One Popular Baking Staple You Should Only Be Buying At Costco

If you're baking regularly, you're going through a lot of flour, and keeping your pantry stocked up isn't cheap. That's especially true if you're getting the good stuff. Flour comes in many different varieties, but no matter what variety you're buying, you'll have your choice between a bleached or unbleached variety. While each can be used interchangeably, unbleached flour tends to be the preferred choice, especially for breads, given the elasticity that the natural process grants it. The catch is that those natural processes take time — and that, inherently, makes unbleached flour slightly more expensive than bleached flour. But, that's only if you don't have a Costco membership.

In a Reddit thread dedicated to Costco, shoppers cited their regret for not stocking up on flour at the wholesale club. One shopper found that, after purchasing a 5-pound bag of King Arthur Baking Company's Unbleached Bread Flour from their local grocery store for $7.50, they could've got twice as much for just 50 cents more at Costco.

At Costco, 10-pound bags of unbleached bread flour from King Arthur sell for as little as $7.99, depending on your location. Not even stores like Meijer or Walmart can beat that; there, 5-pound bags of the same brand and variety go for around $5 to $6. Being one of the preferred flour brands on the U.S. market, finding bags of King Arthur at that price is a real steal. So, if you come across them at your local warehouse, stock up.

Apart from making what our taste testers consider the absolute best boxed brownie mix, King Arthur Baking Company has built itself into a brand that customers trust. In the same Reddit thread about its unbleached bread flour, customers praised the company. "Great recipes and products, and [it] even [has] a free help line you can call if your recipes don't come out right. They'll help you figure out what went wrong," one person stated. Another added, "Not to mention [its] great set of instructional videos on how to make bread, pizza, cakes, rolls, etc." In fact, the entire King Arthur website is full of valuable information on everything pertaining to flour and baking. 

King Arthur has been milling flour in America since 1820, but they were milling and importing it from England long before that under the Henry Wood & Company name. In a lot of ways, the company's history follows that of America's, moving from England and the East Coast and further into the West as farmers began settling. In the years since, it has adopted its modern name, King Arthur Baking Company, and opened baking schools in Washington and Vermont. That's all on top of achieving a B Corp status and becoming an employee-owned company. But, when it comes to your bread, all you have to know is that all of its flours are reliable — and significantly more affordable if purchased in bulk from Costco.