Baking your own bread can save you a tremendous amount of money.
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Easy Garlic Breadsticks
At the end of March, I set out to audit my grocery spending. I wanted to make sure that I was doing what I could do to stop up any leaks in our budget.
One of the conclusions I came to was that I spent a fair amount of money on bread. If I could make my own bread, perhaps I could shave a few bucks off the budget. So, I spent the month of April working on my home baking skills. The result was some more money in the bank and some tasty home baked breads.
It’s not as hard as you think.
Don’t feel like you need to slave away over a hot oven to make home baked bread a reality. Here are some tricks to make it happen.
1. Use a bread machine.
I have a love/hate relationship with my stand mixer. I love it for bulk batches of cookies and mashed potatoes, but I don’t feel super confident making bread dough. Truth is, I just don’t like the mess.
A bread machine makes it so much easier. Since the shape of the bread machine bread is a little funky, I often just use the machine to make the dough. Then I transfer it to traditional bread pans or, more often, form it into rolls or hamburger or hot dog buns. This works wonderfully for me.
Some of our favorite doughs to mix up in the machine include:
- great tasting pizza dough
- focaccia
- homebaked pita bread
- hot dog and hamburger buns
- cinnamon rolls
- french baguettes
- pumpkin onion rolls
- whole wheat pretzels
- easy garlic bread sticks
- and The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook has an honored spot on my bookshelf
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
2. Make quick breads.
As much as I love my machine, you don’t have to have a machine to make great bread. In fact, quick breads don’t even need rising time. Just stir them up and bake. See? Quick.
Believe it or not, some thinly sliced quick breads can also work for sandwiches. I think a carrot or zucchini bread would be a great base for chicken salad. Biscuits work well for breakfast sandwiches.
Some fave quick breads:
3. Try Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.
My most recent successes have included the doughs described in Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. When I first reviewed the book awhile back, I was a little skeptical about the flavor. But, now that I’ve spent a solid month working with the different recipes, my faith is renewed.
Even moreso once I crunched the numbers! Based on the price of unbleached bread flour that I buy at Walmart and the minimal amount of salt, yeast, and oil that I might use in a recipe, I calculated that it costs me $0.25/loaf! This figure doesn’t include the cost of electricity.
But that doesn’t really matter! For a quarter a loaf, we can eat eight loaves for the price of one from the store!
To make this Artisan Bread in 5 method work for our family of eight, I mix up a double batch of dough (enough for eight loaves) every couple of days. I usually bake four loaves in a day and yes, they are consumed that day.
Keeping a box of this dough in the refrigerator at all times has helped me make pizza or focaccia or pretzels in the blink of an eye. No need to plan ahead.
And lack of planning is really what costs us money. Well, that and laziness. And no time. And well, motivation.
But, I’m totally sold on this method, and particularly the Olive Oil Dough. Yum! I made focaccia rolls with it for sandwiches that were out of this world.
Baking my own bread is helping us save money — and still enjoy great meals.
Peggy
I haven’t purchased a loaf of bread since September, 2011. When the price of our favorite bread brand went to $4.00/loaf I decided, as you did, to see if I could bake my own more economically. After I cleared the cost of my bread machine I calculate it costs about thirty-five cents a loaf to make wonderful, flavorful bread. I make my own pizza crust, too. I appreciate the fact that our bread now contains no artificial additives, chemicals, or unwanted “stuff”. I’m beginning to get requests from other households in our family for cinnamon raisin bread and “that addictive white bread”, a recipe I found on Pinterest that contains condensed milk. As you mentioned in your article, with a bread machine it is not hard to make wonderful, home-baked bread.
Angela
I’ve started baking bread again after a long hiatus – years ago, my husband bought me a grain mill, which I use and love. I also use the bread machine to knead the dough, but I bake the loaf in the oven – we like the texture better. Just borrowed “Artisan Bread” from the library and am reading through it… may give it a try!
Heidi
Several years ago, my son and I read a picture book about a boy and his mom who baked bread every day. It reminded me of the countless loaves of sourdough bread that came from my mom’s kitchen. Shortly after we read the book, I was talking with my mom about baking bread and lamenting the kneading process (I have a hand injury). She suggested I buy a bread machine. By that afternoon, I had found one on Craigslist and it was even delivered to my door! From that moment on, I’ve baked all of our family’s bread, for about 4 years now. I stick mostly to a simple wheat loaf for sandwiches and a delicious cinnamon raisin loaf (for french toast, egg-in-a-hole, or pbjs). Oh, and a buttermilk loaf -yum! I use a combination of Bob’s Red Mill whole wheat and store-brand bread flour. A bread machine is now a necessary appliance in our house.
Diane
Well, I finally did it. Based on your comments on this book I went and tried it. I cannot believe how good it is. My family is pizza crazy and it took me all day to run 3 batches of pizza dough in the bread machine. Now I just use the basic dough and in about an hour I have three unbelievably good pizzas. Thanks for being willing to try these things and tell us honestly about them!
Jessica
I know. Telling me about it. Easy.
Crystal
@Diane, What pizza dough recipe do you use? We have started pizza Friday’s in our home and are making our own pizzas. I would love a great recipe. Thank you!
Diane
@Crystal, It’s the basic dough from the book “Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day”. You can make the dough up ahead of time and then just heat up the oven for 20 minutes and put your dough in. It’s great. There is also an Olive Oil dough in the book that is also good for pizza but I haven’t tried that one yet.
Jessica
@Crystal, you can also use this recipe: https://goodcheapeats.com/2009/07/basic-homemade-pizza/ which is really good, but not quite as quick.
Laura
Glad to hear you’ve had increasing success with Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. Your pictured loaves look lovely. I read your earlier review of the book but I haven’t bought it yet. Once my newborn baby gets a little older I shall buy it and try it out with gusto. I love baking bread from scratch! I remember baking bread as a toddler with my mother — she let me have a small section of dough to knead alongside her and baked it in a mini loaf pan and we always ate it straight out of the oven — hot, smothered with butter. Yum!
Jessica
@Laura, what a fun memory!
Lea Ann
I see in one of your previous posts, it looked like you had purchased Wheat Montana flour. I find it is incredibly expensive considering how much flour we go through over a period of a couple of months since I bake all of our bread. I was wondering….do you ever grind your own grains? I see that the Wheat Montana wheatberries are MUCH cheaper. I can get a 25 pound bag for $13 vs. already ground 40 pound for $40. So…I am considering buying a wheat mill….probably a Vita Mix. Can you give any input?
Jessica
@Lea Ann, I found that really cheap at Walmart actually. The best deal I’ve found on unbromated, unbleached, actually. But, no, I don’t have a mill, so I can’t speak to that. Sorry. But, I know there are others who do have experience with that. Maybe they will chime in.
Kristi
When I make bread from scratch, I have always done it by hand. I am looking into getting a bread maker, especially after reading your cost comparison. Do you have suggestions on what to look for in purchasing one? They seem to come in a variety of price ranges with different options. I’d love to hear your opinion. Thanks!
Jessica
@Kristi, the cost comparison from this post was in regards to the Artisan Bread Dough. I don’t know that a bread machine would save you money, it’s just easier for a wimp like me.
Tina O
We’ve had a breadmaker here for a couple of years… I have been making raisin bread and pizza dough in it with much success… However, this past month we decided we weren’t going to buy anymore bread… at all… So we started trying to use the bread machine to make all our bread. Well, after a whole month of trying, we are still FAILING. Either it doesn’t rise, or it smells like really bad beer!?!? I changed my yeast and tried a few recipes… no change. The only thing I can see is that we are using a stone ground flour… Any ideas on how I could improve? Right now I just throw a loaf of bread away every time, it’s quite the waste. I’ll try the artisan recipe…
Jessica
Have you read the Bread Lover’s Bread Machine book? That has wonderful tips and recipes. And like others have mentioned, vital wheat gluten is important to helping it rise and get the right texture.
Peggy
@Tina O, You might try using bread flour. Most of my local grocery stores stock King Arthur bread flour and sometimes other brands, too. I’ve been buying bread flour in 25-pound bags at Sams Club and storing it in the tall, clear restaurant storage containers that Sams sells, too.
Additionally, what kind of yeast are you using? Instant yeast and quick cycle works for me in my Zoe machine. Sams also sells a double pack of instant yeast that’s much cheaper than the Fleishmann’s instant yeast in the small brown jars.