Stoatesflour Reviews 758

I just love baking sourdough with locally grown, locally milled flour and the results are delicious.

I’ve been introduced by a friend with this range of organic stone ground flour! And now I’m number one fan!! I live so far too but the service and quick delivery was amazing!!! And from now on I’ll always buy my flour from this place as I bake my own sourdough I could not find any better tasting flour in uk!!!

So refreshing that this Company provides a telephone number and answers queries immediately - such a rarity these days.
Thoroughly recommend Stoates Flour for their excellent flours and customer service.
10 stars !

I found this flour to be very poor for normal and sourdough bread making. The fermented dough does not have elasticity and tears. I cannot recommend for bread making.

All as expected-excellent service with fresh & delicious flour

Flour without the fuss. I needed plain white flour with no additives and this fits the bill.
The goods were well packed and arrived quickly.

It’s been so lovely to have pure flour for bread making and the taste is wonderful. Great value for money and really easy ordering and quick delivery. I am sold and will definitely be ordering again!

Stoates Organic Strong White Stoneground Flour:
I purchased this flour with the expectation that it would perform like a typical strong white bread flour, particularly for sourdough baking. Unfortunately, my experience has been disappointing, and I feel the product description is somewhat misleading.
Although marketed as “strong white,” this flour behaves very differently from standard roller-milled strong white bread flour. Despite having a reasonable protein content, the stoneground milling process leaves behind fine bran and germ particles. These significantly interfere with gluten development. In practice, this results in dough that lacks elasticity, tears easily rather than stretching, and struggles to build sufficient structure.
When used for sourdough, the issues become even more pronounced. The dough requires noticeably higher hydration but still fails to achieve the extensibility needed for proper fermentation and oven spring. During bulk fermentation and proofing, the dough tends to crack rather than expand smoothly, indicating a weak gluten network. Even with careful technique — including extended autolyse, gentle handling, and stretch-and-fold methods — the results remain consistently poor.
In my view, this flour is not suitable for making traditional free-standing sourdough loaves. While it may be perfectly adequate for flatbreads, or other applications where strong gluten development is less critical, it does not perform as expected for artisan sourdough baking.
The main issue is the labelling. Describing this product as “strong white” suggests it will behave like conventional bread flour, which is not the case. A more accurate description would clarify that it is a stoneground, high-extraction flour with different handling characteristics and reduced gluten performance.
In addition to the product issues, my order experience was poor. The flour arrived late, and the box was damaged with all seals broken, which is concerning for a food product. When I contacted the seller, the only solution offered was to arrange a return. This was not particularly helpful, as I needed the flour at the time and had specifically purchased it expecting good quality.
Overall, while the flour may be of good quality in terms of sourcing and flavour, it is poorly suited to the purpose for which it is marketed, and the delivery experience only added to the disappointment. Bakers specifically looking to produce sourdough bread with good structure and oven spring are likely to be frustrated by its performance.

Absolutely beautiful bread from a beautiful mill.

excellent flour and good delivery service

My experience with Stoates has been very good, the flours are exceptional and I use them for all my bread and pastry baking. Delivery is prompt and has been trouble free. I have not been harassed with promotional emails and 'offers' either which puts them in a league of their own. I recommend them unreservedly.

Excellent flour with all the goodness still in it!

We have been using stoates wholemeal flour for some years now, making delicious and healthy bread.

Got this flour for bokashi composting. The delivery was swift and smooth. The flour very fine and smell very nice. Very happy with this purchase. Want to try other types of flour for baking in the future.

Great products and easy to contact, very quick to respond and resolve any issues.

Great flour, great price, locally sourced. Great for homemade bread. Would recommend

Fabulous flour, easy to order and collect, very happy customer