I've been venturing to the Farmers Market weekly to pick up some fresh-made whole wheat bread.
It was sooo tasty and I loved that it didn't have any preservatives or high fructose corn syrup.
But at $3.50 a pop, it was adding up.
I have this abundance of time right now, so I figured why not make my own bread? Just like the olden days.
So this morning I awoke before my husband, put on a pair of high heels and pearls and headed to the kitchen.
Ok, all of that was true minus the high heals and pearls. I NEVER wear heels. Ever.
Yesterday I ventured to Costco to get some ingredients I knew I didn't have.
Whole grain flour and yeast. I figured buying in bulk would be much cheaper and save me from having to run to the store to get more ingredients.
At Costco the only kind of whole grain flour they had was Eagle Mills All Purpose blend of White and UltraGrain flour. It supposedly looks and tastes like white flour but contains the goodness of whole grain.
It was $5.99 for 20 lbs. With the recipe I have it will make approx. 23 loaves.
I also bought 2 pounds of yeast from Costco for $3.69. This should yield approx. 76 loaves.
The ingredients are:
3 1/4 c. flour ($.26)
1/4 c. honey ($.20)
1/4 c. milk ($.09 Shatto milk)
2 1/2 tsp. yeast ($.05)
1 c. water (free-ish)
1 1/2 tbs. butter, melted ($.25)
1 tsp. salt (already had)
Non-stick cooking spray (already had)
Price per loaf: $.85
That is a weekly saving of $2.65 or a monthly savings of $10.60.
Yearly that would be $127.20.
Not too shabby!
I perused the internet for awhile and found a recipe I think I could modify to my liking. It seemed simple enough.
So here it is.... pics and all.
The ingredients
My surprisingly powerful $15 Stand Mixer from Target. With dough hooks.
Put 2 1/5 tsp. of yeast in the bowl with 1 cup warm water. (Not too hot or it will kill the yeast)
Mix them together until the yeast is completely dissolved.
Next, add in the melted butter (cooled off a bit), the milk, the honey and salt. Stir it up.
Add in 2 cups of flour and start mixing with the mixer.
Add in 1/4 c. of flour at a time until the dough is just barely not sticky to the touch anymore.
Let the stand mixer knead the dough for 10 minutes.
Spray a bowl with non-stick cooking spray and place the dough in that bowl.
Put the bowl in a warm place.
I put mine on top of my gas stove set at 200 degrees.
Cover for an hour and let it rise!
It should double in size!
Punch it down, then place the dough on a well-floured area.
Stretch the dough out to a rectangular shape.
Roll it up.
Place it in your well-greased bread pan.
Cover again for another hour in a warm area.
It should fill the pan.
Place in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.
Ding! Bread is done!
Let it cool completely before slicing.
Not so bad after all!
You can make more than one loaf at a time, and can freeze the dough if you'd rather do that for the next few loaves.
Homemade bread is a bit time consuming, but for most the process you can do other things since it is mostly just rising! A great time to do housework, read a book, sleep or write a blog entry!
Please let me know if you've tried it or have another great recipe!
My next goal is to make homemade jam. Mmmm.....
I've never been brave enough to attempt homemade bread but you may have inspired me! =) I can say, though, that homemade jam is a cinch and deeelicious! =)
ReplyDeleteYou should definitely try it! It's really not hard! Just takes a bit of time. We made some mulberry jelly last night...its still setting up in the fridge.
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