Yeast, Bread Flour

[czhteck]

Does any one know where you can buy a range of bread flour.

Also Bead Instant Yeast

Thanking You all

[TommyTucker]

It might help if you mention where in Thailand you live!

[jaiyenyen]

I have no problem buying bread flour and instant yeast in Lotus, BigC, Tops, or any of the other supermarkets..................But then, I do live in Bangkok.

[billd766]

Makro does a fair range too.

[nidieunimaitre]

Tops Chanthaburi even sells australian stone ground rye flour, and our makro has belgian yeast!

Surely, outside the Chanthaburi jungle, Tops and Makro will have these products too.

[NeverSure]

Having grown up on a wheat and cattle ranch...

Does anyone know where most wheat in LOS is sourced? Is it local?

Wheat can be roughly divided into two types, with many sub-types. There is "white" wheat and "red" wheat. In all the flour is white, but the outer husk is the color.

Red wheats, or "hard wheats" are cold winter hardy. They are planted in the Fall, winter over even under snow and ice, then quickly resume growing and are harvested in the late Spring. These wheats contain more protein and much more gluten (glue) and make good hard baked goods like French bread or regular hearty breads and hamburger and hot dog buns...

White wheats, or "Spring wheats" aren't winter hardy. They are planted in the Spring and harvested in the Fall. They have far less gluten and less protein and are used for soft baked goods. Often this flour is called pastry flour. It's ideal for biscuits, pastries, pie crusts, cookies, etc.

"All purpose flour" is a mixture of the two, and is ideal for ordinary bread loaves, mixing into cornbread and so on. But it is not best for the hardest or softest needs.

I can't imagine red wheat being grown in LOS. It truly prefers a cold dormant season.

So I would shop around and experiment until I got a flour I liked for my purpose. I wouldn't be afraid to mix them at some ratio either. Wheat flours vary greatly in what they are and how they affect the finished product. I can "almost" make a dough ball with flour and water and tell if it's hard or soft. I use warm water and wait ten or 15 minutes for the gluten to activate, and then see how tough and stringy it is as opposed to crumbling. Usually I can tell.

Edited February 17, 2013 by NeverSure

[kyb789]

Villa Market has most everything for Western tastes. However, I have bad luck finding yeast that is active and still alive. Every time I buy yeast it is dead or half dead. Good luck.

[NeverSure]

I often make my own yeast because I love to make sourdough recipes, especially pancake. (I don't let the starter set long enough to actually get sour as some do. If it gets sour, I dump it and start over with fresh flour and water and just enough of the old to inoculate it.)

I start with 1 cup of warm water and one cup of flour. To that I add my yeast for starter. When the yeast has fed on the flour and grown strong enough, the batch will be bubbling. Now that becomes part of my baked good, the first cup of water and flour, and is the yeast.

Now I start a fresh batch, simply wiping down the old container to get a little of the yeast to start the next batch.

If I absolutely didn't have any yeast, I'd find it in the wild. The white powdery, mildewy stuff on blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries and other slightly acidic but sweet fruits is yeast. The are many varieties so you don't know exactly what you're getting but it all works. Just a touch of that white stuff will inoculate the cups of water and flour.

For real sourdough baking, I go to ebay and spend about $US5 for some true San Francisco (49ers) starter. There is a wild berry bush that grows along the coast just W. of San Francisco that produces a unique and great sourdough yeast. If I'm not lazy, I can keep that yeast alive forever. I can even freeze it for up to 6 months after adding flour and making a lump. I can just keep refreshing it at room temperature. But I usually lose track somewhere and have to get more.

[phutoie2]

The art of bread making "kiss", keep it simple ----!. No problem getting bread making ingredients here, as stated in above posts most of the supermarkets have them, especially Makro. There are a few specialist bakers shops about, one I tend to use is in Phetchabun City.

For flour I use White Swan Bread flour (32 Baht/1 kg) and yeast SAF instant. Bake about 3 times a week for myself and a few regular ex -pat customers. Mainly batards/rolls and small tinned loaves, no complaints and everyone still breathing !.

On a recent UK trip I brought back some Allisons dried active yeast so going to try some traditional Brit recipes.

[CTO]

Makro has an ok range, wife buys 25kg bags of flour there each week

[laochef]

This supplier has everything you'll ever need, when it comes to baking... http://www.choco-schmidt.com/

Offices all over LOS...

[FarangTalk]

Villa Market has most everything for Western tastes. However, I have bad luck finding yeast that is active and still alive. Every time I buy yeast it is dead or half dead. Good luck.

Is this the reason my dough never rises properly?

Having trouble getting it up...

[billd766]

Villa Market has most everything for Western tastes. However, I have bad luck finding yeast that is active and still alive. Every time I buy yeast it is dead or half dead. Good luck.

Is this the reason my dough never rises properly?

Having trouble getting it up...

Try saf-instant yeast which I buy at Makro and is probably available at most superstores.

[kikoman]

I use White Swan Bread Flour in the "green" package, and SAF Instant yeast. Always get great bread all ingredient I purchase at Makro, they have quite a bit of baking goods.

Baking supplies should be available at all farang oriented stores.

Cheers:

[butterisbetter]

I use White Swan Bread Flour in the "green" package, and SAF Instant yeast. Always get great bread all ingredient I purchase at Makro, they have quite a bit of baking goods.

Baking supplies should be available at all farang oriented stores.

Cheers:

I'm not really fond of these thai flours. They're all bleached which means the flour has lost a lot of its flavor. But what I would call insipid is actually pleasing to most Thai and other Asian palates.

[billd766]

I use White Swan Bread Flour in the "green" package, and SAF Instant yeast. Always get great bread all ingredient I purchase at Makro, they have quite a bit of baking goods.

Baking supplies should be available at all farang oriented stores.

Cheers:

I'm not really fond of these thai flours. They're all bleached which means the flour has lost a lot of its flavor. But what I would call insipid is actually pleasing to most Thai and other Asian palates.

Where you are positioned in Chiang Mai you have a far better selection than either I or Kikoman do living in rural Thailand.

My nearest Makro is 65km away and to get to a real bakery shop I would either go to BKK or CM. Both are about 400 km from me and at least one overnight stay.

Unless I HAVE to go there the cost of travel and hotel blows any savings or better quaility farr out of sight.

Also at Butter is Better is your business I assume that you buy in bulk of 50 or 100kg of flour at a time.

I make the stuff I eat for me mostly.

[Ghengisthai]

Makro Has bread flour at about 35 baht a kg. Instant yeast 500 gram (bruggeman) powder 110 baht. Bread Makers for sale between 3000 and 6000 baht top floor cental department stall. I bought one on sale (princess) reduced from 6000 to 3000 baht.

[richsilver]

The only SAF yeast that my Makro (Pattaya) carries is SAF Gold which is for sweet breads according to their website:

"SAF-Instant® Yeast Gold Label is recommended for the following baked goods:
• Croissants
• Sweet Breads
• Danish
• Sweet Doughs
• Variety Breads
• Donuts
• Hearth Breads"

But they do carry the Fermipan Red which is what I use for bread baking.

Edited October 6, 2013 by richsilver