I have just landed a Panasonic breadmaker in a daily deal over at Amazon so I have been on the look out for different flours to try out.
Aldi have a Easter baking specials section Instore at the moment and I saw a good number of speciality flours.
I picked up a Cotswold Crunch, Eightt Grain Strong Flour and a French T55 traditional French flour. They also had some of the 00 type flour and a few others that were all the same price.
I think that this represents good value and this Matthews Cotawold Flour looks like good stuff but i will report back after my first loaf.
All comments (28)
towercourt
7 Mar 16#1
65p for 1.5kg pack allinson plain and self raising - b and m
GazmoX to towercourt
7 Mar 16#2
That's good, but not what I'd call a speciality flour.:wink:
Cristiano to towercourt
7 Mar 161#3
Good value but you can't really use this in the bread machine and I've already learnt that he results are mainly down to the quality of the flour you used.
jamgin to towercourt
8 Mar 16#16
Lol. I think you'll get on better with a strong flour for making bread.
Good price for cake and yorkie pud making flours though
Infiltrator
7 Mar 16#4
When you report back let us know the loaf size and ingredient mix you used. I've made two loaves with the Cotswold crunch, the first didn't rise as it should have (think it was a wholemeal mix), the second was a normal bread mix and it rose much better - but was still more dense than I would have liked.
Cristiano
7 Mar 16#5
Will do. Gonna do it tonight. Will report back tomorrow am.
violetd
7 Mar 16#6
I use this in my panasonic whenever it's available in Aldi, but usually mix with maybe half or a third of strong white flour, so that it's a better texture, and make to a white loaf recipe with a bit of extra water. This never sells well in my local, so I usually wait a couple of weeks, and stock up when it's reduced. Cotswold crunch is our fave. Tried the others, but didn't think the French one was worth the extra cost.
MattP79
7 Mar 16#7
Thanks OP. Loving grain infused flours at the moment (some Sainsbury's sell the Allinson's Seed and Grain White Bread Flour - which I really like) so will grab the 8 grain for sure.
chelseafan6969
7 Mar 16#8
I have both these flours and the trick is to mix 50/50 with white flour, use around a tbsp of yeast per 500gr of total flour. The crust sometimes comes out quite firm so i wrap in a damp tea towel after it comes out the oven to soften it up. The flour is top top quality. David Cameron uses it!!!
Just saw same recommendation above. Def use white flour and yes a little more water.
Cristiano to chelseafan6969
7 Mar 16#9
I have tried the 8 grain flour and followed the granary loaf recipe that came with the breadmaker. Will try the other flour as you said with half white flour and see how it turns out. I think it's great how you can get 3 good loaves out of a bag. I don't like deviating from the recipe books just yet without getting a feel for how the machine works.
chelseafan6969
7 Mar 16#10
Use the recipe on the flour pack and just the granary program number and see how that turns out. Practice makes perfect.
You can also split the 8 grain with white flour too.
This is my standard recipe for the flour you mentioned.
I use
300g Cotswold/8 grain flour
200g white bread flour
17g oil or butter
320ml water
12G / 1tbsp yeast
Loaf size is L and program 3 (4 hours) or even 2 (1hr 55) both work fine for either loaf
Opening post
Aldi have a Easter baking specials section Instore at the moment and I saw a good number of speciality flours.
I picked up a Cotswold Crunch, Eightt Grain Strong Flour and a French T55 traditional French flour. They also had some of the 00 type flour and a few others that were all the same price.
I think that this represents good value and this Matthews Cotawold Flour looks like good stuff but i will report back after my first loaf.
All comments (28)
Good price for cake and yorkie pud making flours though
Just saw same recommendation above. Def use white flour and yes a little more water.
You can also split the 8 grain with white flour too.
This is my standard recipe for the flour you mentioned.
I use
300g Cotswold/8 grain flour
200g white bread flour
17g oil or butter
320ml water
12G / 1tbsp yeast
Loaf size is L and program 3 (4 hours) or even 2 (1hr 55) both work fine for either loaf