Baking Bread to save $$? - Page 2

[chinaKat]

Bread machine user here.

One thing I do is measure out the dry ingredients for a bunch of loaves at one time. I keep the premeasured ingredients in individual baggies in the fridge (b/c of the yeast). Then, when I want a loaf of bread, I just dump the wet ingredients (water, oil, honey) into the machine, toss in the dry ingredients, and turn it on. It takes less than five minutes of work to get a loaf of bread this way.

[notneb]

Originally Posted by Mom2Wilmo

noneb, how many loaves does your recipie make? How long does it typically need to rise? Do you punch your dough down or just knead it. Your recipie sounds doable to me and I'd like to try.

It makes 2 regular sized loaves. (Tangent - I have a mini loaf pan that makes 1/2 sized loaves, so it makes 4 of those. I've found that they're the perfect size for making sandwiches for the kids. DS gets one piece of bread topped with the sandwich filling and that fills him up, and DSS gets a regular sandwich with 2 pieces of bread. Sometimes DSS might want another sandwich, but we almost never waste any. With normal sized bread he sometimes only eats 1/2 of a sandwich.) I usually let the dough rise for 1 hour for the first rise and 30-45 min. for the second rise, but I live in FL and my kitchen is almost always warm and humid, so it may need to rise longer in a cooler kitchen. I do punch it down after the first rise, then knead it for a few minutes and shape it into loaves. The recipe works well in the bread machine too, if you have one.

Majikfaerie, would you share your rye sourdough with fresh thyme and black olives recipe?

[wwinorth]

chinakat that is a wonderful tip!!! thanks!!

I need a good ww sandwich bread macine recipe. I have a hard time with cutting my bread. I may get an electric knife.

nak!
Mel

[bwylde]

I never found it personally cheaper than going to the bread outlet store as when I make it, we eat two loaves that day whereas store bread will last a lot longer. Plus I gain less weight on store bread (I buy 100% whole grain prebiotic bread for 99 cents at the outlet store when they have it)

[***Heather***]

I found a wonderful bread machine at a garage sale for $10. Works perfectly. I love homemade bread, but I'm too lazy to make it all the time. I find the bread made with a bread machine isn't quite as wonderful as real homemade bread. But it may just be the recipe I have, I'm still tweaking it. I could never get real homemade bread as light and fluffy as bread machine bread so while there is a trade off, I'm much better off with the bread machine. Don't get me started on store bought bread. Even the cheap stuff is expensive at the factory outlet. :

[lmonter]

It's worth it if you'll actually eat the bread.
I haven't been able to perfect a sandwich bread, so I only occasionally make loaves of bread (that we pretty much eat while warm and fresh) and rolls. We just all prefer the texture of a certain sandwich bread.

I do think if you're a fan of whole wheat bread, at least look into a Bosch mixer - they seem more able to hand whole wheat loaves than a Kitchen Aid (I have a KA). I just inherited a baby Bosch and my mom's old-school wheat grinder (*much* better quality than the Nutrimill and such that folks are peddling nowadays), so I've gotten lucky that way.

Easiest way is if you have a tried and true recipe to try, and a mixer or something to help knead the dough (doing it by hand can get pretty tiring).

[dharmamama]

Originally Posted by wwinorth

I have a hard time with cutting my bread. I may get an electric knife.

I did too, and I was going to get a bread slicer, but then my friend gave me a Pampered Chef bread knife. Wow, it works.

dm

[artparent]

check freecycle and folks you know, lots of people get breadmakers with good intentions, and then realise they just don't use it. we are motivated to use ours because we can't eat wheat, and spelt, kamut, other grain breads are $$$. we buy bulk flours and try different recipes. i save money when i make it a habit. i love the tip, chinakat! i've been wondering how to speed things up, and my little child could easily start the bread herself with dry ingredients pre-measured.

does anyone want to share their pizza dough recipe?

we also make a simple tortilla recipe off of bob's red mill site

*

[Ammaarah]

Originally Posted by Tradd

Note: if you buy a NEW bread machine, you'll probably take a while to make up for the cost.

If you're in the market for a bread machine, I'd really suggest looking at getting a KitchenAid stand mixer instead, as you can use it for other things than just making bread. Also, there are refurbished ones available.

I second this. I have been making our bread for about two years and I always made it by hand. But I just got a KA mixer and it's a fantastic investment! It takes me just a few minutes to whip up very nicely kneaded dough and it saves me the bother of kneading. Kneading is not painful either unless you have arthritis or a health condition, but I had a back injury over the summer and the posture I stand in while kneading aggravates it. It will definitely take a lot of loaves of bread for the KitchenAid to pay for itself but since I can make a lot of different things using it, it's worth the investment for me.

[Shantimama]

I usually knead my bread by hand but I have injured my wrist and I am so glad to have a KA as back up!

[veganmomma]

Yummy sounding recipes everyone

I definitely think it is worth making your own. Here I have a really difficult time finding any bread under $2/loaf...so when my family eats as much bread as they do I had to start making it myself!

I just made a sourdough starter a week or so ago and am making sourdough bread for us. But I wanna find a really good sandwich bread recipe cuz we seem to go through TONS of sandwich bread.

[DisplacedYooper]

Yes, it is worth it! DH and I decided to only bake our own bread (and brew our own beer, but that's another thread! ) about 6 months ago. Not only is it cheaper, but much tastier too. Only one thing to worry about: as you get used to better bread, you want better and better bread! We started out using a bread machine, which was OK and still better than expensive store bread, but then ended up using the machine to mix and rise the dough and then bake it in the regular oven (we were in search of a good crust...) Then, we quit using the machine and made the dough by hand. All these were good, direct-rising breads (meaning, you put the yeast in with all the ingredents and get bread from it in a few hours) But still in search of the perfect crust, we now use a recipe that uses as starter, since it makes much better bread than a direct-rise method. We may soon start to experiment with sourdough... <sigh>

BTW: when I say "we", I mean "DH". He is the bread baker in our family. I am only a lowly taste-taster.

[mysticpi]

Originally Posted by DisplacedYooper

Yes, it is worth it! DH and I decided to only bake our own bread (and brew our own beer, but that's another thread! ) about 6 months ago. Not only is it cheaper, but much tastier too. Only one thing to worry about: as you get used to better bread, you want better and better bread! We started out using a bread machine, which was OK and still better than expensive store bread, but then ended up using the machine to mix and rise the dough and then bake it in the regular oven (we were in search of a good crust...) Then, we quit using the machine and made the dough by hand. All these were good, direct-rising breads (meaning, you put the yeast in with all the ingredents and get bread from it in a few hours) But still in search of the perfect crust, we now use a recipe that uses as starter, since it makes much better bread than a direct-rise method. We may soon start to experiment with sourdough... <sigh>

BTW: when I say "we", I mean "DH". He is the bread baker in our family. I am only a lowly taste-taster.

Hey, have you heard of no-knead bread? I bet your husband would like to give it a try!!