Is homemade bread REALLY cheaper?

lynzpower

Ps the price of a white loaf ( although they wont be the same size) using white value flour, salt, oil, water yeast sugar is about 15-20p I think.

ceridwen

I've only ever very roughly guesstimated out - but I suspect my homemade bread may be cheaper than standard level shop-bought bread and I'd be willing to bet its not any dearer.

BUT - my homemade bread uses only the best ingredients:
- stoneground organic wholemeal flour
- extra virgin olive oil
- seasalt
- honey
and, of course, the yeast...

So I'm getting a really high-quality, healthy product instead of a load of supermarket-made chemicals/air/sugar/etc..

and it tastes WAY better...

******************************************

The thing is that - whatever "level" of bread one eats - then the home-made equivalent will cost a lot less than buying it will. If one eats cheapie sliced bread - then one makes home-made bread with cheapest white flour, table salt, yeast and it comes out cheaper.

If - like me - you buy artisan bread then making your own comes in cheaper at that level (I DONT want to have to spend the £3/£4 mark for a loaf of bread - hence making my own. I would estimate that my own comes to no more than £1 per loaf, if that...).

[Deleted User]

I have a brand new bread maker that sits on my top cupboard shelf and has never been used:o:o its been there for about three years at least .Why I bought it I'll never know it was in one of my 'I think I'll make my own bread moments' Now I don't think I could even manage to lift it down from there .I have a problem with one of my arms which doesn't work to full capacity so for me its easier to buy my favourite Warburtons multi seeded loaf and divide it up into portions of four slices and freeze them .I just get out what I need to use as I go alonng I guess I have about one loaf every 8-10 days as I don't eat a lot of bread ,only sometimes a bit of toast.I love wraps though which i buy 10 for a pound in sainsbobs when they are on the offer and they freeze beautifully I have one of those spread with mayo and filled with salad for lunch sometimes and they are very filling.I also like sesame seeded ryvitas so buying bread isn't a priority .i guess oif you have a family it would be cheaper depending on how much time you had .My DD has a family of 7 to feed and they go through about a loaf and a half a day but she works full time as does her OH so they haven't really got the time to make 12 loaves a week,although I'm sure they would be eaten.
I think it depends on time availabilty and inclination .

Penny-Pincher!!

We usually buy bread when reduced and freeze in surplus. I only eat Warburton WM bread and OH & DD like the 50/50 or anything really. I usually make 1 loaf up into sandwiches and freeze for DD's school lunch and get them out daily. When we are able to buy discounted, we usually pay 10-20p a loaf.

TBH, I don't like bread made in the BM.

PP
xx

adelight

It's definitely cheaper (and tastier) but i personally use it much faster big chunks dipped in soup and thick slices, I usually make portions of small crustry rolls to combat this but you could just bake it in a loaf tin and slice it thinly.
If you have a lidl near you, get a bag of their bread flour 1.5kg and a 2-pack of yeast sachets. That's enough ingredients for two large loaves for under 70p!

savingmoney2011

Can anyone help me with a good recipe?

We normally eat white bread and I know that isn't healthy but I have been trying brown bread too which is okay. I'm not too fond of having seeds and the sorts in the bread though as it makes it too chewy.

bees**knees

There are lots of recipes for basic wholemeal/brown bread.
If you find you dont like bread made with all wholemeal bread flour( if you are used to the texture of commercial bread it will seem denser and more chewy) then start with a mix of white bread flour and wholemeal for a lighter loaf. Then gradually increase the amount of wholemeal flour and reduce the white flour until you get used to it.
If you dont like the seeds etc then avoid buying flour or mixes that contain them.
An easy way to start would be a packet bread mix Buy a white mix and a wholemeal mix and use half and half.

Bella56

anhf wrote: »

Can anyone help me with a good recipe?

We normally eat white bread and I know that isn't healthy but I have been trying brown bread too which is okay. I'm not too fond of having seeds and the sorts in the bread though as it makes it too chewy.

Easy white bread - we make this with the children:

1kg strong white flour
30 ml sugar
20 ml sea salt
15 ml dried yeast
600 ml warm water, body temperature
30 ml vegetable oil

Dissolve yeast in water with sugar in large bowl; then let it rest somewhere warm for about 10 minutes until it is bubbly. Then, mix the salt in to the liquid, then add slowly to the flour until it makes a blob. Put some flour onto your worktop then knead the dough until elastic, about 10-15 minutes. Grease large bowl with the vegetable oil and put dough in this; cover with a damp tea towel, and put the bowl somewhere warm for around 1.5 hours, until it has doubled in size.
Punch dough down, divide in half, put each into greased baking tin and stretch into loaf shape. Let rise again for 30 minutes. Bake at 200C for about 30 minutes. Then let it cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing - not that we ever do as we're too busy buttering and eating it at this point.

cheeswright

I save a lot of money on home cooking - but you need to be careful of cheffy recipies that throw in expensive twists
I teach a course in surviving on the basics in cookery - and particularly with snackage you can save a lot - especially if you dont make a rod for your own back and try to reproduce commercial products ( crisps ! who would ! - mini one portion things too - washing up would have to be a hobby ...etc...)
tray bakes and slicables are much more economic
I'd recomend this as a piece of equipment :
http://www.johnlewis.com/230855936/Product.aspx
as a food mixer - its a little monster ( check the guarantee period )- and has dough hooks as well as whisks - so no need for a breadmaker

good luck - i'm sure your about to be linked into loads of threads;)

valk_scot

It's not as cheap as buying Value type products, but it's cheaper than buying a comparable quality product. And a great deal nicer most of the time. Plus you can use some Value ingredients to keep the costs down. Value butter, dried fruit, syrup, cocoa, baking chocolate, own brand bread flour (Lidl's bread flour is excellent and very cheap) are all perfectly acceptable, though I prefer free range eggs to the really cheap battery ones. I tend to use Stork marg for baking too, block for pastry, soft for cakes, because it's half the price of even cheap butter and I grew up on Stork baking so I prefer the taste to butter based baking. But really, avoid really cheap marg for baking, ick.

I used to make bread using the Kenwood Chef + dough hook but recently have gone back to using a breadmaker. I got a cheap Tesco one and really, it makes a very decent white loaf for about 25p. Seedy bread/wholemeal/egg/fruit breads all seem fine too and they're all a lot cheaper to make than the shop bought equivelent. Extremely useful for pizza dough too. There are better breadmakers on the market ie the Panasonic ones, but the Tesco one cost me £30 a few months back against ~£100 for a Panasonic. I think it was a bargain tbh.

For snacks I make scones and flapjacks, rock buns, chocolate chip buns and other simple things. I make cakes as a dessert, not a snack. Biscuits seem to vanish far too fast, considering, so they do get shop bought custard creams there! I make puddings like Eves Pudding and Pineapple Upside Down cake too.