March 24, 2007 - 5:51am
Brotforms in Toronto?
Can anyone tell me if there are brotforms to be found in Toronto? I know there are a few Canadians here. It seems strange that I'd have to order them from the US. I will if I have to, but I'd like to find them locally, if possible.
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Here you go, all the info in one go. ;-))) qahtan Submitted by qahtan on March 22, 2006 - 4:15pm.
Hi, I did eventually find a place here in Canada, it was Harvest Corporation, Mississauga.
But I still ended up paying $35.64 total inc P/P.
But thems the breaks I guess. ;-))) qahtan
Oh cool. Thanks, qahtan! I just looked them up.
I was on the phone this morning with Nikolaou in Toronto and they can order them for me. The initial price they gave me was around $40 or so, but he found another manufacturer and the prices are cheaper. He's going to email me back with a quote.
It's good to know of another place too.
I get my bread flour from a bakery here in Toronto. A rep from Dover Flour sent me there. It costs $12 for a 20kg bag and it's around 13% gluten. It's the highest gluten flour I've been able to find and I love how it turns out compared to the other flours I've used.
Re: diastatic malt. I found some Malt Syrup at the HFS b/c I couldn't find diastatic malk. Will it work just as well? I haven't tried it yet.
I have picked up a bag/sack of flour from Dover mills, at Cambridge. I found was a bit dearer than Costco's Robin Hood.
it was Vienna flour , that's what they called bread flour, the problem was I had to keep it a few weeks as it was too fresh, after a while it was fine.
Strange that that needs to age a while yet whole wheat needs to be used asap
after milling. This I find best to mill as I want it. ;-))) qahtan
Yes, that's what it is. Vienna flour. I didn't have the problem of it being too fresh b/c it was sitting in the bakery's warehouse. What happens if the flour is too fresh?
I find the Vienna gives me nice big holes, but the other flours tend to not give me as much of a rise. I've tried RH, FR and Bob's Red Mill.
And the colour of the Vienna flour is beautiful.
Aging and BleachingAny flour develops better baking qualities if allowed to rest for several weeks after milling. Freshly milled flour produces sticky doughs and products with less volume than those made with aged flour.
While aging, flour turns white through a natural oxidation process referred to as bleaching. Natural aging and bleaching are somewhat unpredictable, time-consuming processes, however, so chemicals are now used to do both. Potassium bromate and chlorine dioxide gas rapidly age flour. Chlorine dioxide and other chemicals bleach flour by removing yellow pigments in order to obtain a uniform white color. Bleaching destroys small amounts of the flour's naturally occurring vitamin E, which is replaced in fortified or enriched products.
qahtan
Interesting info, qahtan. I never would have thought flour could be too fresh.
Well, since this thread has turned into a "what's available in Canada" thread, can any of you Canucks out there tell me if cinnamon chips are available in Canada? I'd love to make those cinnamon buns posted with the cinnamon chips, but so far, the only place I can find them is mail-order from the US.
I had given up hope finding San Marzano tomatoes and I found some on the weekend after a 2 year search. I'm hoping maybe I can get lucky with the cinnamon chips too.
Sounds like someting one would find with wedding cake supplies or candy. I forget what those specialty bakery shops are called in English. Mini Oven
check out the" San francisco baking institute". Address it to Richard/ proofing brotform baskets and more. About 17.00 American Funds. Sincere and honest to deal with.
Hi pelosofamily:
I'm looking for Brotforms in Toronto to avoid the pain of having to order them from the US. I still may do that and I have the SFBI and Breadtopia bookmarked. We'll see. I'm still waiting for a quote.
We live in Bc (vancouver island). So san francisco is actually closer for us than toronto but let me know how you make out. I bought two brotforms and a lame which I couldn't find anywhere.
OK, pelosofamily - I'm in Victoria, are you? I'm curious which flour you use for your bread - I've ordered in organic Anita's flour before, but haven't tried to find any other local alternative (besides what's available in the grocery store)...
Yay for Victoria. My folks live up in Port Townsend, WA, so they are just a short ferry trip away.
We took the kids up there last fall. Had a nice visit, though I was sad to see that the butterflies and monkeys at Crystal Garden were gone. Even the little petting zoo in Beacon Hill Park was closed for the season.
One neat thing that just came through as a result of that visit is that I'm now a dual citizen. I was born in Montreal to Americans living abroad, but I grew up in the States and never got around to filling out all the paperwork to claim my Canadian citizenship. I finally did so on that trip, and about 3 weeks ago I received my Canadian citizenship card. I'm not planning on doing anything with it right now, but it is nice to have the option of living or working anywhere in greater Cascadia (Eugene-Portland-Seattle-Vancouver). Tis a pain though that I need to get passports for even the 2 year old before we can visit there again.
Small world! Let me know if you come back, Floyd - I'd love to invite you over to dinner (and bread, of course).
Bobbi
I live in Qualicum Beach. I buy white bread flour "bakers Keynote" at Costco, We have a local Organic food store that carries bulk grains, so I just have them grind it for me. Where do you get Anita"s organic from?
I belong to a buy group, and order my flour from PSC Organics. The Anita's flour comes from Chillliwack. I never thought to go to an organic food store - I'll have to see who we have in town that would do it. I had thought about approaching a bakery and buying some flour from them, but haven't gotten around to doing it yet.
If you don't mind me asking, who did you order your bannetons from in San Fran? Did you have to pay much shipping/duty?
Love Qualicum Beach! My husband's family went to Eaglecrest Beach every summer when he was growing up - now we take our kids there and love it! I grew up in Courtenay, so I'm not too far from home. Nice to hear there's another Vancouver Islander out there.
Hi there! My baskets haven't arrived yet. There won't be any duty because of free trade with us(unless they check to see where the baskets are actually made) If you search the San Francisco Baking institute, you will find the products they sell as well as you can ask for the shipping costs for your order and they will phone you. I ordered the large oval coiled, the large oval coiled and a lame(which are impossible to find)And a kiaser roll stamp. The two pound round banneton will cost me about twenty dollars with exchange. I emailed my order and I was called back within the hour.
It is beautiful here but my wife and I are newly retired and empty nesters and are bored. So we have our house for sale and are moving to abbotsford, closer to our daughters and we love to travel.Sorry off the track!
Good day! Here, in Victoria, where does one find diastatic (active) malt ? I ,so far ,had been using two different kinds(powder and syrup from LifeStylemarket) for more than a year...And than I realized than none of those WERE DIASTATIC!!!OOPs...
Thank you for sharing, if you will.
As a professional chef I have resources that most home bakers/cooks don't. If you want my advice on hard to find products. Make a local chef your friend. Thay will be more than willing to order something for you and best of all at a wholesale price.
rcornwall
Squid and all,
Like you guys, I originally had one heck of a time locating good supply sources in Toronto or the GTA. Here's a few I use that you might want to check out:
Grain Process Enterprises, 115 Commander Blvd., Scarborough (McCowan & Commander), 416-291-3226. They're really a warehouse that serves the baking trade, but they do have a small retail space. Not open Saturdays, except in high summer. Great for all kinds of flours, seeds, spices, nuts, etc., etc. Good prices, generally speaking. Reliable and fresh (high turnover). Their hard, unbleached bread flour runs at 13%. The flours are available in 2.5 kg, 10 kg, 20 kg, organic and not. Golden Durham, too. Malt syrup, too (bagel bath).
Olympic in Whitby (a lot of flours from Saskatchewan, very good). Wholesale only. Large quantities (20 kg +) only.
I get malt powder from the local health food store. Called "Nutrimax," they get it from Lifemax Natural Foods, 1773 Bayly Street, Pickering Ontario. $7.50 for 500 grams. Good in pancakes, too.
Eccolo Food Service, 612 Magnetic Drive, #610, Toronto, 416-661-1994, is the Toronto supplier for Molino Caputo Tipo 00 Pizzeria Flour in the blue bag. The best, bar none. $44.00 for 25 kg. Contact me for a dough recipe: info@marygbread.com .
Originally, I ordered my banneton (24) from the SanFrancisco Baking Institute. Richard there is a good guy. They also have Esmach counter top spiral mixers. There's another source out that way for baskets and some very interesting other stuff for both bread and pizza: www.fgpizza.com . The site is run by Frankie Giovanni; very reliable good guy. The prices are good, and the shipping charges are very reasonable. He even sells a reasonably priced scale that can use baker's percentages. Very cool. I want one. Even with shipping and taxes, you'll still be far ahead from either source. Sure beats the pants off Williams Sonoma.
Hope that helps in what can be a very frustrating search. What we really need in TO is for some enterprising group to start a central source for all of this stuff.
Jim
I am from Toronto and have found bannetons for sale at IQ Living - 542 Danforth Ave. The prices are comparable to what you'd find online. There is also a Canadian online distributor that sells a big selection of them: citychef.ca and the prices seem pretty reasonable.