https://youtube.com/watch?v=2FVfJTGpXnU

Dutch oven, food scale, bench knife (I use a plastering spatula) highly recommended.

Great advice thank you. Where are you finding the spelt and whole wheat?

Very intermittantly.

Spelt was a buy where other flours were cleared out at a natural food store. Last whole wheat was a half-kilo bag. I'll hit numerous stores, early in the day. Buy what's available though AP / whole wheat / specialty by preference.

Gourmet / natural food stores have tended to better selections. Ethnic food aisles often have flour where main selection is out, or specialty flours regardless.

Whole grains are also available. I've contemplated buying a mill.

<I’ve contemplated buying a mill.

As in a business or the machinery to use at home?

Home.

Ironically, the KitchenAid I'd always coveted has proved all but wholly unnecessary for breadmaking, though the milling attachmnent is among the options available.

And, FWIW, I'm experimenting broadly with grains and augmentations.

Today's batch was 1000g flour (50% AP, 25% spelt, 20% WW (last of the bag), 5% einkorn), 25g salt, 80% hydration, 200g walnut pieces, 100g mixed whole spelt & eincorn grains (boiled. in salted water). OMFGood.

I've started a straight bleached white flour batch, basically to see what the worst possible flour might be.

Basically: experiment, see what happens.

Sounds great. We just broke out our kitchen aid which had sat dormant next to the bread machine for years. I didn’t know it had a mill attachment but I guess I’m not surprised.

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