Grocery delivered GF flour instead of regular

April 2, 2020 3:13 PM

I am unfortunately in possession of 5 lbs of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free AP flour, the result of having ordered regular AP flour from the grocery for delivery. Asking to return it would make me an asshole (right?) but it was super expensive and there’s an awful lot of it. So can you point me to the Smitten Kitchen of GF baking? I’m looking for the one most reliable source of GF recipes on the Internet. (Also, is this considered a good GF flour?)
posted by HotToddy to Food & Drink (18 answers total)

Is it worth reaching out in your immediate-area networks to see if anyone who *must* eat GF needs flour? I know that flour in general has been in short supply, and people who *need* GF can't substitute just anything. You might be able to do somebody a mitzvah...
posted by mccxxiii at 3:15 PM on April 2, 2020 [38 favorites]

I was going to say. Bob's Red Mill is a generally good brand. I would see if I couldn't trade for regular flour with someone who needs it.
posted by praemunire at 3:20 PM on April 2, 2020 [6 favorites]

If you decide to use it, BRM is a great brand, you can use it one-for-one in almost anything (as long as it's the kind that uses rice and corn etc, not the bean flour mix). In my recent experience, I rarely have to add xantham gum to much of anything for structural cohesion anymore, and we eat a lot of pancakes and waffles and such. It also does great in recipes like this (https://smittenkitchen.com/2007/05/always-the-corniest/) where you're mixing with the starches. If you have questions about specific recipes, feel free to memail.

You're unlikely to be able to trade it - I don't keep gluten flour around anymore - but you might well know someone who would be happy to buy it from you and do the Venmo/porch drop thing.
posted by joycehealy at 3:30 PM on April 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

If you can't trade, Elizabeth Barbone "wrote the book" on gluten free baking. Here's some of her tips in The Kitchn, and her website with recipes.

Alternatively, Bunners is a vegan gf bakery in Toronto that published a reliable cookbook, but they don't seem to have many recipes online (although you could try googling around - for example, I've made these blondies and they were A+).
posted by Paper rabies at 3:35 PM on April 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

My partner and I tried many GF products over my two decades of celiac disease, and Bob's Red Mill were the best almost uniformly.
posted by jamjam at 3:41 PM on April 2, 2020

Response by poster: It’s the bean kind. :(
posted by HotToddy at 3:41 PM on April 2, 2020

Call the grocery. Getting the wrong item is a perfectly reasonable... reason... to call. They will probably refund you and not make you bring it back. Then donate it to a food pantry.
posted by kindall at 4:15 PM on April 2, 2020 [15 favorites]

I don't think it's asshole-ish to call at all. Mistakes happen, it's ok to phone the grocery store and be polite about the fact that you didn't get what you ordered. My mother ordered groceries last week and the store forgot to put her bread and eggs in her delivery, it was a simple problem to rectify.
posted by VirginiaPlain at 7:04 PM on April 2, 2020

Somewhere there could be somebody who desperately needs GF flour wondering what to do with your bag of regular flour. Call the store and return it.
posted by some little punk in a rocket at 8:30 PM on April 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've heard good things about that flour.

If you ended up with the incorrect flour because you made a mistake when ordering, I think you should either use it yourself or reach out to your networks and see whether anyone GF needs some flour.

If you have ended up with the incorrect flour due to a mistake of the store, I don't think it would be an asshole move at all to contact them and try to exchange this for what you ordered. However I'm not sure whether the store would be able to sell the returned flour, or whether they would throw it away. If it's highly likely that it will be thrown away, I'd personally keep it.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 12:06 AM on April 3, 2020

As someone who is using delivery: you probably got it because they are entirely out of flour and thought you’d rather have something not great than nothing. I would personally not return it but see if anyone else wants it.
posted by corb at 7:01 AM on April 3, 2020 [4 favorites]

Another good source of recipes is: https://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/

If you're not already used to GF baked goods, I'd say your best bets are brownies, banana bread and muffins. Especially muffins that have a lot of some puree mixed into them like bananas, apple sauce or pumpkin.
posted by purple_bird at 10:10 AM on April 3, 2020

Just a heads up -- a lot of stores are not accepting returns right now, especially grocery stores.
posted by jabes at 11:32 AM on April 3, 2020

Return it if you can, it's absolutely in no way a dick move. Just not at all.
posted by ominous_paws at 11:36 AM on April 3, 2020

Where I live, there's a 100% ban on food item returns. They may give you store credit or not, depending on the system. Via Instacart, for example, if you select an item that is running low you'll be prompted to select a replacement in case the stock of your desired item is gone before collection. If you don't want a replacement, you have to specify that. In this situation, that would mean it's time for you to try some new recipes.

FWIW, the BRM website has loads of recipes using their products that are usually very good.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 11:43 AM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

If you do use it, be mindful of what kinds of things you use it in. I find that the Bob's GF All Purpose has a strong undertaste of chickpea (versus their 1:1 that is more neutral in tone) so sometimes that comes up in the finished product more than I really like. Try to use it in things that the flour itself isn't a main flavour feature where the chickpea flavour is covered up by some other things (like chocolate or banana or something on the more savoury side).
posted by urbanlenny at 1:11 PM on April 3, 2020

The King Arthur website is quite reliable. I would bet the Bob's site also has some good recipes specifically for this flour mix.

Most grocery stores are out of flour. People are baking a lot. We only found AP flour at a somewhat obscure small local grocery after noting it was cleaned out at three other nearby stores.
posted by latkes at 9:59 PM on April 3, 2020

Response by poster: Thanks all. I called the grocery and they were happy to take it back and said they'd have someone call on Monday, but then I found a friend who is GF and dropped it off on her doorstep. It's worth $22 (holy hell) to me to be able to do a little nice thing for someone else. Meanwhile another friend dropped off a bag of grapefruit for me, and another friend dropped off some elk backstrap. It all works out.
posted by HotToddy at 11:15 AM on April 5, 2020 [5 favorites]