October 15, 2021 - 7:38am
Toronto Atta Flour $5 for 20lbs Parliament nofrills
20lbs Golden Temple Red Bag Durum Atta blend on for 4.97 at Matt's nofrills on Parliament near Gerrard.
At the back, at the end of an aisle on the bottom shelf... across from milk products I think.
Share
That's a great tip.
What's the expire (or best by) date?
Mine says April 14, 2022
Thanks for letting us know. I was at the No Frills on Bloor, near Huntley yesterday, but I didn't notice this. I wonder if it applies there, too, or only at the Parliament St. store. Thanks again!
I think it happens after Diwali in neighbourhoods with populations of Hindus and Sikhs.
Same last year I believe. It doesn't get advertised.
Their flyer says $8.97 for 9kg, $4 off the regular price. It's in every NoFrills in Toronto this week.
The flyer shows green (fine blend) and purple (wheat). Red is a coarser blend but if you let it soak a bit before use it's fine.
What are you going to bake with this coarse blend? I have no experience with it at all.
I use it for anything as a flavour enhancer where it can soak for a bit.
In sourdough bread and English muffins at around 10% percentage for flavour enhancement, often with 10% rye. I autolyse it.
EDIT: as a scald, yudane or tangzhong, might be interesting to play with at higher % in breads. I've been thinking along thise lines after doing Benny's Hokkaido Milk Bread.
For pancakes at 100% for flavour and texture. I let it soak in moisture with no fat for a bit, then add fat last.
For pasta at 100% with egg as hydration for flavour and texture.
It's just a blend of durum and wheat that is a little coarser than the green bag.
It's probably produced for Indian flatbreads but given the low price following Indian holiday festivals, I grab it and enjoy it.
Ok, thank you, David!
It seems similar to the use of semola or semolina (non rimacinata) and/or cream of wheat cereal in baking, all of which are quite grainy to touch but make excellent smooth dough if given at least three hours of time to moisten or "soak" either separately or inside preferments and dough itself.
The scald at higher than 10% would work in pancakes and crepes, I think. And in sourdough starter, for sure.
You certainly bake a lot! And your experience shows. Your breads look very good. 👍
Mariana, I've used the Canadian-origin Golden Temple red bag, as has Alfanso. It is a true flour, not at all gritty/grainy as semolina or sooji. I just now compared the GT red bag flour to some Bob's Red Mill stone ground WW from what I have on hand.
The red bag might be stone-milled, or could be large(r)-particle roller-milled as the red bag particle size is bigger than General Mill bread flour. The GT red bag consists of smaller particles than my bag of Patel brand stone-ground WW Canadian durum.
The GT green bag may be even smaller particle size than the red bag - I have not tried green bag. But I suspect the "fine" description on the green bag means less bran, not necessarily smaller particle size, though it could be.
Maybe happycat can clarify if he has actually compared both red bag and green bag side-by-side.
--
According to Alfanso, GT red bag bakes up like semolina rimacinata, needing perhaps a touch more water. https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/62248/praise-durum-flour-brar-mills#comment-469315
I understand now. Thank you!
I was mostly confused by the blend issue. Initially I thought it was a blend of two wheats, common and durum.
But it is not. It is 100% durum wheat flour with a small amount of common wheat bran admixed. Half of what true whole wheat flour would have. A lovely blend, really. And it is on sale :)
"It is 100% durum wheat flour with a small amount of common wheat bran admixed. Half of what true whole wheat flour would have. "
Unfortunately, it's more complicated than that. It might not contain any durum bran and germ. It (red bag) includes some common wheat _flour_ (incl endosperm), and includes some common wheat _bran_, but still does not rise to 50% of whole grain.
It's actually much closer (extremely close, according to Alfanso) to Italian semola rimacinata than it is to whole grain, based on the amount of water it takes.
Here's a photo of the ingredients list of GT red bag:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0473/0263/9777/products/d_1600x.jpg
Here's the back of the green bag:
https://www.asianfoodcentre.com/beta/5434-large_default/golden-temple-no-1-durum-atta-flour.jpg
After working with actual whole grain durum, I understand why they (GT/Smuckers-Canada) added common wheat bran to both the red and green bags as opposed to durum bran: durum bran turns to rubbery glue if you don't hydrate just right, and blend it with non-durum flour. (Hence the Russians' formulas, as you pointed out, limiting WW durum to 25%.)
Ok. How old is that picture? I only saw what they list as ingredients on GT website. They currently mention only one type of flour and one type of bran in the red bag.
https://www.goldentemple.ca/Products
Maybe GoldenTemple.com listed other ingredients, as on the bag? This GT dot com site that they mention on the bag on your photo doesn't even exist. Only GT dot ca currently exists.
Anyways, I will go to the store and check it out personally.
Good point about the product changing over time.
At the bottom of the red bag page, on the .ca site.....
"Product formulation and packaging may change. For most current information regarding a particular product, please refer to the product package."
So... we got a "moving target." ;-)
--
And... there may be different formulations for different markets.
--
Their .com web site is:
https://www.golden-temple.com/Products
But it does not list ingredients. ( Don't forget the "-". )
--
I'll try to remember to take my good camera to my local Patel store and get some photos next time I go. As I remember, the last red bag I saw did include common wheat _flour_.
Here's the front of the red bag, Sept 2020, in one of the Patel-Indianapolis stores:
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/files/u151432/511FB9A0-64CA-451D-A22F-0A62C0FAA036.jpeg
.
>> Maybe happycat can clarify if he has actually compared both red bag and green bag side-by-side.
I have used both over the last 18 months or so and have both in my bins. I've noticed the difference in use, the feel in my fingers and texture in pancakes. I did not sit down and compare samples though.
If you would like a comparison, feel free to suggest what would be meaningful to you.
A. just going by feel, is the green-bag flour smaller particle size than the red-bag flour?
B. Does the red-bag flour take/require more (higher hydration %) water for the same "dough-feel" than the green-bag flour? This might give a hint as to the relative bran content.
C: Going by feel, is the green-bag flour similar in particle size to white AP/bread flour?
Thanks.
Ok I did some of it.
In the pic, left to rigt is AP, Green ag, Red Bag (based on my labelling of ziplocs...)
AP is silky.
Green and Red were a tough call so I sifted out their bran (brown specks to the below right of each sample)
Coarse bran seemed similar for both.
After sifting, the geen felt a little silkier.. almost if coarse bran was added after. The red felt a little less silky to me, as if there were still finer bits of bran in it.
As for hydration, that will have to wait for when I'm baking with it I guess. Don't like to waste flour but I will use equal amounts of both in pancakes on the weekend and see.
.
Thanks for the information! I'll look for this.
Wow loads of useful information in this thread, thanks all for sharing this. That Nofrills needs a major renovation don’t you think? All the other ones that I’ve been to in downtown are so much better.
Benny
Great tip, happycat. I wasn't aware that there were so many TFL bakers in TO. I worked for the TDSB at Parliament and Shuter for 20 years and used to go to this No Frills location all of the time. Two other fine spots to get flour, as well as hard-to-find spices, are Ambal Trading and Yarl's Super Store. They're just north of NoFrills on Parliament just south of Wellesley. I get Sri Lankan cinnamon as well as cardamom and some other spices at Ambal for a really good price. They have many types of flours, rice, sugars (many different varieties of jaggery) as well as other foodstuffs. Pretty cool little shop.
What kind of flours do Ambal Trading and Yarl's Super Store carry?
They carry the Golden Temple brand durum flours along with other grains. I get ragi flour there. It's an interesting flour made from finger millet which gives my bread a purplish hue when mixed in with bread flour. It's pretty granular so I only use up to 20% max. It gives this really creamy texture and unique flavour. Give it a whirl.
Thanks I’ll have to check those places out since it is walking distance from home at least if I only buy a small bag of flour and not a 25 lbs bag LOL.
Thanks for the tips! Always happy to find new places to explore. I think I might've been there and bought a huge ball of jaggery awhile back just out of curiosity.
Amazing what we have here in the neighbourhood. The more I learn about spices and flours, the more I realize how bland my food was and how dependent I was on overpriced, dull, commercialized products.
This site is really opening up lots of exciting ideas about breads.
Raw coffee is another example. I used to go buy it downtown at Greenbeanery... then I discovered I could get better Ethiopian coffee from an Ethiopian market here in the neighbourhood... at a better price... from friendlier people.
I loved working down in Regent Park. The African families were so warm, welcoming and eager to share their heritage. It's a melting pot of so many cultures and the variety of food available is amazing. We are lucky here in TO to have such a diverse food scene.
Agreed Benny. That location was always lacking in several ways.
7FFA1F17-8302-4B19-9B59-1DBD4D1E0F08.jpeg
Flour still at Parliament and Gerrard noFrills... I took 1 bag 2 weeks ago. Still lots left. Lonely flour!
I carried mine home under my arm... good exercise!