Value/Basics Flour vs Brand Flour?

kippers

I have used tesco and adsa's value flour, both plain and s/r and they are fine. As someone else said, i don't think they rise quite as much as the posh flours but for everyday use they are fine. I also use tesco and adsa's strong white flour for bread and my bread/cobs rise lovely

valk_scot

I always use own brand flours for bread baking and for cakes etc, and the Value ones are as good as standard own brand. I do sift them through a fine sieve and hold the sieve well up over the bowl to incorporate as much air as possible but you're supposed to do that with any flour tbh. I'll also add a pinch of baking powder to SR if rising is crucial.

Purple_kitten

I've not noticed any difference in comparison, I now use the cheapest and so far lidls have been great value

Piggo_2

I've been using Tesco value flour for years now, both plain and self-raising, and not found a problem with it. Like mentioned before I've often looked at the more expensive flours and wondered how my baking would be different, but I've never tried it as there seems to be such a price difference! My mum uses Lidls for everything - break, cakes etc and has always found that one good too.

3v3

*EvilMissKitty* wrote: »

Hi!

Have searched the forum on this but I have found no answer.

I would like to know what the difference is between value/basic flour and branded flour. In some cases the is a £ 1.06 difference in price! I am baking some christmas cookies as gifts and I am about to buy my ingredients.

Any help/advice would be appreciated!

Thanks In Advance

EMK

"Basic" flour has a slighter higher absorbtion because it is marginally denser.
Extra sieving will "lighten" it (as stated in an earlier post).

In Victorian times, other things would have been added to the ground flour to make it "stretch" further (from a sellers point of view) so, arsenic and other toxic items were used. That is not the case today

As it is marginally denser, if a recipe states xx of fluid, don't be surprised if you need to add a teaspoon or two more. And that is basically the difference

AdmiralX

*EvilMissKitty* wrote: »

Hi!

£ 1.06 difference in price! I am baking some christmas cookies as gifts and I am about to buy my ingredients.

Good question, do you mean the value it is cheaper by £1.06?

DebbieR

I use flour mainly for things such as Yorkshire puds/dumplings/scones and always used Tesco value flour until about two years ago when my eagle eyed daughter asked while we were making the Yorkshires "what are those little black things in the flour Mam?" Flour weevils- yuk! I never bought it again after that! Funnily enough, my sister, who does lots of baking also had the same problem with Tesco flour a few months ago. She took hers back to Tesco where the SA begrudgingly replaced it saying "it would have been OK to use you know":eek:

Pentagon

use the cheap. One of the chef's at work told me that it was the only one that he used. And if good enough for him, then good enough for me.

You cannot make bread from plain flour - bread flour contains more gluten.

terra_ferma

I used to buy expensive bread flour, organic from Waitrose or Dove, then found out that Sainsbury's own non-organic brand was better (it was standard, not value)

you don't always get what you pay for, for example waitrose sell the same waffles as lidl, can't remember the brand, different size but exactly the same taste/texture, and ingredients, they must come from the same factory....
other times you do, I find value potatoes often not very nice, and now I look for "goodlooking, pretty" ones...

personally I will always try the cheapest version, unless I don't like the look of it, and if I don't like it I haven't lost much, but if I do I will save money over and over again

lilrahi

I use valur flour for everything, cakes biscuits etc and own brand bread flour for bread and pizza dough. My SIL uses branded stuff but no-one has yet been able to differentiate between her cakes and mine. In fact, mine have always come out the winner in most cases