The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Do you have any experience with Walmart's Great Value Bread Flour?

TurboLover's picture
TurboLover

Do you have any experience with Walmart's Great Value Bread Flour?

Guys, question for any of you who tired baking bread with Walmart's Great Value Bread Flour..... what are your findings and how does it compare to well known brands like Robin Hood bread Flour? Should I stick to All Purpose Flour from well known brand or go with cheaper name BREAD flour when baking bread. What is your suggestion if I want to save couple of bucks on flour. Is Great Value bread flour really great value? :)

Sabina's picture
Sabina

I use Great Value and other store brands of all-purpose flour all the time, and they work fine. I never spend the extra dollars for fancier flours, though, so I really have nothing to compare them to. I do find I often need to use slightly less water in my dough than recipes call for, but that could be my flour or it could be my bread-making inexperience. Note that I'm in Canada, and I've heard that our all-purpose flours are closer to other countries' bread flours. Even looking at Canada's Walmart's website, I notice that all four of their Great Value flours (all-purpose, unbleached, whole wheat all-purpose, and best for bread) have the same 4g of protein per 30g of flour.

troglodyte's picture
troglodyte

We use Walmart's Great Value all purpose flour in the 10 pound bags. That is because we do not use that much all purpose flour. We buy it as needed with the regular grocery purchases. Great Value bread flour is new to us. We searched for "bread flour" from Walmart for the last two years and never saw it, until today. According to the Walmart website, it is on the shelf at our local Walmart.

(7 August 2022):
A 5 pound bag of Great Value bread flour is $3.86 at our local Walmart. A 5 pound bag of Great Value all purpose flour is $2.12, the same price for bleached or unbleached. The bread flour is not available in a 10 pound bag, but the 10 pound bag of the bleached all purpose flour is $3.64 and a 25 pound bag is $8.32. These are all available on the shelf locally.

We buy First Street bread flour or high gluten flour in 25 pound bags. I have not decided whether the bread flour or high gluten flour is a better fit for our baking, but I think it is the bread flour. First Street is the "house brand" for Smart and Final stores, which are widespread in California. They cater to businesses that buy in larger quantities - mom and pop liquor stores, restaurants, etc. See this thread:

https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/70773/first-street-flours-smart-and-final-protein-gluten-levels

We have also used Gold Medal bread flour and various white flours from King Arthur. We have never tried Robin Hood flour. 

I have been baking my own bread for many decades. I have lots of experience with family recipes and playing "mad scientist in the lab", but do not have deep knowledge. 

I do not know how to compare the various flours that we use. King Arthur flours clearly have higher protein (gluten) than their generic equivalents and I adjust accordingly. Gold Medal bread flour seems like it has slightly higher protein than the generic bread flour, but they are similar to each other. The King Arthur is noticeably different, and better in my opinion.

For decades, I got along just fine with the lower cost generic flours. Without a doubt, the expensive King Arthur flours yielded better breads than their generic equivalents. The difference is not enough that it is worth the considerably higher cost. As a learner, I am still trying to master the basics. I am convinced that I have more to learn before I know enough that it matters enough to be worth the extra cost of deluxe, expensive flours. Heck, some people here are so skilled and knowledgeable that they grind their own flour from wheat kernels. Not me. 

Sorry to ramble so much, but I hope this helps.

 

TurboLover's picture
TurboLover

Good post, thanks for the info.