Do you bake bread?

[mamaofprincesses]

Do you bake bread for your "everyday" use? I bake, but homemade bread has always been a treat rather than used for toast and sandwiches. If you bake daily (or often enough to meet all your family's needs) I'd love to hear how you do it! What recipe do you use? How do you build it in to your daily routine? I think I could do it (despite my tendencies towards disorganization and laziness) and it would probably save us a lot of money. Right now I'm spending at least $2.35 on a decent-tasting loaf, but we can go through that in two days! Help!

[KnockedUpButtercup]

I have a white/wheat combo everyone will eat that I make in my bread machine (which I picked up at a thrift store for $10). It produces bread shaped like a derby hat, which I slice vertically and then sideways.

I make a 2 lb loaf in the machine every 2-3 days, for my family of four. It goes stale more quickly than store bread, so then it gets thrown in the freezer to be used as garlic bread or stuffing at a future date. Fortunately, we love stuffing. Oh, and since I make vegan bread, it can safely go in my compost heap as well.

And OF COURSE, no one wants a sandwich when I have fresh bread, and everyone simply MUST HAVE a sandwich when I'm out. But other than that, it's a good system!

[notwonamesalike]

We also bake bread in our bread maker - which we've been using for 7 years.

We're only a family of 2 + a baby - so we make one - two loafs a week. We have a rolled honey oat recipe we found off of allrecipes.


We store our loaf in the fridge - since there are no preservatives, it lasts longer that way.

[CandyApple]

I use the bread maker to make all the doughs for the breads we want during the week (and bake in my oven). Breadsticks, dinner rolls, cinnimon raisen bread or sweet rolls, honey oat bread for snacking or french toast. I've got a pretty good sandwich bread recipe, but even then I rarely make sandwich bread. Dh and the boys just don't like it as well. Its hard to slice as thin as they'd like without crumbling, or going stale before the loaf is finished. So, we still buy a loaf of sandwich bread once a week from our local bakery. Thankfully theirs is never more than $2.

As far as routine, I usually start a loaf around 4 to have it done at 6:30 ish. Or if its for breakfast I'll do the dough the night before when I'm cleaning up dinner dishes. Its like anything else, the more often you do it, the more natural and easier it gets.
Good luck!

[MyLittleWarrior]

I bake 4 loaves of sandwich bread at a time, and freeze three of them. That lasts us for sandwiches and toast for almost two weeks. I also bake a loaf of dinner bread (usualy wheat with oatmeal and other hearty goodies in it) and a batch of pitas, tortillas or english muffins for the week. That way I'm not baking every day, but I have home baked goodies all week long.

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

I have a big baking day once a week. I make 3 loaves of bread by hand and also cookies and muffins and other baked goods; pizza crust, tortias ect. as needed for a meal that week. I freeze some and leave some out fresh.

[flminivanmama]

I make 2 loaves once a week and toss one in the freezer to be pulled out as soon as the first one is gone.

[roomformore]

We make one or two loaves a week. The type varies according to our menu for the week. I usually start the bread in the morning b/c I tend to forget about it if I wait until afternoon. I'm not big on bread machine bread as I like a nice crust, but in the summer I'll use it to avoid heating the house.

I will also end up making pitas or biscuits and using those a few nights. Right now my boys are really into filling pitas with things, so we've been eating quite a few of those.

It costs more than $3 a loaf for decent bread here, and, really, it's not that great. Most of the tortillas I've found here have aluminum in them, so I won't buy those, and the pitas are full of junk. And, well, mine just tastes better.

[tempestjewel]

I bake, usually every other week, for all our bread needs. My oldest DD has been gluten free for a while so I make her bread, and I make sourdough or fermented bread by hand for my DH's lunches.

Mostly I make sourdough. I made my own starter culture and keep the bread simple- its just the culture, flour, water, and salt. Sometimes I use recycled grains in the bread (usually leftover brown rice pureed with water and then put in the sourdough sponge I create with my sourdough from the fridge before I shape into loaves). If I make a yeasted bread its usually the recipe from Feeding the Whole Family which uses recycled grains and ferments part of the flour.

Its been over a year since I've bought any sandwhich bread. I bought gluten-free bread when my DD was first gluten-free, but I find it much cheaper to make it at home.

[Blooming]

My DH bakes me a loaf of gluten free bread each week. Right now we're using a mix as we tried a few diffrent GF receipes and nothing has worked. Perhaps one day we will try again.

The rest of the family eats store bought.

[lmonter]

I wish I could find a recipe that mimicks most sandwich bread. We just don't eat homemade bread for 'regular' purposes like toast and sandwiches and such - more for treats or as rolls or something. So I'm still sorta on the lookout for the perfect recipe - after all I've even got my own wheat mill and wheat berries to use whenever I want.

[Carlyn]

I bake our bread, four loaves at a time, usually every five days or so.

My recipe:

Combine:
6 c. flour
3 T. yeast
1 1/2 t. salt
Heat to 120-130F:
4 T. molasses and/or honey
4 T. butter or oil
2 c. milk
2 1/2 c. water
Add:
about 6 c. flour (may be more or less)

Knead 10 minutes. Let rise in greased bowl until double (about 1 hour). Punch down, divide in half, and let rise in greased bread pans until double (about 1/2 an hour). Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes. Remove from pans to cool. Makes 4 loaves.

For the first batch of flour, I use 3 c. whole wheat, 1 c. white flour, and 2 c. of grainy stuff (for example, I might do: 1/2 c. oats, 1/2 rye flakes, 1/3 c. cracked wheat, 1/4 c. millet, a couple t or T each of: sesame seeds, flax seeds blended, poppy seeds, cornmeal). Varies each time!

For the second part of the flour, I use: 2 c. spelt flour, 1 c. barley flour, 1 c. rye, and the rest white flour.

I usually keep one loaf in the fridge, the others in the freezer. During the summer they don't last well at room temperature. In winter it works to be out for a couple days.

Bread measurements do not need to be precise. I love kneading dough!!

[llamalluv]

I don't bake bread every day, but I do make rolls and the occassional raisin nut bread. It just goes way too fast for it to save us any money!

I *DO* make all our pizza crust now. I was using a recipe that came with my mixer, but I find to be just as fast to mix up by hand. (I've got some dough rising right now, as a matter of fact!)

1 package yeast
1 cup warm water
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp olive oil
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 T cornmeal (optional)

Dissolve yeast in water. Add salt, olive oil, and mix well. Start adding in flour 1/2 to 1 cup at a time, mixing well.

When it starts getting too thick to stir (usually by the third cup), I dump it out onto the counter and start kneading by hand.

When it's no longer sticky, I coat a bowl with olive oil and put the lump in to rise (coating all sides with oil). It takes anywhere between 30 and 60 minutes for it to rise (double) depending on how warm or cold it is. Then I just punch it down and spread it out on my baking stone add my toppings and bake for 20 minutes at 450.

Sometimes I sub out the first cup of AP flour for whole wheat. I can pretend that I'm being healthy.

[bwylde]

It's cheaper for us to buy it for a couple of reasons. First is I can get the bread we like for $1.10 a loaf at the bread store on the reduced rack. We use about 2-3 loaves a week. If I make bread, we eat a loaf or two a day. We love good fresh bread and will eat it up (and I gained a ton of weight when I was making all of our bread ). Second is the cost of making just isn't cheaper anymore with the cost of ingredients now, especially when we are eating so much.

YMMV

[2 in August]

A couple years ago I did sourdough quite a bit, then I got pg and quit doing it. Just the past couple weeks I started making my own again. This time yeast breads. I did a whole wheat batch that made 3 loaves. Since I'm the only one who really likes the heartier, seedy, grainy bread, I gave one away and froze one. My dh only eats white bread so I just made my first batch of white bread. Dh liked it, but thought it tasted too healthy (I did put a little white whole wheat in it.) I've got to make more tonight or tomorrow because we are out. I really want to keep making our own.

[Bekka]

I bake for our family when my schedule permits--sometimes yes, sometimes no. I use white whole wheat, I grind it myself. My kids like my bread the best of all. Sometimes they get frustrated when it falls apart when it's hot, but it works OK when it is cooled.

I bake 4 loaves at a time with a fair bit of honey and olive oil. These things have helped the shelf life, I think. We can eat some 4 to 5 days later. I also make muffins, tortillas, pancakes to round out the bread needs of the family. And we often just buy what we want. For us it's cheaper to make it, but I don't know how much. Bread is almost $3 a loaf where I live.

[chirp]

i bake two loaves of bread weekly. usually on wednesday which is my market/clean the kitchen day.

i'm going to bed (we had company today and i'm beat!) but i'll post the recipe tomorrow. it's a 100% whole wheat loaf that slices wonderfully. even dh (who was 100% dedicated to store bought white bread before we met) is completely happy with this bread. it is hearty. but tasty. and it only took me about 3 times to get it down perfectly. the biggest thing was our purchase of a good sharp bread knife. i didn't realize how much that would help with slicing. hehehe. the recipe makes two loaves.

[lil_earthmomma]

I'll be back tommorow for that recipe Chirp!!! I can make great white bread, rolls, pizza dough, etc. but my whole wheat bread resembled a hockey puck

I actually don't like white bread, but really need to start making bread as we can't affort to keep paying for the expensive whole wheat stuff, and I'd rather make it myself.

[mum5]

Just subbing to get that recipe Chirp!!!

There is nothing better than fresh baked bread!!

If anyone has a great wholegrain recipe I would love that too.

[savithny]

We rarely buy bread for everyday use - we buy it for special occasions or specialty breads like baguettes.

We've used a bread machine for 14 years now. DH kind of took over the feeding of it. we have Beth Henspergers "Bread Lovers Bread Machine Cookbook" which is full of really great recipes for all sorts of breads, pizzas, flatbreads, sourdoughs. DH generally does a honey wheat or an oatmeal wheat.

He loads the bread machine after dinner and its done at bedtime. He wraps it in a teatowel and leaves it on the breadboard to cool. The routine is that if we're out of bread, while I'm loading the dishwasher, wiping down the table and sweeping, he's loading the bread machine. Loading it really only takes 5 minutes (tops) once you know what you're doing.

Making it aprt of our routine is just part of a larger routine that we built for after dinner while I was doing Flylady more seriously -- no one sits down after dinner until things are picked up - including the living room and kid stuff. We clear the table, clean the kitchen, pick up toys and stuff in the living room, put away books etc - as a family. So its one of the tasks that might need doing during that time of day.