I don't know about Sam's Club, but I bought a 25 lb bag of bread flour from Costco. No problems so far; the breads still turn out well. I bought a 5 gallon paint bucket with a lid (hardware stores everywhere sell them) to store it in (25 lbs fit in there perfectly) and it keeps the beasties and most of the humidity out. Of course, I can't fit that bucket in my freezer/fridge, so I keep it in the living room where I normally run the A/C (I live in HI and it really gets hot here).
When I was baking lots of bread every week I would go thru 2 of the 25 pound bags of flour from Sams every week, never had any problem with it, breads came out fine. I didn't bake really at all this summer but will be buying it again as soon as the weather cools off again and I start baking a lot more.
You might want to read the ingredients list. I haven't looked in a couple of years, but Sam's bakers flour used to be bromated. That kept me from buying it.
It works fine for baking, I buy bread, all purpose and high gluten flour at Sam's Club and divide them into plastic gallon jars I bought at Wal-Mart. I've been doing that for about 2 years with no difficulty. The bulk content of my bread is usually the high gluten flour, with whatever flavor the bread is (rye, wheat) being contained in the preferment to flavor it.
I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Italian Bread raises beautiful, but when I pull the greased plastic wrap off, it falls. If I just put a towel on it, it falls. I've tried raising it only 3/4 the time, the recipe calls for, & it still falls. Doesn't happen with my other breads. Thought I was over raising it, but even if it's not raised all the way, I have trouble with it on the last raising. other than that though, I've used Sam's flour with no problems. It seams to be just fine.
Consider thinking of the final proof more in terms of feel and gluten development and less about time. You're looking for little to no push-back when LIGHTLY indented with the pad of your finger (not a poke). If you wait for a large indentation to have zero resistance, it is likely over-proofed.
I have used the bread flour from Sam’s Club. I keep a bin of the flour out for making bread and store the remaining amount in the 25 lb. bag and put it in the freezer during the summer. The only problem I have found is that when I take the flour out of the freezer and let it warm to room temperature I get a lot of small balls of flour. It seems that the flour prills or forms these small balls in the freezer. These prills can be broken very easily by straining the flour through a fine mesh screen.
I don't know about Sam's Club, but I bought a 25 lb bag of bread flour from Costco. No problems so far; the breads still turn out well. I bought a 5 gallon paint bucket with a lid (hardware stores everywhere sell them) to store it in (25 lbs fit in there perfectly) and it keeps the beasties and most of the humidity out. Of course, I can't fit that bucket in my freezer/fridge, so I keep it in the living room where I normally run the A/C (I live in HI and it really gets hot here).
I buy flour in bulk, and the bins sold at pet stores for storing pet food are food grade and work great.
Susanfnp
http://www.wildyeastblog.com
Consider thinking of the final proof more in terms of feel and gluten development and less about time. You're looking for little to no push-back when LIGHTLY indented with the pad of your finger (not a poke). If you wait for a large indentation to have zero resistance, it is likely over-proofed.
SD Baker
I would also say it is over proofed.....
Bread is it's own boss, and is ready when it is ready, not by time.
qahtan
I have used the bread flour from Sam’s Club. I keep a bin of the flour out for making bread and store the remaining amount in the 25 lb. bag and put it in the freezer during the summer. The only problem I have found is that when I take the flour out of the freezer and let it warm to room temperature I get a lot of small balls of flour. It seems that the flour prills or forms these small balls in the freezer. These prills can be broken very easily by straining the flour through a fine mesh screen.