King Arthur Flour in Calgary?

[johnjohnson78]

Does anyone have any idea who might carry King Arthur AP flour or at least something of similar quality in Calgary? Searching their dealer locator on the website yields no results. Google didn't get me very far either....

I made a few pizza pies when I was in Seattle earlier this year and the crust was noticeably better than any I've made here. Yes, I'm aware of the humidity difference and have taken that into account when making the dough. Also, I am aware of the Italian 00 flours available but I find they are very expensive and don't make enough of a difference to justify the cost in a pie cooked at less than 600 degs.

Any suggestions appreciated!

[ybnormal]

You could pool together with a few other friends and get a bulk order of King Arthur flour shipped to Canada: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/custom...

I know your pain. I was just in the US for the past month and picked up a bunch of flour there. When I was talking to some of the vendors in Portland/San Francisco who want to sell stuff in Canada, tariffs were one thing, but they also cited that the incremental cost of adding French to the labels as another (plus the hassle). There are apparently huge penalties for not putting the French labelling on products to sell in Canada. I'm not in the purchasing field, so I never thought about this before.

I wish we had a Trader Joes here though!

[Scary Bill]

Scarpones has 00 from Italy at reasonable prices, the same brand used by some local pizzerias. Why not pay a bit more to get better results. It is still a minor cost component of a pizza.

Also, fyi some Itailian pasta makers ie Martelli use Canadian wheat.

[johnjohnson78]

Thanks for the suggestion Bill. It's been too long since I've been up to Scarpones to stock up. I have no problem paying more for higher quality ingredients but through my research I've learned (and this is just an opinion that I tend to agree with) that using 00 flour doesn't really get you a better end product unless you're cooking at over 800 degrees. Unfortunately I don't have an awesome forno oven (yet!)

I got this theory from....I believe the guys name is Jeff Varasano and he's one of the most insane pizza fanatics in existence.
For an NYC style crust, I simply prefer King Arthur to 00.....as do many of the pizza nuts on the pizzamaking.com forums. Apologies for not specifying that I was making NYC style pies in the original post. The flavour and texture of the KA crust is just a step above the Canadian flours I've tried IMHO.

That said, I'd be happy to load up on 00 if I can get it for a reasonable price. Perhaps make some fresh pasta and a Napoletana pie or two

[johnjohnson78]

Thanks for the replies everybody. That would explain why it's so hard to find anything other than Robin Hood and Rogers around here.

For my pizza dough I've actually had good results with AP flour as well as bread flour, or a combination of the 2. Not very scientific but I've gotten used to working with various doughs due to trial and error pie making over the past year or so.

No disrespect to the farmers but I really wish there was a black market supplier of some King Arthur up here...

Another question...

What brand of flour do the french and/or Italian bakeries likely use around these parts?

[sharonanne]

For what it's worth, I've heard Italian cooks in the US import Canadian flour.

[nonlinear]

I don't think you can get king arthur here in calgary.

Also, when you make your doughs are you using bread flour, or all-purpose flour. I assume you're using bread flour but thought i'd ask just in case. :)

[Bryn]

You won't find many imported flours in Canada as the import tariffs on wheat/flour are prohibitive. It is a protectionist tariff backed by the Canadian Wheat board. Milk/ dairy products have a similar tariff.

[sharonanne]

I don't know of any place to buy King Arthur flour but humidity isn't the only issue. Look up the protein content and try to match that. Cake flours are lower in protein but brands vary so some calculation will be needed.