Buying and Storing Bread Flour in Bulk
Last Updated on November 22, 2021 – Originally Posted in May of 2009
Where We Buy Bulk Bread Flour
I make all the bread for our household with my bread machine. Really! I use my Zo to make bread, dinner rolls, hamburger buns, hoagie rolls, hot dog buns and more.
As you might guess, we go through a lot of bread flour.
Flour sources vary from area to area. In my neighborhood, we have two sources of bread flour; Costco Business Center and CHEF’STORE (formerly Cash&Carry Smart Foodservice Warehouse).
At Costco Business Center, we buy 25-pound bags of Ardent Mills Harvest Bread Flour.
In the past, all Costco stores carried bread flour. As I understand from readers, some Costco stores still do. However, in my neck of the woods, only Costo Business Centers have bread flour.
At CHEF’STORE we buy Morebread Flour.
Getting flour is a team effort. The Man of the House (TMOTH) hefts the flour into our SUV. There’s no way that I could manage it by myself.
Wondering about the difference between bread flour and all-purpose flour? Click here to see the answer.Storing Bulk Bread Flour
So how do we store that much flour?
Previously we stored our bread flour in food-grade, 5-gallon buckets.
A 50-pound bag fit into two five-gallon buckets with no problem. However, they were heavy for me to lift and dealing with the lids was a nightmare.
We recently switched to two-gallon buckets with Gamma Lids. We’ve purchased two of these eight bucket sets.
If you’d like to buy them one at a time, here’s another link for two-gallon buckets with Gamma Lids.
Note the top of the buckets. I can easily grab the top of the bucket and twirl.
Don’t you love this? When TMOTH fills up the buckets, this is how he shows me which buckets contain the older flour and need to be used first.
I have a regular flour canister in my kitchen. When it gets low, I refill from the two-gallon buckets.
We go through 50 pounds of flour in about three months. If we’re going to store the flour longer than that we add an extra step.
We first put the whole bag of flour into the freezer for four days. This takes care of any potential insect issue. We let the flour come up to room temperature before putting it into the buckets to avoid condensation.
I put my bags of bulk flour (bread and all-purpose) in the freezer– take out so much in a canister set in cupboard.
By the way, you might check out Azure Standard as a source for grain or flour products … located in Durfur, Oregon.
I have enjoyed your insightful comments and recipes. All great and varied for baking bread with such a wide variety.
I prefer to buy organically raised wheat to mill resulting in a very nutritious flour, storing flour in freezer until use and then using the ZO for baking …
SO nutritious.
Where do you get the wheat that you grind? Inquiring minds would love to know. 😊
Azure Standard is a great source for flowers any really any baking items. They sell in small and large quantities in all types of flour.
I have also been getting bulk baking powder, seeds, dried fruit and a few other items from them.
We live in an area they dwliver for free to (if your order is over $50). It goes to a drop location and a semi delivers everyones ordrrs once a month. If you dont live near a drop then you can pay for shipping, although I have never looked at the prices.
I like to store my bulk wheat flour in large snapware square containers that have handles. I label what it is and when I filled the container and store the bulk of it in our garage freezer.
Interesting! Thanks for the information!
The only place I can get bulk bread flour in Oakland County Michigan, is Gordon Food Service – and I am sooo grateful for it since my local Costco and Sam’s Club stopped carrying it.
I live in a very small town and can’t find bread flour anywhere can I use all-purpose flour in my bread machine
Hi Wendy! The difference between the two types of flour is the gluten content. Some all-purpose flours have the same gluten content as bread flour. So give it a go and see how it turns out. You can find more information here – http://www.breadmachinediva.com/2009/09/bread-flour-versus-all-purpose-flour/
I know these are old posts but just had to add my 2 cents! Many restaurants discard their 5 gal buckets from things like sour cream, pickles, etc. and they will give them to you free of charge! Also, just as an aside, if you add some bay leaves to the flour {I add them to all flours & grains, bulk products} it will keep any weavels from hatching out! I also use canning jars for storing stuff. I have had brown sugars in canning jars {with the regulation 2 piece lids, NOT the plastic caps} for well over a year and they are just as soft as new.
Where do you get the 5 gallon buckets?
Cherie
Hi Cheri, My significant other makes mead, so one of our buckets was originally a honey container…I asked my in-house winemaker where a person could get more of those buckets. He said, “US Plastics is a great place to buy all kinds of buckets, and other plastic containers. These white 5-gallon buckets meet FDA requirements and are $4.26 + $1.36 for the lid. Don’t know about shipping though.”
Found a recipe for Ezekiel Bread for the bread machine:
1 cup of Water
1/4 cup Red Kidney beans -(cooked and drained)
1/4 cup Lentils – (cooked and drained)
1 1/2 Tbs. of Olive Oil
1 1/2 Tbs. of Honey
3/4 teaspoon of Salt
2 cups of Bread Flour
1/2 cup Barley Flour
1/2 cup Millet Flour
2 tbs. Vital Gluten
1 1/2 teaspoons Yeast
I haven’t tried it yet (just found it on line). Will give it a go and post back…:-)
The price of Ezekiel bread is getting out of hand….yikes!
I love my Zmachine too! I have a recipe that calls for multigrain flour. Since I haven’t been able to find a bag of this type, I’m assuming I have to mix it myself. Have you tried this? If so, what flours work best and in what quantity?
Hi Robin, I haven’t used multi-grain flour in any of my recipes yet. I see that King Arthur Flour sells some:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/9-grain-flour-blend
I use King Arthur Whole grain blend. The 2 lb bag is a nice size.
What brands of bread flour do they sell at Costco and at what cost? I’m thinking of getting a membership there.
Aaron – Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. I was waiting for our next Costco run before replying. We went on Monday (January 4th) and we got a 50 pound bag of ConAgra bread flour. We paid $14.59 so that’s 29 cents a pound.
That’s a good point. However the Man of the House is not a fan of whole wheat. We buy small bags of wheat flour at the grocery store and it lasts us a long, long time.
But what about yummy whole wheat? That won’t last for months without refrigeration, will it?