Quality Matters

I'm pretty particular about my baking.  I insist that my baked goods are delicious and fresh for each market day or local delivery.  Freezing dough or already baked cookies is never an option, even if it means burning the midnight oil a few nights a week!

I also use name brand ingredients whenever possible.  I like my food to taste good, have simple ingredients and be easy to acquire.  One of my goals here is to help you find great quality ingredients to use in your baking!

Since January's recipe is the Soft Pretzels rolls, let's start there.  The most unique ingredient in these is a gluten free bread flour mix.  I've tried using a few different flours, but none come close to producing the quality of pretzel that the bread flour mix does.

The questions start to add up: Where do you buy the flour? How much does it cost? What brand is best?  What's in the flour?

Let me answer those:

1. I buy all my bread flour from www.nuts.com.  It's an online store that sells a very large variety of baking goods.  Of note, they also sell an awesome cake mix that's gluten free. I'll tell you another day how to tweak their instructions to make a cake that no one will believe is gluten free!

2. The more you buy, the cheaper it is!  I buy mine in 25lb increments, and with shipping end up paying about $4.00/pound for it.  On nuts.com, if you buy 200lbs of any combination of things, the shipping is discounted 50%.  Something to note.  It's not terribly pricey and the quality can't be beat!

3. I've tried a variety of flours and have come to really prefer the nuts.com brand the best.  I've tried Bob's Red Mill, Paula's, and a few other lesser known bread mixes.  Nuts.com doesn't use rice, which makes a HUGE difference in a bread product, like pretzels.

4. Nuts.com uses a bean base flour. In a biscuit or pancake, this isn't ideal. However, in a pretzel or sandwich bread, it is ideal.  From nuts.com, it already has xanthan gum in it, which will save you a pretty penny.  It does also contain very small amount of soy lecithin, so if you're allergic to soy, you'll want to avoid this one.  Nuts.com always includes their ingredients on their website.

So, my favorite, go to flour in gluten free baking is this:  http://www.nuts.com/cookingbaking/mixes/bread/homemade-gluten-free.html