apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

space is a huge commodity in my fridge, and I use a bag of flour about once every couple of months, so I keep it in an airtight jar from IKEA. more than worrying about it spoiling, I worry about it being infiltrated by little critters.

AP flour is stored in the pantry and I go through a bag every month or so (more so during the cooler months it seems). However, I keep my bread and whole wheat flour in the freezer outside as I cycle through those bags less often. My concern is more of the little critter variety versus them going rancid. However, what I AM curious about and I am hoping someone can answer is when I am baking bread, do I need to allow the flour to get up to room temperature before adding the yeast and then warm water? If I don't, do I just need to tack on additional hour of rise time or should it not matter?

I keep everything except AP flour in the refrigerator (used to be the freezer, but I don't have room).

I keep all my flours - AP, wheat, bread, et cetera - in the fantastic OXO POP containers. I use them way too often for them to go bad ... and they are totally airtight and make a happy little noise when you open and close them! Ah, the simple pleasures... :)

http://oxo.com/xxoxo_ibeCCtpOXOPrdDtl.jsp?section=10421&item=50709&minisite=10024&respid=53057

I used to keep my WW flour in the freezer, but I found I often forget about it with it hidden away. I know keep all my flour (AP, bread, and WW) in airtight canisters on my shelves. My current fave is the Snapware cereal canister with flip-top lid. I agree with birdie_dc on loving these little simple pleasures.

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&sku=113428

Rosebud, that's an interesting question. If we don't get an answer in this thread, I'll do some research (or better yet, experimenting!) and see if I can get a good answer for you.

For Rosebud, generally you add the yeast to the warm water and then add the flour to that, traditionally you would let that sit for like 10 minutes to proof which is basically unnecessary with modern yeast---with cold flour you are most likely going to need a longer rise time, I can't tell you how much longer but if you take the 5 min artisan bread you can either rise it I think 2-4 hours at room temp vs throwing it in the fridge overnight. And bread rise time depends on your room temp etc so its a little dicey. I say do whats easiest for you and if you like the bread you get then good, if not then modify from there.

I keep my flour in the freezer. When I used to live in Florida, we tended to get weevils appearing in our flour and spices. It definitely keeps the bugs at bay.

I do a lot of baking but don't go through specialty flours very quickly. I keep all-purpose flour in the pantry, whole wheat flour in the refrigerator, and everything else (whole wheat pastry flour, bread flour, oat flour, cake flour, rye flour, etc) in the freezer. About half of my freezer is taken up with flour and I'm trying to figure out how to change that. I think I am going to have to limit myself to two specialty flours that I use the most.

The top right corner of my fridge is reserved for mason jars full of specialty flours and grains that might go bad if not used in six months--quinoa, polenta, etc. I do this for several reasons, obviously to increase shelf life, but also to keep pantry moths from invading my house, and to fill up my fridge! There are only two of us here, we have a normal-sized (read: huge) fridge, and I would like it to run as efficiently as possible.

Another thing I do with any flour is to freeze it for 24 hours as soon as I bring it home, to kill any potential larva. I don't know how effective it is, but I'd rather not risk it.

I keep my flours en la cupboard. I've yet to have a sack of flour last more than about a month. I have to hold myself, back, in fact. So indeed, the fridge is for the occasional baker's flour.

Expired flour will NOT make you sick.

I keep it all in the pantry as none of it lasts very long (2-4 weeks).

I put flour, oatmeal, Cheerios and a few other items in the freezer at least overnight after purchase. Like sjbreeze says, this kills any larvae that are in there.

Mine lived in the fridge until we managed to get rid of our "friends", the pantry moth. Now that they're gone, I keep it in an airtight container just because keeping it in the bag would mean flour all over the place... I'm not good at not knocking things down.

Xieta - how did you manage to get rid of your pantry moths? I have been throwing out food and cleaning the cupboards regularly and the pesky moths keep coming. UGH

Here in Europe, they sell flour in tiny bags; so small that you go through one with every other piecrust.


I used to think this wasteful (all that packaging!), but reading this thread, it strikes me as perhaps more green afterall. Keeping freezers (or fridges) stocked with flour seems like a waste of energy to me, and so buying in smaller quantities and buying it more often seems like a better approach. Of course, when we moved, I brought along a little stash of White Lilly (almost gone now), which I kept in our nuclear bomb shelter -- it's in the basement, but dry and cool.

For stopping infestations, keeping pantry goods in their original packaging and placing inside plastic (or glass) containers helps --

http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?searchId=16464959&itemIndex=1&CATID=74063&PRODID=10022862

Kersten - you have to buy a special trap for pantry moths. Even if you throw food away, larvae remain and will breed and hatch. The trap is called "pantry pest" and it is available on line and in hardware stores. Essentially the only way to stop pantry moths is to interrupt their breeding patterns. These traps contain a glue that smells like the female moth when she is ready to mate. The male moths fly into the traps, get stuck and can't mate. The population slowly dies off, but the process takes several months because the remaining larvae have to hatch and develop.

I had a terrible infestation (from buying food in bulk at my food coop) and therefore, I ALWAYS keep my flour and grains in the fridge. It's the only way. Somehow they can penetrate even plastic or glass containers. By the way these moths live in dry pet food too.

I keep my all purpose in the pantry, specialty and whole wheat in the freezer and fridge and for pesky critters, I put two whole dried chili peppers in every container I can think of, flour, grains, pasta, etc...I've been doing this for a few years and have never come across any bugs.

mschatelaine -
if you already own a big fridge (which Americans, of course, do) it's actually MORE energy-efficient to fill it up with stuff. to make your fridge more efficient if it's empty, you should fill it up with bottles of water, which stay colder longer than air does. so putting stuff you only use very seldom in there is actually a good thing. of course, buying a giant fridge to fit all this stuff - not so good.

I have a problem with pantry moths, so I put my flour in the freezer for 4 days when I first buy it. graefix - overnight isn't long enough to kill the larvae. After that, I put AP in an airtight container on the counter. Bread and whole wheat and 00 stay in the freezer since I don't use them as often, and the bread and WW flours spoil faster than AP as well.

If I buy a bulk bag of rice I put it in ziplocks and put it in the freezer for a few days. If I have room I keep the extra ziplock or two in the freezer until I use up the first batch.

I've heard that bay leaves in the flour container keeps the critters away. I do this for flour that doesn't fit in the fridge. I am mega paranoid about weevils after the time I found them in my breadcrumbs AFTER I had cooked with them and eaten the lentil burgers!!!!!

I keep it in the freezer, which also prevents weevils.