Bread Flour

[John William G]

I went to my local Giant to buy some bread flour.  They had two choices:  2 pounds of Hodgson Mill for $4.79, or five pounds of Pillsbury for $2.69.  So one is $0.53/lb, the other about $2.35/lb, or over four times as expensive.  I have used the expensive stuff before, but have never seen any real difference in the resulting bread"”not in the texture, or taste, or anything else.  Is there something I am missing?  Is there anyway to justify the higher priced flour?

[Pat]

Is the Hodgson Mill flour organic?  That would up the price.  I know a lot of their products are certified organic, but I don't know if everything is.

[ktmoomau]

Maybe it's because they only use wheat from the US and it's organic and only stone ground, they use solar and other green energy, yadda yadda yadda?  

[John William G]

The only things mentioned on the package are that the flour is unbleached and unbromated, and it is not Genetically Modified.  There is nothing about it being organic, or anything like that.

[Pat]

The only things mentioned on the package are that the flour is unbleached and unbromated, and it is not Genetically Modified.  There is nothing about it being organic, or anything like that.

It sounds like the main difference is that you're paying for an upmarket rather than mass market brand.

[thistle]

I'm going to check prices next time I go shopping, but I don't think I would notice a difference between flours, I don't do a lot of baking. My fallback is King Arthur, because I like their catalog & cookbook.