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Bread Adventures

April 19th, 2008 at 03:54 am

One of my current food projects is to work out a substitute for the healthy but expensive bakery bread we were buying. DH eats a sandwich every day for lunch, and Daisy likes toast. So we go through a respectable amount of bread for a three person family.

And, of course we have our bread preferences - I like to eat whole wheat but DH won't eat anything heavy - it's got to be pretty fluffy for him.

When we first started shopping at this bakery we loved their bread. It met both our desires - whole wheat and fluffy. But I think they changed their recipe or something. . . it just started to taste not as good. And they switched to all organic ingredients, which I'm all for - but it upped the price by about 50 cents per loaf.

So, at least for the moment, I've gone to making bread. There's some in the oven right now, and I'll finish this entry in time to pull it out.

I'm working towards making bread that tastes good and is easy and convenient to make. I tried a thrift store bread maker (bread sank every time), Kitchen Aid stand mixer (heavy to pull out so regularly), by hand (hard on the wrists) and am now trying out a bread bucket.

Yes, a bread bucket. I had never heard of such a thing until I read the Tightwad Gazette. I found one in a thrift store a few weeks ago. I knew exactly what it was although it stumped the cashier ("What's that? A butter churn? An ice cream maker?"). This is the second batch and it seems to be working pretty well. Even Daisy can turn the crank and knead four loaves' worth at a time.

I haven't calculated the price per loaf but a quick guesstimate would put it at less than half of the bakery's price.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

4 Responses to “Bread Adventures”

  1. reflectionite Says:
    April 19th, 2008 at 05:36 am 1208583405
    1208583405

    fortunately i work at a bakery so i get all my bread for free Big Grin but i do understand how expensive it is. if i didnt work at a bakery i probably wouldnt eat bread - we don't eat a lot as it is. we have a three-adult household and probably go through about half a loaf of bread a week!
    i am not sure what recipe you have for your bread but does it include butter? we add it to help soften it. just a little tip Big Grin

  2. Petunia Says:
    April 19th, 2008 at 12:45 pm 1208609124
    1208609124

    Thanks reflectionite! I'm using a recipe from a 1940's cookbook and it calls for shortening - but I am using butter instead. It's good to know what it does.

  3. scfr Says:
    April 19th, 2008 at 04:25 pm 1208622322
    1208622322

    Very interesting ... It will be interesting to hear how it works out!

    I've been pondering bread costs too ... I used to buy bread off of the half-price rack, but in my new neighborhood none of the grocery stores have one.

  4. reflectionite Says:
    April 20th, 2008 at 05:12 am 1208668368
    1208668368

    also, you mentioned your daughter eats toast, so maybe if you are ever around a bakery just before closing time, it never hurts to ask if anything is going cheap. frozen bread is fine for toasting, and you will probably more often than not get a loaf for cheaper just by asking! we givve our bread to the local salvation army group and they give it to an op-shop who give it away for free the next day.

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