Thrifty baking

[loraxc]

I love to bake--like many of us, I suspect. However, I seem to find that a lot of recipes either require a lot of pricey ingredients (butter, nuts, chocolate, fruits...) or exotic items I never seem to have around (buttermilk, for instance). How 'bout a thread with thrifty baked goods recipes? Healthy is a bonus, but it doesn't HAVE to be (because what fun is that?)

I personally am in search of a good, basic, thrifty semi-healthy bread recipe. I also need ideas for good, thrifty muffins (so many have $$ additions).

Here are some from me to get us started:

Pretty Thrifty and Pretty Healthy and Good Whole Wheat Biscuits

1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 c. skim milk
1/3 c. oil

Mix dry ingredients thoroughly. Mix milk and oil. Make a depression in center of dry ingredients and pour in liquid mixture all at once. Stir with a fork until dough leaves the side of the bowl. Knead dough gently on a lightly floured surface 18 times.

Roll to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with 2 inch biscuit cutter. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 425 degrees until lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Makes 12 biscuits.

***********

"Cockeyed" Chocolate Cake--thrifty, easy, tasty, and vegan to boot!

Ingredients :
1 1/2 c. sifted flour
3 tbsp. cocoa
1 tsp. soda
1 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
5 tbsp. cooking oil
1 tbsp. vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. cold water

Preparation :
Put your sifted flour back into the sifter, add it to the cocoa,
soda, sugar and salt and sift this right into a greased square cake
pan about 9x9x2 inches. Now make three holes in the dry mixture.
Into one, pour the oil; into the next, the vinegar; into the next,
the vanilla. Now pour the cold water over it all. Beat it with a
spoon until it is nearly smooth and you can't see the flour. Bake
at 350 degrees for half an hour.

[rabbithorns]

For a $1 box of brownie mix on sale and 2 eggs and some oil, I make 5 dozen mini-muffins.

Also for a $1 box of german chocolate cake mix on sale plus 2 eggs and 1/3 c. oil, I make 5 dozen cookies.

It costs me a total of about $2.50 these make all the treats we need for a week.

[kate42]

Originally Posted by rabbithorns

For a $1 box of brownie mix on sale and 2 eggs and some oil, I make 5 dozen mini-muffins.

Also for a $1 box of german chocolate cake mix on sale plus 2 eggs and 1/3 c. oil, I make 5 dozen cookies.

It costs me a total of about $2.50 these make all the treats we need for a week.

Can you explain how to make cookies from a cake mix? I have a box of cake mix that's taking up space in my cupboard, and I really don't care for cake.

tia
kate

[flapjack]

Oatcakes: I just posted the recipe elsewhere, but
250g (I suspect that's 2 cups) oatmeal or rolled oats
1 tablespoon melted lard or butter
hot water to bind- anything from 6 tablespoons upwards.
pinch of salt

Mix together, roll out, cut out and bake for 10 minutes

Flapjack

2oz (half a stick) of butter
1 cup sugar
Lots of porridge (rolled) oats
Golden syrup
1 teaspoonful ground ginger

Melt, combine, pour.

Harvo.

3 cups milk
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar (use less, otherwise your teeth will fall out)
3 tablespoons golden syrup
Handful of raisins.

Mix, pour into a loaf tin, bake.

Those three are simple enough that you can hand them over to the kids.
We do a lot of pastry as well, scones, stuff like that.

Cheese scones
2oz butter
6oz flour
1 egg
milk to bind
Big handful grated cheese.

Rub the butter into the flour, stir everything else in, roll out, cut out, glaze with beaten egg and bake.
To do a sweet version, add a little sugar and some dried fruit if you have it.
We also do a lot of yeasted cakes: basic bread mix made with milk and the addition of extra sugar and an egg, topped with whatever fruit is in season.
I know it goes without saying, but suet puddings are fab too:
250g self-raising flour
50g suet
Hot water to bind.
Roll out, cover in jam, roll up, tie in a muslin or clean flat nappy, boil for a couple of hours.

[rabbithorns]

Easy Cake Mix Cookies:

1 box cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil

Mix ingredients together until smooth. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on lightly greased cookie sheet. Flatten cookies slightly. Bake at 375 degrees until tops crackle (about 8-10 minutes).

I bake at 350 as every oven I seem to have is 25 degrees too hot. Also 8 minutes is plenty for me. I notice dark pans cook a minute quicker than shiny pans.

[loraxc]

Is cake mix really that frugal, though? It seems like it's pretty much just flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cocoa, right? (Since you add the eggs and oil.) Wouldn't the amount of those ingredients needed to make a batch of cookies cost less than $1? (Not asking this combatively....just curious)

[CerridwenLorelei]

lorax

would 2% milk work in the biscuit recipe?

[ladywolf]

I make homemade cookies frugal by freezing the dough. Yes, I use butter but that is the most expensive item. I then freeze the dough, any dough, in rolls. When we are ready to have cookies, I slice a dozen or whatever amount I think we want and bake. The batch of cookies then can last a month or more, they are always fresh out of the oven, and there are very few leftovers for people just to grab and munch.

[EFmom]

I make these all the time

Oatmeal Muffins

1 cup milk
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I use melted coconut oil)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Combine milk and oats-- let soak for 15 minutes. Add the egg and oil. Whisk the rest of the dry ingredients together and then add to the wet ingredients. Put batter into prepared muffin cups until cups are 2/3 full. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes until slightly golden.

You can also add citrus zest or chopped candied ginger to vary the flavor. I also sometimes use ww flour.

[nwaddellr]

Just so you know, my grandmother pointed out to me one day I was complaining about the lack of buttermilk that you can buy it in powdered form that keeps forever in your fridge. Works great for baking!

[rebeccalizzie]

Just thought I'd do a quick "drive by" posting.

I get a lot of my cheap recipes from www.hillbillyhousewife.com

She has really good from scratch recipes, and most of them are fairly healthy as well. And cheap.

[ankh]

Love the hillbilly housewife site....If I could feed everyone for $45/week like she says I'd be happy. May try (with some ajustments) that one.

Great thread..Thanks.

[loraxc]

Cerridwen--absolutely you can make it with 2%. I've been making it with whole milk a lot of the time because that's what we tend to have on hand.

Ladywolf, what kind of cookies do you do that way? Recipe?

EFMom, that is exactly the kind of muffin recipe I'm looking for. Oatmeal is SO cheap, and I love its flavor.

nwaddellr, I didn't know that about buttermilk! Have you tried it?

rebeccalizzie, that Hillbilly Housewife site is SO awesome! It makes me feel smart to see how much of her food is the kind of thing we eat and live on already, but there is so much great stuff there!! (Albeit totally out of step with my political philosophy, but oh, well.)

[miss_sonja]

You can make a buttermilk substitute by adding a Tablespoon of vinegar to a cup of milk (skim, or whatever). Works great. Lemon juice works too. I always keep a quart of buttermilk around because we use it for pancakes and my fav banana bread recipe uses it. Keeps long after the expiration date...

[rabbithorns]

loraxc - I totally get you weren't being combative - just putting out the good point that it may actually be less expensive to use ingredients from scratch.

It may be for some people, but here's how it breaks down for me:

For me to make 3 dozen cookies comparable to the ones I make from cake mix, I would spend 75 cents on flour (3 1/3 c.), some negligible amounts on the baking powder and salt, 25 to 50 cents on margarine, 10 cents for an egg, 40 cents for one cup sugar, I have no idea how much more is cocoa and some vanilla extract.

So it would already cost me $1.50 for ingredients not including cocoa, and for 2 dozen FEWER cookies. While the cake mix recipe costs me $1.20 plus some oil for 5 dozen cookies.

Of course, I have already assumed these goods were on sale as even bulk on these items is never as good a price as on sale. And the nearest store that carries bulk goods is 15 miles away so add $2.25 in gas as opposed to 2 miles to Safeway, where I can buy Betty Crocker cake mix on sale for $1!

From scratch is my preferred method (having had a wonderful cookie-baking grandmother), but it's not cost effective for me and to be honest, I hate spending time in the kitchen. I'd rather be quilting or sewing dolls!

[sarasprings]

Originally Posted by loraxc

"Cockeyed" Chocolate Cake--thrifty, easy, tasty, and vegan to boot!

Ingredients :
1 1/2 c. sifted flour
3 tbsp. cocoa
1 tsp. soda
1 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
5 tbsp. cooking oil
1 tbsp. vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. cold water

Preparation :
Put your sifted flour back into the sifter, add it to the cocoa,
soda, sugar and salt and sift this right into a greased square cake
pan about 9x9x2 inches. Now make three holes in the dry mixture.
Into one, pour the oil; into the next, the vinegar; into the next,
the vanilla. Now pour the cold water over it all. Beat it with a
spoon until it is nearly smooth and you can't see the flour. Bake
at 350 degrees for half an hour.

We make a cake similar to this (from a Moosewood cookbook) and it is great. I especially like it because I can make it with my son and not worry about raw eggs.

[AngelBee]

: Great thread!

[srain]

Originally Posted by loraxc

Is cake mix really that frugal, though? It seems like it's pretty much just flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cocoa, right? (Since you add the eggs and oil.) Wouldn't the amount of those ingredients needed to make a batch of cookies cost less than $1? (Not asking this combatively....just curious)

Sadly, no, not around here. We make everything from scratch anyway because there are ingredients we'd like to avoid in the packaged mixes, but they are cheaper than using our own ingredients (bought in bulk at a co-op).

[loraxc]

Wow--that's interesting about the mix vs. scratch. I guess I just think of those ingredients, with the exception of cocoa (I don't use very much of this, so I have a canister that's about a million years old, which "feels" free to me at this point), as very cheap. But I haven't actually priced out flour and sugar per cup. I but bulk organic flour, which probably means I'm paying a fair bit. (I buy regular evil old sugar, though.) I looked at my grocery to see what their cheapest cake mix was tonight, though, and it was 1.99.

[rabbithorns]

Just checked out the Hillbilly Housewife site and I love it although I couldn't believe the prices she had up for the $45 and $70 budgets. There's nowhere in my town where I can get 100 count tea for $1, and nearly every other item was double (what she had listed) even on sale on the best day.

I guess it depends on where you live. But the recipes look great and I can't wait to try some - even though I hate to cook, I love to find winner recipes that make life a bit simpler.