I've been using King Arthur exclusively, but, after realizing the enormous price difference between KA and, say Pillsbury or Gold Medal, l I am thinking I have fallen for a good marketing effort. You?
On another subject, Peter Reinhart, in his pizza book "American Pie" says that US AP flour is the closest readily available (not to mention inexpensive) flour to Italian 00.
My parents own a grocery store that primarily serves an Amish & Mennonite community. The bulk stuff is typically the same brands that are on the shelf at Walmart except they get 50lb bags & break it down into smaller bags depending on the product. i.e. the bulk salt in our store is Morton's salt.
That's what they do at the local Amish market. For some things, buying the broken down bulk is very cost effective. One of my favorite things to get is steel cut oats. $0.99/lb at the Amish market, twice as much or more elsewhere.
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KA AP, Bread, and WWW. I also have some Caputo 00 and some sprouted grain flour - I don'r remember the brand though.. The problem with changing your brand is that the results may or may not change with a different brand. I also like the fact that KA is employee owned.
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I use King Arthur a lot but have used Gold Medal and Dakota Mills as well. Not all KA kinds are available in my area. I refuse to buy the cheap store brands but wonder if GM and DM aren't pretty good too. I don't bake enough to tell a huge difference--still working on learning and technique. Over this past year I've begun to have good success with pizza dough and have finally had some success with bread and dinner rolls these past couple months. It's fun to learn but dough has been a whole new challenge for me.
The big "moment" for me was when our local megamart had KA on sale for $2.19 during the holidays--normal price is $5.49!! WalMart and Target carry KA for $3.59. The KA cachet seems to be worth several bucks a bag.
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I use a lot of Gold Medal bread, whole wheat and all purpose flour, and I have no complaints. For rye I have been using Hodgson Mill or King Arthur. Both are good rye flours.
KA. I like Their employee ownership structure and their business practices. The dark rye I'm using is Bob's Red Mill. When I finish the KA WE and KA AP I have, I might look into getting something a bit more local and interesting. I've used Gold Medal and have nothing against it.
Reckon' fer me it varies dependin' on what I'm usin' flour for.
Fer a dredge, or summat? I jus' use store brand, or better if I catch it on sale.
Fer bakin', Gold Medal, most generally...
Ain't tried no KA, (In my recollection) but will now, based on informed preferences presented here...
Interesting thread, Life is about learnin', t' me.
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Store brand. When I'm baking 20+ Stollen over the holidays, I have to go inexpensive (I give most of them away. I didn't do baking this season due to broken wrist).
I started using KA and stuck with it for consistency. I do like using their web site, the recipe blogs help me learn what results to expect so I also don't mind supporting them.
King Arthur really is worth the difference in price. The consistency and quality are both great. I actually called them after switching to their flour because I was so surprised in the difference it made, and they're really great/knowledgeable people to speak with.
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