Cost of a loaf of HM bread pls?

[StripyPixieSocks]

I should say in addition to CP's post that we make all our own bread products at home recently and we are amazed at the price difference between us making them and the shop bought.

We get the expensive quality items are budget range (and less) prices and we all know how awful some budget stuff is

It pays to shop around for flour and other ingredients though because even a few pennies here and there all adds up over time and some shops flour of the same brand is sometimes 20p cheaper in some shops than others. That's a whole £10.40 saving over a year which isn't much but it is £10.40 that can be used elsewhere!

We recently made Authentic Bagels and our batch made 12... they beat any shop bought hands down both on quality, size, flavour and best of all price!

Having said all that about price I do feel guilty because I know the price of food also includes wages, overheads, transport etc and I know how fed up I am of being undercut in my jewellery by 'hobbyists' who sell everything for 99p which doesn't even cover their materials let alone time so cheap is good but it can put people out of business and people need jobs.

Errr... anyway... ramble over

[Rosendula]

... although this sounds like a lot of money for a loaf of bread we get the equivalent quality of the top of the range bread at this price.

Ah yes, and we find it's more filling too. Since making our own bread and other things, we find we don't eat nearly as much in between meals as we used to, so we save money there, too. My eldest daughter complains that when she goes to her friends' houses, it doesn't matter how much bread they give her, it just doesn't fill her up any more and she can't wait to get home for some 'proper' food, at which point I stick my chest out and my head starts to grow.

[StripyPixieSocks]

I have to say... I *really* hate shop bought bread, the bakery stuff is OK and we do sometimes buy Tiger Bread (as we haven't perfected the recipe we are working on yet) but I think stuff like Hovis and the other square soggy cardboard bagged up type bread makes should be blipped off the face of the earth because they just are utter rubbish full of improvers and air!

[lazyspice]

I have to say... I *really* hate shop bought bread, the bakery stuff is OK and we do sometimes buy Tiger Bread (as we haven't perfected the recipe we are working on yet) but I think stuff like Hovis and the other square soggy cardboard bagged up type bread makes should be blipped off the face of the earth because they just are utter rubbish full of improvers and air!

I've not worked out the price per loaf but I use the same recipe in my breadmaker that CyberPaddy posted, so it's probably a similar cost. To be honest, I think the biggest saving in this house is the fact that we don't have to throw half a loaf away after two days as it's gone mouldy in the bag. The bread I make is tastier and lasts longer and if there's any left long enough for it to go stale I simply make a bread and butter pudding, so nothing's wasted and it's worth every penny

[JulieSherris]

Ok, I don't get it.... why do the bread machines use skimmed milk powder???

And so much sugar - wow.... my recipe uses:
4 cups flour
2 tsps salt
20g fresh yeast
4 tbsps oil
1 & 1/2 cups water
1 heaped dessert spoon of sugar.

Mix it, shove it, leave it...... knock it back, shape it, leave it again - cook!

I don't clock watch - when it's risen, it's done - whether this takes one hour or eight... and that really depends on whether or not I leave it in the fridge or the cold to rise, or on top of the warm stanley..... but a cold rise gives you a smashing loaf!

Ah... a point of info... I was talking to one of the old shopkeepers, & he said that you used to have a licence to buy fresh yeast out here - he's not sure if that has ever been changed either.... because fresh yeast was used for making poitin - which we all know, used to be illegal. Anyway, now he knows where to buy the fresh yeast, he says he will start to get some & sell it by the 100g - which would a lot better for me, as I never get through a whole kilo by myself!

[StripyPixieSocks]

Milk powder softens the crust in any kind of bread so it doesn't go hard on the outside before it's cooked in the middle in a bread mixer type situation where you have alot of dough cooking in a fairly small space!

I must say my bread tastes alot better and has a much nicer texture since I've been putting milk powder in it compared with bread made without it. That's just my opinion though!

Don't use real milk though because it has an enzyme in it that actually destroys the gluten in the bread making it not hold it's shape.

Milk Powder has been heated to over 180 degrees C to destroy the enzyme...

Sugar is used by the yeast in specific quantities to allow it to work to it's fullest extent (after all everything needs food for energy etc)

2tsp of salt and 3tbsp sugar allows the perfect balance in the taste of the bread... not too sweet and not too salty.

[Millymollymandy]

I use half a tbs of sugar instead of the whole one that my recipe calls for because otherwise the bread is too sweet and I can't stand that. Lots of recipes don't have sugar in at all so I don't think it is necessary at all. Some have milk powder and some don't.

The recipes that came with my Panasonic machine (the one that lots of people have) doesn't have any milk powder in any of them, because the instruction manual, whilst having the recipes in various languages including English, isn't actually sold for the UK market. I had to dowload the UK English version of the recipes which are completely different!

[Cloud]

I can add a bit more information. Today I plugged the the bread maker in to the energy monitor before OH began. Our Panasonic bread make took 0.39kWh to make a 4hr medium loaf.

That works out as 12p of electric.

It would we better if done at night to get the Economy 7 price. Then it would have cost just over 4p.

[thesunflowergal]

Wow thanks for all the info everyone. I am now not sure which recipe to go for, oh the choice lol!! Will make my first loaf next week.

Nikki