Buying Bulk : a shopping guide

Some of the key advice I have for getting started is buying your flours and starches in bulk. This just helps in keeping your costs down, especially if you bake on a regular basis. If you only plan to bake a couple times a month, small bags of Bob's Red Mill flours and starches will work just fine for you.

For me, I have found bulk foods stores are where I prefer to shop. And if you're in the Northeast part of Tennessee, Mountain View Bulk Foods in Chuckey has great deals. I've shopped there many times when in the area. They don't have everything, but they do have brown rice flour, white rice flour, buckwheat flour, sorghum flour, teff flour, xanthan gum, and oat flour that I use regularly. I have had to find another place to find sweet rice flour, which is used a lot in cake baking, it isn't sweet to taste, but a much lighter and finer flour. I said this in a previous post, but sweet rice flour is found in Asian markets and ethnic foods sections of the grocery store. Where you live there may be even more options to find bulk foods.

Store the flours, not starches, in 1 or gallon Ziplock freezer bags in the freezer. They will last much longer that way since they don't have preservatives to create a long shelf life like all-purpose wheat flours have.

As a military family, I find the Commissary has a pretty good selection of Bob's Red Mill products in the gluten free section, with better prices than Walmart.

If you prefer to shop online, here are a few places that are very credible :

https://nuts.com/cookingbaking/gluten-free-flour/

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_3_15?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=buckwheat+flour+gluten+free&sprefix=buckwheat+flour%2Caps%2C172&crid=1L27A2DFHSAEZ

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_2_21?url=search-alias%3Dgrocery&field-keywords=sweet+rice+flour+gluten+free&sprefix=sweet+ricegluten+free%2Caps%2C172&crid=OP46IQKU2UG9&rh=n%3A16310101%2Ck%3Asweet+rice+flour+gluten+free

I hope this has helped you on the search for where to buy gf baking supplies! Contact me if you have suggestions on other places you have found.

#GFflour