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My Favorite Pantry Item

Of all the things in my pantry, I think flour is myfavorite pantry item. Why?  Flour is used for so many fabulous things and it isthe basis for most of my scratch cooking. I can make sweet, savory, hearty,fried, crispy and smooth/creamy-all with flour.
My favorite type is unbleached white. Yes, I admit that my favorite flour is not some sort of hippie wholegrain. It is a simple, soft, learnthatunbleached basic white flour. Of course, as you get to know me, learn thatI never leave well enough alone. I also like to play with whole wheat flour andother types, tyring to get the perfect ratio of white flour  to whole grain (which is notorious for makingbricks instead of bread). One of my flours that I use quite a bit is a Bobs Red Mill,10 grain flour. If you don’t mix that high test with white, you can hammer a nail with the resulting bread.
Flour means comfort. It is perfect for those rainydays when a loaf of bread and a bowl of soup tastes perfect. It’s also a pickme up when the family has to get up early to work on the harvest and I canpresent them with homemade donuts or cinnamon rolls when they first come up tothe kitchen.
Flour is my old friend when we are out of food. As long as Ihave flour, I can make sourdough and then bread. With sourdough, I can make allsorts of baked goods without needing yeast or other leavening. Of course, I use extra yeast or baking powder or vinegar/baking soda when I need to, but its great to have my sourdough waiting to help out.
I also make a mean pancake with flour. When I lived in my cabin, pancakes were almost a daily food. I never used a recipe and played with ratios there too. Sometimes I had eggs, sometimes not. Sometimes I had sourdough or other leavening and sometimes it was flour, water and a greasy pan, with a side of black coffee. Anyway, you look at it, flour certainly saves me many times over.
I make it a point to buy a bag of flour, any size, ANY timeI go shopping. I have purchased 1 pound bags from the pharmacy and often buy 25pound bags at the warehouse store. If you are starting a pantry, I recommend getting a handle on your flour totals. Use a 5 gallon food safe bucket and fill that baby up with flour! A 25 pound bag fits nicely.
Then you have to learn to use your flour, but that’s another blog post.

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2 thoughts on “My Favorite Pantry Item”

  • I love hearing (reading) about how others cook & what they consider as staples in their kitchen. It takes me forever to go through a 5# sack of flour…. the same for a 5# sack of sugar. I used to make our bread & I might start doing that again… which, of course, polishes off a sack of flour pretty quick. Otherwise I just don't bake. We eat fresh or frozen fruits & veggies, grains, nuts & seeds, etc. We try & watch our carbohydrates so that's probably a big reason my once-busy flour canister is quieter now. But I sure do love the smell of flour-based scratch food baking in the oven. 🙂

  • Thank you for your comment. I would be lost without scratch cooking. It's funny how I double a batch of cookies (so 6 dozen), and they are gone by the next morning. In fact, tonight my two oldest were away with a friend for dinner, so I only doubled the batch of pancakes, instead of quadrupling it. Funny how much food two teens can eat. :-)I read your comment earlier today and was thinking about you while I was cleaning the kitchen (strange, I know). Your comment made me think of what it is going to be like when my cookie jar lid STAYS on, and I can make a dozen eggs last longer than 1 breakfast. Not sure I am ready for that….Thanks again, Amy J

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