Bob’s Red Mill Disappoints Yet Again

[BakerAunt]

When I baked my cherry pie earlier this week, I noted that I am starting to get low on pastry flour. My crusts use a combination of Bob's Red Mill pastry flour and whole wheat pastry flour. I went to order it at Vitacost and did not find it. I googled and found a Reddit thread lamenting that Bob's Red Mill no longer produces either pastry flour. This is much more of a blow to me than when they discontinued their cake flour, as I was able to substitute part barley flour for it.

I also had to find another source for barley flour after Bob's Red Mill discontinued it.

I will need to find a new source. King Arthur has it, but it is much pricier than the Bob's. One person on the Reddit thread mentioned Central Milling.

If anyone has any suggestions or leads on good pastry flour, please post a reply here.

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[Mike Nolan]

Webstaurant has 50 pounds of patent pastry flour, made from soft red wheat, for about $20, but I've ordered other flours from them before and shipping was more like $50 for a 50 pound bag. Not to mention that's more pastry flour than I'd use in 5 or more years.

Stovers in Cheswick Pennsylvania also has 50 pounds of pastry flour for about $25, but shipping might be an issue with them as well, and I don't know the flour brand's reputation.

I'll be going through Indiana next month when we go to our granddaughter's HS graduation in Pittsburgh, and am hoping to stop at Stover's at some point, but I'm not sure what route we're taking on the way back. If we use I-80 I think we're north of you, if we use I-70 (so we can stop in Columbus OH at the North Market), we'd probably be fairly south of you.

Update: I was just looking over the list of vendors at the North Market and there's been a lot of turnover there, several of the vendors I was hoping to visit are no longer there, so that probably means we'll be using I-80 on the way home, which is about an hour faster anyway.

[BakerAunt]

Well, a 50 lb. bag would be a LOT of pies. Thanks for trying to find a solution for me, Mike. I have now located a white whole wheat pastry flour vendor but not a white pastry flour one. Perhaps I can do without the latter.

I checked at Joseph's Grainery, where I buy my barley flour, and they carry whole wheat pastry flour. It comes in either 8 lb. or 16 lb. bags. I find that an 8 lb. bag of barley flour lasts me about a year. That is likely the case for whole wheat pastry flour, which I also use in quick bread and cracker recipes.

https://josephs-grainery.square.site/

The price for an 8 lb. bag of white whole wheat pastry flour is $28.60, which at $3.57 per pound is less expensive than King Arthur's 4 lb. bag at $16.95, which is $4.237 per pound.

Joseph's Grainery has FREE priority mail shipping! That lowers the price more.

I have ordered a bag of each, as I am also running low on barley flour.

I may experiment to see if I can make my buttermilk-oil pie crust with all white whole wheat pastry flour. If not, I will continue seeking another source for white pastry flour or grudgingly buy it from KABC when they have a purported special offer.

I remembered today that BRM also discontinued their ivory wheat flour, which is white whole wheat flour, which is why I have to buy it from King Arthur. With KABC, what bugs me is not so much the price but the expensive shipping costs. I will continue looking for another source. I actually liked the BRM ivory better than King Arthur's Golden Wheat, which is what they now call their white whole wheat flour.

[Mike Nolan]

Some KABC products are available on Amazon, which, if you have Prime, usually means free shipping, but their pastry flour isn't one of them. There is a 5 pound bag of‎ Despensa Colombiana (sounds Italian but it says made in USA) pastry flour on Amazon for $15, but that's still quite a bit more than the BRM pastry flour was. I may have to try the Azure Standard one. (Getting to the $50 minimum order on things I want might take me a while.)

[Mike Nolan]

Amazon has 20 pounds of Unpretentious pastry flour for around $3 a pound, free shipping on Prime. Still several times what I'd use in a year.

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