Experiment #1: Making My Own Bread

On a whim, I decided that I should try to make my own bread.

My mom used to have a bread machine when we were kids, and I remember some of the delicious carbs that came out of that machine. I guess the memory came back to me. 

I don't have a bread machine though, and I certainly don't have the storage in my 700 square foot space for one, or the funds for a specialty machine even if I did have the space. So I turned to the Internet, and asked it if there is a way to make bread without a bread machine that wouldn't kill me or take until I'm eighty.

The answer was yes. I found something called "American Sandwich Bread" on a site that claimed this was the best bread to make without a bread machine. Excellent. 

You can find the recipe here: How to Bake the Best Bread With and Without a Bread Machine

It's getting bigger! 

Look at that beautifully shaped and risen loaf of bread

After getting covered in flour, asking the internet how to knead and press air out of dough, and watching my dog try repeatedly to get to whatever I was making on the counter, I managed to produce this beautiful creation.

I am glad to say that it was as delicious as it looks, and easier to make than I thought it would be. Any moment of sticky, bread dough mess was my own fault, like when I tried to put down the bread to knead without flouring the surface first. I have no picture of that, because the dough was sticking to me like tar and I had to wrestle it off. No harm done, though!

Estimated Time, Actual Work: 30 min
Estimated Total Time: 4.5 hours; this is one you will need a lot of time for, because bread has to rise

My Non-Expert Assessment of the Difficulty Level: Easy, especially with the internet telling me how to knead the dough

So what's the price breakdown here? Did I save any money? 

Here's the competition: 

Store brand Thin Sandwich and Old Fashioned breads: 0.99 

Store brand Honey Wheat bread: 1.99

Brand name sandwich breads: anywhere from 2.99 on the cheap end to 3.49

The Fancy Stuff (Arnold's): 4.29

Fresh from the Bakery: 4.99-5.49 for a loaf of most breads, 2.49 for a baguette. 

Get ready, I'm about to bust out my old math skills that have been hidden since the dawn of the era of the English Teacher.

Here's the cost of the ingredients I bought to make my bread. I backtracked and added on some of the items I already owned so that I could figure the full bread price. 

5 lb bag of bread flour: 4.29

Unsalted butter, 1 lb: 3.49 

2% Milk, half gallon: 1.75 (this was actually a tiny bit less per volume than getting the whole gallon)

Yeast: 1.69 for three packets 

Honey: 2.99 for a 12 oz bottle

Salt: 0.99 for 1 lb

According to the internet there are 20 cups of flour in a 5lb bag. I'm going to estimate that I used 4 cups, including the flour needed to keep the dough from sticking to the work space and my hands. As I learned, it is important to remember this flour. I used 20% of the bag of flour, then, and paid 0.86 for my flour. 

Here's the cost of my one loaf of fresh bread: 

Flour: 0.858 

Butter: 0.436

Milk: 0.219 

Yeast: 0.59 

Honey: 0.56

Salt: .015 

Total Cost: 2.28

The Results: Higher Quality for Lower Cost

This bread ended up being on the lower end of the middle range breads. However, Mike and I usually bought one of the higher end breads if it was buy one get one free, making it cheaper than the mid range breads at 2.15 a loaf. This bread did not beat that sale price point. It did, however, beat the fresh baked breads from the bakery by a long shot in terms of price, and it's cost beat most breads' regular price. It is also the best sandwich bread I've had outside of a restaurant. I can't say yet if its the best bread, because I have only made bread once. But it was certainly delicious. 

This experiment I deem a success.