Basic Ingredients

If you're an enthusiastic baker (bread, cakes or pastries) then you should try Basic Ingredients – PLEASE NOTE: I don't have italics, bold, underline features on this site, so I use capitalized words for headings and emphasis, not yelling. Please keep this in mind :-) WHAT IS BASIC INGREDIENTS? It's an online specialist shop that sells baking supplies from around the world that may be quite difficult to find elsewhere in Australia. So if… Read more

you bake bread, pastries, or cakes, you should have a look. I'm predominantly a bread baker, so I'm sorry if it seems that I'm a little biased toward that end in this review.

I've been a customer of Basic Ingredients since 2017, and I find that their products really help me to bake better bread.. and the occasional pastry/cake when my waistline allows it. :-)

WHY IS THIS INTERESTING?

It might shock a lot of new bakers, that something as basic as flour, can be very different from one region to the next. The species of wheat (or other grains) grown, the environment it grows in, and of course, the milling techniques used, can have a PROFOUND effect on breads, pastries, and even cakes.

Now I don't want you to think you can't bake great bread with flour made in Australia, because you absolutely can. However, with some recipes, you just CAN'T replicate the authentic flavour and look of a French/German/Italian bread unless you use ingredients sourced from that area. (Cue lack of shock here).

This is where Basic Ingredients come in, they provide a way to buy real French, German, and Italian flours of various types, without paying for the HUGE import costs, or having to buy it in commercial quantities. This is incredibly useful for hobbyist and home bakers who want to really delve into European styled breads, pastries, cakes (oh and did I forget, pizza and pasta? How'd that happen?)

Like some other "suppliers", Basic Ingredients can sell in huge 25Kg bags if you wish, but you would have to bake a LOT of bread very quickly to make the most of it that way. This is how I started when I first ordered from Basic Ingredients. However, UNLIKE other suppliers, Basic Ingredients have since started to sell flours in 1KG, vacuum sealed bags, perfect for longer term storage in the freezer.

Important note: By buying multiple 1Kg bags of the same type of flour, you can get some of the bulk discounts that buying the 25Kg bags would provide you, without the hassle of cumbersome loads and larger storage requirements.

WHY WOULD YOU WANT IMPORTED FLOURS?

Now while I bake with Aussie flours as well, I mainly buy imported flours from Basic Ingredients, because they're the most cost-effective way to do so, and by mixing up the flours, I can make a lean (or enriched), true French/German/Italian styled loaves and pizzas/pastas without that pesky inconvenience of having to travel half a world away. It also works very well if you mix Aussie and imported flours together to add flavour while stretching the imported stuff out.

Interestingly, I find that if you mix a dough gently, with authentic (and fresh) French flours, you can get a yellowish or golden hue to the crumb (see image of just sliced, UNBUTTERED bread attached below). As a baker, I feel it's important that I try to extract the most flavour and natural goodness as possible from my ingredients. Since wheat grains are a golden colour, the reason flour is so often white, is because of oxidation "bleaches it" after the grain (or wheat berry if you prefer) is crushed. White breads (while they can be amazing if done well) are so commonplace, that I was surprised when yellow hues started coming up in my bread. The taste of golden bread just had "a little something" in it.. and it was very pleasant.

UNDERSTANDING IMPORTED FLOURS:

Each country regulates (and classifies) their flours a little differently. France and Germany have the "T" systems. French T45 is often used in pastries and cakes where you'd often add oils, fats (butter) and sugar to the mix, T55 and 65 are often used in white rolls/breads, T150 is for a more wholegrain/brown bread.. T130 might seem like a "midway between white and brown" but it is an additive rye-like flour, and in my experience should never exceed 10-20% of the overall flour content. Otherwise, if your experience is anything like mine, your dough just WILL NOT RISE MUCH AT ALL. It does however, work well with a predominantly T55/65 mix.

Germany also has a "T" system, but the numbers are completely different. The T650 is not some über brown wholegrain flour, but closer to the French T65 (as far as I can figure). Unfortunately, that is all that I have tried in the German range. However, T650 makes a fantastic rustic Vienna styled loaf.

Italy is dominated by the Caputo brand, milled in Naples, Italy. It's easy to be confused here, because there are two different flours rated 00 (which means 12.5% protein), but then they come in colour-coded packets. Note that the following descriptions are guidelines, and you can mix them, or switch them to your personal preferences:

Blue Caputo 00 flour has a protein/gluten content of 12.5%, and it contains a blend of wheat that is best suited to creating pizza dough. Baked in a proper charcoal or wood fired barbecue or pizza oven, with your favourite toppings, it will blow the socks off even pretentious pizzas, and leave takeaway pizza for dead.

Red Caputo 00 flour, also known as Rinforzato, has the same protein/gluten content of 12.5%, however, its wheat blends are a little heartier, making it better suited to creating breads and pastas.

There's also Caputo an orange/brown packet for Semolina (a.k.a: "Semola") flours (for those with gluten tolerance issues), it'll add a grainier, chewier texture and a more rustic/wholegrainy flavour but works very well in some breads

IS IT ALL ABOUT FLOUR?

Of course not, Basic Ingredients sell seeds, pre-made bread and cake mixes, sourdough starters, diastatic malt, dried and glacé fruit, yeast, salt, and many other things bakers add to their doughs, cakes, and pastries. Some I've used, and some remain unusued (1Kg of vacuum sealed glacé cherries.... because that's just way too much sugar for me).

They also sell quite a range of baking tools and accessories such as:

Bannetons, bread knives, loaf pans (some unusual), scrapers, lames, etc. Which are all useful if you're into bread making.. and all the usual (and some unusual) cake and pastry baking implements too! I've included a photo of some of the gear I've bought.

DELIVERY AND SERVICE:

Frankly, every time I've ordered, the orders have come quickly, and I've never had a delivery issue whatsoever. Items are well described, so you know what you're getting. If I had a question, the team has answered promptly, (often within a couple of hours).

I ordered my most recent order 20+ Kg of flour order on Wednesday, (two days before Good Friday), and Aramex has just informed me that it's on board for delivery today. That's not bad for a Queensland company when I live in Canberra.

IN CONCLUSION:

Being in Australia is great for a variety of reasons, but the distances between us and the rest of the world means that our food is often less "multicultural" and "diverse" than we'd think. (A lesson also replicated in the cheese making scene).

I really like Basic Ingredients for making authentic ingredients available to Aussie baking "battlers" in such an reliable and cost effective way. While it's aimed at serious hobbyists and perhaps semi-to-small-scale professional bakers, there's stuff here that can help beginners, tinkerers, and dabblers too. I really like the LACK of pretension that Basic Ingredients has, as opposed to some "French specialty shops" and just does what it aims to do, and does it well.

As mentioned above, I've included a picture of some of the items I've bought from Basic Ingredients, as well as picture of loaf, and yellow/golden sliced bread that I've made using their ingredients to illustrate my points.

I hope this helps! Happy baking.