Cairnspring Mills flours are truly fresh, and thus have a shorter shelf life than commercial flour because the way we mill keeps the natural oils, fats, and vitamins in the flour when it’s processed. It has a twelve-month shelf-life when it is bagged at the mill, as long as it is kept in a cool, dry place. The best storage solution is your refrigerator or freezer. But we recommend you treat it like any other fresh product and use it up, then come back for more.

Our flours may absorb liquids differently when compared to other flours. Our medium and higher protein flours—such as the Trailblazer and Edison — have more bran than most off-the-shelf flours, so they may need more liquid. (For example, many modern recipes for bread recommend hydration in the 60- 70% range; our bread flours can handle hydration rates up to the mid-80s.)

We do not add any vital wheat gluten or dough stabilizers to our products like many of the industrial white flours that are found in the grocery store. However, our high protein flours are also higher in protein than many of the industrial flours. Because of that, the time required for the flour to develop strength may be less, and mixing times can be shorter. If you are used to mixing your yeast doughs in an electric stand mixer, consider mixing for no more than 8-10 minutes for our bread flours, and no more than 3-5 minutes for our medium-strength all-purpose flours. Check your dough as you go. Any longer and you run the risk of overmixing it.

We strongly recommend that you use a kitchen scale to measure the ingredients. Although our recipes provide volume measurements for your convenience, weight measurements are much more accurate because flour volume/weight ratios can vary. So if you want consistency, a scale is your friend. But just as a rule of thumb, figure that each cup of our flour weighs about 5 ounces (142g).