Is homemade bread REALLY cheaper?

BitterAndTwisted

Toomuchdebt wrote: »

Think I need to get my bread maker out once the kids have eaten the bread from the freezer

Of course you do, it would be daft not to. You can ring the changes daily: white flour, wholemeal, half-and-half, rye four, add some oats or seeds to it. Lovely stuff

faerie~spangles

andygb wrote: »

Why do many people assume that you need to buy a breadmaker to make bread?
I have been making bread for nearly ten years now, and have never felt the urge to buy a breadmaker. My "kit" comprises two very large plastic bowls (used for mixing and proving), two baking trays and our oven.
It takes half an hour to prepare the mix and knead it, leave it alone for hours to days if you wish, then knock back, and in a couple of hours time it will be ready for cooking, which normally takes around 30 minutes per loaf.

I have psoriasis on my hands.

Not all that sure that flakes of skin would add flavour to hand kneaded bread dough:rotfl:

thriftwizard

The milk, which, by the way, can be real milk rather than water & milk powder, is there to improve the length of time you can keep the loaf after baking. Not usually a problem, in my experience; if there are only one or two of you, just bake the smallest size your machine does. If, like us, you have a houseful, even the biggest size of warm, tasty loaf will be gone in minutes anyway!
We have a bread maker, which is used overnight, & still bake by hand as well...

hermum

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Apart from the cost of the ingredients and the leccy my second-hand bread-maker is saving me a fortune. It used to cost me £1.35 each way on the bus to go and buy it. Often I did without as I absolutely refuse to buy that sweaty bread in plastic bags because it's not actually bread and is only really suitable for making toast.

My bread-maker cost me only fifteen quid in a charity shop and the wholemeal flour I'm currently using was £1.49 for ten kilos. I don't use good olive oil just the cheapest vegetable oils I can find. Cheap as chips and much more delicious. What is turning out a bit pricey is all the sunflower and pumpkin seeds I've been using

Where did you get your flour from at that price? I bought loads from Approved foods & one of the other out of date sites but got carried away & bought far too much & it went rancid before I could finish it.

I_wanna_live_for_free

We use our breadmaker around 3 times a week, it makes a lovely loaf and like someone else said, it works out about 35p a loaf.

We do buy sliced bread for the children's sandwiches though.

I found that if I didn't add milk powder to the loaf it made it very insipid and we cut down the amount of salt to taste after having a few too salty errors.

Sometimes I use olive oil rather than margarine in the mix and that gives a slightly different texture too.

Trial and error.

Toomuchdebt

I was about to ask where the flour was from as well

BrandNewDay

McKneff wrote: »

It wasnt cheaper in my house because the bread was so nice the family were eating 3 times as much.:eek:

This is what would happen to us!

And, it wouldn't work out cheaper for what we do with bread: we buy thinly sliced, cheap bread and the kids eat a lot of jam, butter, nuttella, etc. It's our cheap filler/snack food. When I've made loaves of bread, it all gets gobbled up hot. And, I can't slice it so fine, so I get less out of it in terms of lots of slices of toast or quick sandwiches for the kids.

However! I do love part-baked dinner rolls. I would maybe save money on making pre-baked rolls and freezing them.

If you're already buying the cheapest bread, then I don't think you'll save much money. If you like nice, high-quality bread, then you would.

lizzyb1812

Approved Food had the 10kg bags for £1-49 recently - haven't checked to see if they still do.

I get what posters are saying about HM bread disappearing faster than shop bought but it is more satisfying and eventually less HM bread or other snacks will be used. Using a mixture of shop bought and HM bread can be good - shop bought for speed/ease/value etc and HM for nicer special bread with seeds, onion, cheese, fruit, etc in the mix for when the bread is not just a filler but the star of the show.

topgranny

My husband handbakes our bread. He has "baking day" once a week and makes 4 loaves at a time, saving on electricity by only having to use the oven once. He then slices 3 of the loaves (some thicker for toast) and we freeze them. Even with the grandchildren (and their parents!) pinching some on baking day it lasts us all week.

Most times I will also bake a cake or put a casserole in the oven when he's finished to save a bit more heat.

We always have 2 x wholemeal and 2 x half white/half wholemeal and it's yummy!!:)

I_know_my_ABC_and_my_CMYK

I actually have a bread maker which I don't use, I gave up with it:cool:. Unfortunately we couldn't get on together so I went back to making it by hand and the bread maker is now retired in the back of the cupboard sulking :eek::p.

Bread makers are a brilliant idea but for me I just don't have the knack for using them, and I have had 2 different makes, I admire those of you who have perfected the art :T

These days I use my stand mixer to knead the dough for around 5 - 7mins on speed 2 and then rise it in the same bowl with the dough hook removed.

I don't know about anyone else but I always rise my bread twice before shaping if its white bread and 3 times if its brown/wholemeal etc. I find this makes it much lighter.

I have used premium flour and cheaper flour, a mix of the two is fine but I do prefer the premium as I find quality flour makes a better bread but I'm sure that would be quite a debate with so many old stylers on here I also buy dried yeast simply because I find it easier.

Have to say I was shocked at the list of ingredients in a loaf of Warburton toastie I looked at in Asda the other day just out of curiosity, 3 preservatives and a mould inhibitor :eek: doesn't bare thinking about. I personally don't like totally bleached white bread, I prefer the natural colour.

Does anyone buy flour by the 'sack' at all instead of the 1.5 or 3kg bags? If so where do you recommend buying from and what make is the flour?:)