Oct 25 2016

Tuesday’s Tip with The Kitchen Whisperer – how to store flour

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On this week’s Tuesday’s Tip with The Kitchen Whisperer I’m sharing with you how to store flour to keep it fresh and safe from creepy critters. Learn the best way to store your flour not only for the holiday season but all year long.

With the holiday season just starting to kick off in most of your homes it’ll be full blown baking season. Kitchens will be full of sprinkles, sugars, chocolate chips and bags upon bags of flour. Cookie dough will be everywhere, recipes will be re-printed if you lost the ones you used last year, cookie-swaps will be scheduled and you’ll start wondering what you’re going to make. Regardless if you’re a serious baker and buy a few 50lb bags of flour this season or you buy a 5lb bag once a year, you need to know the best way to store this stuff to keep it fresh and prevent it from turning rancid. Plus, now sure how to bring this out without being gross but… keep it from getting bugs. You know those little weevils things that somehow “appear” in your bag of flour you have in your cupboard. *shudder*

No matter how much of a neat freak you are, weevils can happen if you don’t store your flour properly. And yes I know you’re wondering, flour can turn rancid. So before we go into how to store it, the biggest piece of advice I can give you not just on flour but on any product in general. Buy what you need. If you’re not a heavy baker, don’t buy the 50lb bag if you’re not going to use it within a month. There’s no need to have 475 bags of chocolate chips if you’re not a commercial baker or baking for a ginormous bake sale just because they were on sale.

Okay so got it? No hoarding, k?

Now regardless of the type of flour you buy you need to be cognizant of how to store it. It’s only pretty simple – air tight and cool/cold. So what’s that mean? You know how your flour comes in that paper container? Pitch it. Period. It’s not air tight and it’s prone to attract bugs because it’s not air tight.

Transfer the flour to an air tight container. Now for me, since I do use in bulk I have food-grade 25 gallon buckets with an air tight seal. For you guys, go with these ones (any size).

Next, store it in a cool, dry place. You want to keep it out of sunlight from UV rays. I keep mine in my storage room downstairs that is cool and dark. Or if you have room in your freezer, place the flour in a freezer safe container and freeze it. This will help preserve the flour longer.