Homemade biscuits cheaper than value?

piggybankrupt

All you homebakers out there - have you ever costed the price of homemade biscuits etc and can they be made even cheaper than value/smart price type packs of biscuits??

Also, do you use the value/smart price ingredients ie/ margarine, flour etc & still get good results?

I am trying to cut down food budget as much as possible but still give us some treats!:rolleyes:

twink

i think some biscuits might be cheaper to make, the hobnobs i do are with stork marg, asdas flour and smartprice porridge oats and i got 55 biscuits from yesterdays batch

moanymoany

As to the question about value ingredients, I made Twink hobnobs with all value ingredients and they are just sublime. The ingredients cost about 60p using butter - value of course. The only non value thing was bicarb and I buy that from the chemist 1.5k for £5. That 60p makes 1.5lbs of bikkies. :j

odds-n-sods

Even if the recipe you make isn't cheaper than buying the same value biscuit, think of the entertainment value esp. if the kids help, and that you know exactly what has gone into them. Cheapest isn't always the best for you.

thriftlady_2

I bake for my school's tuckshop every week, so I regularly cost out ingredients.

Last week I added Twink's hobnobs to my repertoire and they cost me 83p to make 31 very large biscuits (I made them bigger than Twink does -she gets about 50 smaller ones).

I used Value flour, Value oats, granulated sugar and Tesco's cheapest English butter. If you wanted to make them cheaper you could use Value butter or Value marge to be really money-saving. Personally, I don't use marge as I think it defeats the object of home baking -that is; using ingredients as unprocessed as possible.

One thing to remember, and I can't stress this enough, when you make your own baked goods you produce something that is far, far better than any 'value product' a supermarket has to offer. You are producing the equivalent of their 'finest' range, and in many cases even better than that.

Homebaking is always value for money

Queenie

I haven't costed the ingredients for homemade biscuits because you'd also have to factor in any energy costs too.

Mainly though, it's not about the cost ... it's about what's *in* them! I like to know what I'm putting into our bodies (I don't use margarine). Many "value" cakes and biscuits contain trans fats and I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole no matter how cheap they are

I do buy value butter and some value ingredients to keep the costs down.

thriftlady_2

These are the ingredients that go into a Tesco Value Biscuit barrel

Nice biscuits
Wheat Flour, Sugar, Vegetable Oil, Desiccated Coconut (3%), Glucose Syrup, Wheat Starch, Raising Agent (Ammonium Bicarbonate, Sodium Bicarbonate), Dried Skimmed Milk, Salt, Flavouring.

Shortcake

Wheat Flour, Vegetable Oil, Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Dried Whole Milk, Salt, Raising Agent (Ammonium Bicarbonate), Flavouring


Bourbon creams

Wheat Flour, Sugar, Vegetable Oil, Fat - Cocoa Powder (4.5%), Milk Whey Powder, Glucose Syrup, Raising Agents (Ammonium Bicarbonate, Sodium Bicarbonate), Salt, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithins), Flavourings

Custard creams

Wheat Flour, Sugar, Vegetable Oil, Milk Whey Powder , Glucose Syrup, Salt, Raising Agents (Sodium Bicarbonate, Ammonium Bicarbonate), Colour (Beta-Carotene), Flavourings

And just look at what goes into a Tesco Finest Belgian Chocolate Butter Biscuit -how much butter is that ?


Tesco Finest Belgian Chocolate Butter Biscuit

Milk Chocolate (24%), Plain Chocolate (24%), Wheat Flour, Sugar, White Chocolate (12%), Butter (5%), SaltMilk Chocolate contains: Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Dried Whole Milk, Cocoa Mass, Dextrose, Soya LecithinsPlain Chocolate contains: Cocoa Mass, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Milk Fat, Soya LecithinsWhite Chocolate contains: Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Dried Whole Milk, Dextrose, Soya LecithinsMilk Chocolate: Cocoa Solids minimum 32% / Milk Solids minimum 19%Dark Chocolate: Cocoa Solids minimum 52%White Chocolate: Cocoa Solids minimum 25% / Milk Solids minimum 18% / Milk Fat minimum


Twink's Hobnobs

oats, flour, sugar, bicarb, golden syrup and butter

Queenie

thriftlady wrote: »

...

Twink's Hobnobs

oats, flour, sugar, bicarb, golden syrup and butter

Queenie's Everyday Biscuits
butter, sugar, SR Flour ,vanilla essence

(sorry, couldn't resist :laugh: :whistle: )

thriftlady_2

Nice one Queenie -Fork biscuits are only butter, sugar and flour too -I do like an oaty biscuit though

jungliemac

Just for fun you could take a look at www.pimpthatsnack.com . I'm going to try to make the giant smiley face biscuit! The kids will love it and im sure it will work out cheaper than 67p per pack for 10 little ones!

twink

i will have to look for value butter, just so used to using stork for the biscuits
queenies biscuits would be different from the hobnobs and imagine you could sandwich them with jam or ice the tops and let the children put sprinkles on