Flour - where has all the flour gone?

[NemophilistRebel]

Are people hoarding it? It’s been 4 weeks since I’ve managed to get any

Ideally bread flour but I’d settle for plain

I tried doves farm direct but they say they’ve been so busy they have stopped selling to public too

There always seem to be a few eggs here in the supermarkets but not a scrap of flour or yeast. Luckily I had bought SR and bread flour just before all this kicked off but we finished our plain a couple of weeks ago and haven't been able to get any. We don't have any small shops locally to try.

Amazon - have ordered bread flour in past hour. 5kg bags.

Mathews did post on their page that they had trouble with their website this morning

Long time passing...

Yup. I normally make 1-2 loaves per week in our bread machine. Now it's 5-6!

Not to mention 2 cakes a week - which was previously about 1 a month!

This also explains the egg shortage

Yes we have a bread machine and only make bread at home and we can’t get any flour I’d love to do a bit of baking with the kids while they’re off to but no chance

I got bread flour no problem first thing in morning in Aldi incase that helps anybody. It is plain I cannot get a hold of.

I didn't buy as already had (I bake regularly so always have 2 bags spare in the cupboard) but there was flour at Lidl when I went earlier in the week

Ha! Got that song on the brain now . Not heard that for many a long year.

Ordered from Thomas Ridley thank you for the tip.

I can’t get any kind of flour anywhere :(

I have lots of yeast but no strong flour for my bread maker.

I have plain and self/raising flour, plus eggs, but no oven as it has broken and we were about to have it replaced, which has now had to be cancelled!

You can use plain flour for bread, and you can also get chapati flour fairly easily, which works like wholemeal flour (but a bit more crusty).

I cannot get bread flour anywhere at all where i am nor any type of flour tbf

I've got some from Thomas Ridley just now. Hope they have enough! Thanks for tip. Making bread takes a lot more flour than you'd think.

Try your corner shop. Mine stocks some lovely granary bread flour, luckily they get it direct from the (reasonably local)manufacturer and so far I have managed to get one each time I've needed one.

I got flour in ASDA but haven’t seen icing sugar anywhere for weeks

Have you got a grinder or food processor BestisWest? I have found that they grind up ordinary sugar into icing sugar quite easily. Not suggesting using it to ice a celebration cake etc but it is fine for something like butter icing or to sprinkle on a pudding/cake. I discovered this trick ages ago when I got sick of buying icing sugar in big packs when I only used it very occasionally.

Our local bakers is selling bread flour and when I asked today said they would sell me yeast too if I want it. Maybe ask if you have one nearby?

nettie this is what he did! It took ages (and was a bit gritty) but it was ok. Thank you 😊

Just got plain flour in my Tesco delivery. I nearly passed out! Still no yeast though.

I did get flour and yeast before it all vanished but I am making SO much bread I'm not sure how long it will last. The flour wont end up in food waste, that's for sure!

Ocado seemed to have some flour and yeast sachets in stock when I edited my order yesterday but delivery slots are even rarer than flour in supermarkets now.

I hope it is a sign that more people are taking to baking.

We’ve made salt dough. It took 125g of flour. Hardly a frivolous waste. It also took 3 days for the activity to last from making, drying, painting then varnishing. I’d consider that a good use of 125g of flour. It also meant my DS could ‘bake’ whilst my DD made real bread.

FWIW we have not stockpiled but buy lots of flour. There are several farm shops near to me who sell various types of flour and we are still managing to purchase. Our local pub stopped serving food too and were more than happy to sell their remaining sacks of flour direct to the public.

I’m encourage to see so many people back in the kitchen experimenting. Perhaps when this is over we will see a greater choice of flours etc available and many more young children interested in cooking/baking. I’m trying to see an upside.

It is good to hear that more children and families are baking. I'm sure we can probably get some from a farm shop, but it's the only thing we are out of at the moment so I can't justify going out just for that, it will have to wait till we need fruit/veg/meat too.

It's taken 3 weeks for my sainsburys to have bread flour in stock when I have visited.

I’m thinking of rationing my yeast supply in case I can’t get yeast for weeks

Has anyone got a recipe or easy way for sourdough yeast starter?