Anybody ever try Mondako flour?

[JRPizza]

We finally ate our way through the 10 kilos of Caputo flour I got for my birthday last year, and looking to try some locally available flour alternatives. I have been using Grain Craft Morbread flour for my hearth bread with good success, but for pizza it makes a little heavier dough than we like.
The local Costco just started stocking Grain Craft's Mondako flour, which is supposedly more finely milled and considered one of their "pizza flours".

Here is what their web site claims - "Milled from a blend of Northern winter, and spring wheat Mondako's consistent mixing time, and water absorption is ensured by careful patent stream selection. Known as the foremost flour for pizza operations, this product is well suited for hand tossed, and medium crust pizza applications. Mondako is bleached and packed in 32, and 50/lb bags.

I did a web search and see that it is indeed used to make pizza, often blended with some other flour. I was wondering if any forum members ever tried it and could offer any opinions on it.

[jonv]

That was a surprise read for me - bleached flours have not been sold in the EU for some years; I wouldn't want to use one...

[JRPizza]

That is interesting - most of the flour sold in our supermarkets is bleached. I always prefer to use unbleached when I can, which is what the Morbread is. Not sure what the attraction is for bleached flour - whiter bread?

[jonv]

I wonder who first bleached flour - can't imagine what they were thinking! I prefer stoneground flours for my bread, and a 'white' flour is far from white. I have yet to explore many proper pizza flours - some experiments are in order when I get the oven done

[JRPizza]

Just a flour follow-up. We finally made to Big John's Pacific Food Importers and while there bought some Pivetti pizza flour to try. I still have most of the Caputo flour I got from our great FB sponsors, but wanted to try something different based on the descriptions posted on the flour bin. We were really pleased with how the crust came out and are going to try to alternate between Pivetti and Caputo for future pizzas. The link below talks a little more about comparing the two flours.

https://www.fornobravo.com/pizzaques...of-two-flours/

[deejayoh]

JR -
Funny - we did a test of all the flours they had at PFI. Couple Pivetti's, couple of Caputos. I think after all that we came out liking the Caputo 00 - but I should double check that with my better half. She does the dough

[JRPizza]

Double funny - my wife does not really like to "fight' her pizza, so Caputo's chewiness is not really a plus. Like the guy in the link said, the Pivetti seemed to be a little lighter, crispier and stiffer under the fillings. I'm not planning on abandoning Caputo, but it is nice to have options. I saw the local Cash & Carry had Pendelton Mills proprietary pizza mix for cheap (something like 13.50 for 42 lb) and the Mondako I mentioned in 50lb bags, but that's a little large for me to have sitting around.

[deejayoh]

I just checked - the one we liked best was the Caputo "pizzeria" - the blue bag, not the red one (00). LMK where you settle. We're close enough we could split a big bag. Can't use 55lbs, but maybe I could go through 25. Shelf life is supposed to be 6 months

[JRPizza]

Big John's had Caputo 00, Pivetti, and something called Pizza Nera in bulk. Bagged they have Pivetti, Nera, and what they were calling Caputo pizza flour according to the sales sheet. I had assumed the bulk and bagged were the same product but maybe their bagged is the blue bag?
I've got about 10lbs of pizza flour right now, but later in the spring I may want to take you up on the offer to split a bag.

[deejayoh]

Big John's had Caputo 00, Pivetti, and something called Pizza Nera in bulk. Bagged they have Pivetti, Nera, and what they were calling Caputo pizza flour according to the sales sheet. I had assumed the bulk and bagged were the same product but maybe their bagged is the blue bag?
I've got about 10lbs of pizza flour right now, but later in the spring I may want to take you up on the offer to split a bag.

We're using the Caputo Pizzeria - which they call Caputo Pizza. I think the bulk product is the same as the bagged product, but they may not immediately fill a bulk bin if they run out. I haven't personally been there in a while, but I know Becky found all of them in bulk when we were doing our testing. Sometimes they have 2 types in bulk, sometimes 5.

This one is the one we are using.