Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Flour Woes in California

Hello!

I just got back from a nine-day trip to visit my boyfriend in Silicon Valley, California. While visiting, I decided to do some baking. This led to an unexpected struggle to find a white wheat flour that contained 100 per cent wheat -- and nothing else.

I was amazed to discover that almost no supermarket carried a flour that contained wheat only. Every bag of flour at popular stores like Andronico's, Trader Joe's and Wholefoods was labelled "enriched" and contained a myriad of other ingredients, including, most commonly, barley, wheat and vitamin additives. It didn't matter if the flour was conventional, organic and/or unbleached. It was the same story for every bag of flour.

My search for pure wheat flour took me to a grand total of five supermarkets until someone at Trader Joe's tipped me off to a supermarket called Cosatino's. (I may be spelling this wrong!) Cosatino's was the only supermarket that carried a flour that contained 100 per cent wheat and no other ingredients. The flour was made by Bob's Red Mill (based in Milwaukie, Oregon) and was called "unbleached white flour." It was the same flour I buy at my favourite health food store here in Toronto.

On the bright side, I found two other baking ingredients that were vastly superior to what is available in Canada. They were Cook's pure vanilla extract and Featherweight's baking powder.

Cook's is much better than the vanilla I had been using here in Canada. The Club House vanilla I was using here contained sugar and tasted extremely alcoholic and left a bad aftertaste. Cook's, on the other hand, had no sugar and didn't taste alcholic and added a lovely flavour to my baking.

Featherweight's baking powder uses potato starch, while Magic baking powder -- the most common brand here in Toronto -- contains corn starch, which I am allergic to. I noticed my loaves rose better with Featherweight's too.

Needless to say, I brought a bottle of both Baker's and Featherweight's home with me, and Canada Customs (thank goodness!) didn't confiscate them!

I just thought I would relate these experiences. I wonder if finding 100 per cent pure wheat flour is difficult all over the U.S., or just in the area where I was staying.

Belinda

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