Is homemade bread REALLY cheaper?

daska

I guess that might be the case if you're making by hand and therefore need a bowl in order to let it rise and you've got the cost of heating the oven... but not if you're using a breadmaker because you don't wash the pan. And who needs skimmed milk? Flour, water, salt and yeast are all you need, the rest is personal choice and IMO shouldn't factor into the basic equation - you pay a premium for premium loaves which is even more disproportionate. I checked the electricity my BM used when I first got it and worked out that it cost me about the same to make a 'nice' loaf as to buy some mother's shame. If you want to reduce the overall cost why not bake something else at the same time?

geordie_joe

GDB2222 wrote: »

If I dare to add anything to the loaf, the cost goes through the roof - few herbs, sun dried tomatoes, olives, tomato paste etc., and I'm easily looking at a £2/£3 loaf.

Expensive business making your own bread!

Not really, there's a market across the road from me and they sell small loaves for a fiver. Cant remember the name, but it's Italian and has herb and tomatoes and stuff in it.

I also don't think it is fair to compare supermarket bread with home made as the quality is far better with home made.

It would be far better to compare the price of home made with a good quality loaf from a good quality baker.

thriftlady_2

daska wrote: »

If you want to reduce the overall cost why not bake something else at the same time?

Like more loaves of bread -I know I'm sounding like a cracked record but I bake 4 at a time. I also don't use 100% wholemeal bread, I use half white bread flour and half wholemeal. I don't put milk, milk powder or fat in my bread and I now skip the sugar.

4 medium sized loaves

2.5 lbs white bread flour 60p
2 lbs wholemeal bread flour 60p
yeast 9.5p
salt 0.5p

£1.30 -32.5p a loaf

Not sure how much the fuel costs, but all 4 are baked together at 220c for 40 mins.

I haven't factored in the cost of water either in the bread or washing up because quite frankly I think that is ridiculous.

sunflower76

You have to compare like for like; there's little doubt that it's more expensive to bake your own bread than buy the over processed value bread. I can't, however, buy nice, unsliced, organic, preservative and chemical free bread for less than I can bake it for.

positivelymummy

i was really put off shop bread when they came out with the bread that lasts 7 days?? what on earth can they be putting in it to make it last that long!! thats when i really started to look at the ingredients, and last year when i was on a diet, i noticed at my pals house her bread (a seeded one from supermarket) was raked high in calories and fat!!
anyway with all this talk of bread, i'm going to make something new in the morning, bread with red pesto (i have a little left over in fridge) and sprinkled with parmesan..mmmmm:rotfl:ciao:rotfl:

culpepper

at the moment asda bread flour is about 68pence and I can get 2 and 1 10th loaf from a bag.32.3p a loaf.Yeast is about 80pence for 30 loaves worth so 2.4pence a loaf. So my loaves work out at about 35 pence each which is nearly the same as thriftlady.I think it worked out about 2 pence to run the bread maker for a loaf from start to finish. but thats still only 37pence.

SunnyGirl

thriftlady wrote: »

Like more loaves of bread -I know I'm sounding like a cracked record but I bake 4 at a time. I also don't use 100% wholemeal bread, I use half white bread flour and half wholemeal. I don't put milk, milk powder or fat in my bread and I now skip the sugar.

4 medium sized loaves

2.5 lbs white bread flour 60p
2 lbs wholemeal bread flour 60p
yeast 9.5p
salt 0.5p

£1.30 -32.5p a loaf

Not sure how much the fuel costs, but all 4 are baked together at 220c for 40 mins.

Thriftlady - Can you tell me how to make it please? Or is there a thread for it? It's the last thing of OS that I don't do but the kids can get through 2 loaves a day in the holidays so it's definitely make economic sense for me to make it. Also I've got 2lb loaf tins so would your recipe make 2 or 4 of these. Sorry for all the questions :rotfl:

thriftlady_2

SunnyGirl wrote: »

Thriftlady - Can you tell me how to make it please? Or is there a thread for it? It's the last thing of OS that I don't do but the kids can get through 2 loaves a day in the holidays so it's definitely make economic sense for me to make it. Also I've got 2lb loaf tins so would your recipe make 2 or 4 of these. Sorry for all the questions :rotfl:

Here you go - Bread recipe

I make a 3 loaf quantity but divide it between 4 2lb loaf tins. These aren't huge loaves but make a good sized slice for sandwiches.

The rest of that thread is well worth a read too;) HTH

SunnyGirl

Thank you so much for the speedy reply I'm off to be inspired by the thread now! It was reading your post that made me think about making bread so thanks again.

jacand

Did you know you can get fresh yeast free from the instore bakery at most supermarkets. I know in breadmakers they advise to use dried yeast, but when your making your own without breadmaker it's great.