Bake your own bread?

[COTK]

I'm wondering if there are those out there who do not ever buy store bought bread, but bake their own...and their reasons why.

Does it save money? (even when factoring in time??)
Is it really more healthy, even if store bought is whole wheat?
Or would it be a taste preference?


I love baking bread, but I really have to work myself up to it. I also don't use a bread machine, but make it by hand. The great thing is, bread freezes beautifully, so, if I decided to make all our bread, I could devote a weekend a month to it and then freeze it all.

Other opinions??

[Mert]

I mill our wheat and bake bread and bagels and now pizza dough. We made the switch because we feel that using freshly milled wheat is the healthiest way to go. We still buy whole wheat bread and bagels on occasion because ds is afraid of the mill, and I don't blame him. That thing makes it sound like a jet is landing in our house. I can't just mill and bake any time I need or want to. I have to wait until dh is around. But I hope that we can work that out eventually. It's just sooooo easy to throw the ingredients into the machine for dough or bread. I buy the wheat in bulk and so it does work out to be cheaper than buying (an added bonus!!) It actually took some time for us to get used to the taste. It's pretty dense. We really like it now and think that bought bread is pretty wimpy. I do usually make a couple loaves or several batches of bagels to freeze, and I agree with you, it works out beautifully. HTH

[COTK]

Wow... milling your own flour.... that's amazing. How much did the mill cost?

Maybe I'll experiment with my MIL bread machine...


Any other thoughts out there??

[Mama Bird]

I love baking bread! I do my bread (DH thinks that anything other than store-bought white bread might be harmful to his health :rolleyes ) sometimes in the bread machine if I have a busy day, sometimes I do it without the machine. I love it! I love the warmth of the oven, the smell of the yeast. I do our own bagels, too.

I always add extra goodies to ours. Wheat germ, flax seed, etc. You get fantastic results if you use vital gluten with your bread machine. The thing you have to remember is that homemade bread doesn't have preservatives, so it has to be eaten faster. If that's a problem, use it for a few days, then have bread pudding, make bread crumbs, make biscotti, etc. I make a double batch of bagels and freeze half. Takes only a few seconds in the micro to thaw them and toast them.

Off to throw in some more bagels... :giggle

[Mert]

Wow... milling your own flour.... that's amazing. How much did the mill cost?


It was kinda' pricey... over $200, but we got it with some $$ from my Mom that we weren't expecting.

I add flax seed and gluten to our stuff as the pp poster mentioned.

[Marielle]

it is definitely healtier and the taste is quite different. I go on and off. Some weeks I do most of our bread baking (pitas, buns, rolls, sandwich bread, hearth loaves and bagels) then other times I do healthier versions of the storebought.

My kids are carbaholics so I have to watch the fresh baked bread quotient around here or they'll ask for it breakfast, lunch and dinner. LOL

[Mother of Sons]

I wouldn't mind but I've never had good luck with bread machines and I really hate kneading by hand. I also (probably just the recipe) never could use the bread for sandwiches because it didn't slice nicely.

[Littledisciples]

I used too. Now with a family of 8 I can't keep up. I hope to set a baking day but I haven't quite acompleshed it. Yet I do make a lot of my bread home made. I do pizza dough and stuff like that. Bagels took so long for me but I may be doing them wrong too. I think it did help a lot on cost. Because I used to never buy cheap bread at 3 dollars a loaf it helped a lot. Now days I have been too lazy and sliding due to number of kids. :shifty Whole Wheat and Honey is my favorite.

[Wonder Woman]

I bake all of ours because my son is allergic to dairy...I :heart my breadmaker!

[Marielle]

While I absolutely LOVE kneading (and so do my kids) I sometimes don't have the time for it. So I alternate between "stretch and fold" methods which allows the dough to ripen over an extended unattended time or just using the food processor to knead (it kneads in about 60 seconds).

as far as the slicing we had a slice/spacer thingie from when we used to use a breadmaker that lets you guide the knife but lately I'm finding a sharp bread knife and free hand is good enough. I call it "rustic" LOL although an electric knife also does a fabulous job.


I wouldn't mind but I've never had good luck with bread machines and I really hate kneading by hand. I also (probably just the recipe) never could use the bread for sandwiches because it didn't slice nicely.

[Littledisciples]

While I absolutely LOVE kneading (and so do my kids) I sometimes don't have the time for it. So I alternate between "stretch and fold" methods which allows the dough to ripen over an extended unattended time or just using the food processor to knead (it kneads in about 60 seconds).

as far as the slicing we had a slice/spacer thingie from when we used to use a breadmaker that lets you guide the knife but lately I'm finding a sharp bread knife and free hand is good enough. I call it "rustic" LOL although an electric knife also does a fabulous job.


I wouldn't mind but I've never had good luck with bread machines and I really hate kneading by hand. I also (probably just the recipe) never could use the bread for sandwiches because it didn't slice nicely.



I can never figure out the spacer thingy. Ergg must be me. I do know one thing I love my bread machine :heart :heart :heart But one major problem right now it does not make enough dough or bread for our family. One day I want a double batch one.

[Niphredil]

I want to. I reallly want to. But I'm petrified of my bread maker. Any of you pro moms want to help me out? Goodness knows I'd love not to be paying 1.97 a loaf for the HFCS free stuff at the grocers.

[greendelight]

:popcorn

Mmm...bread... :yum

What recipes do you use (those of you doing it by hand) or where do you find bread recipes? I want to bake my own, but I haven't found any good recipes.

[Littledisciples]

:popcorn

Mmm...bread... :yum

What recipes do you use (those of you doing it by hand) or where do you find bread recipes? I want to bake my own, but I haven't found any good recipes.


I don't use a recipie to do it by hand. I just dump a bit of this and a bit of that. It comes out. I am thinking something like I take about a cup or so of milk and add the yeast around 2 tsp. Then I add a bit of butter and whirl it around a bit. I let that sit a few then add either honey or sugar and a bit of flour enough to stir. Then I stir it real good add a bit of salt and then more flour. Once I can't stir it I just throw in on some flour on the table and kneed away. That is how I make bread.

[Mert]

I have a recipe from Bread Beckers. It's their ministry to educate people about milling and making bread. Let me go find their website... The recipe is probably there. If not, I'll post it after ds is asleep. Here it is: http://breadbeckers.com/recipes/zojirushi_bread.htm . This recipe is made specifically for the bread machine that I have, but I'm sure it translates to other machines. I use the least amount of flour to keep the bread as light as possible. HTH

[COTK]

I don't use a recipie to do it by hand. I just dump a bit of this and a bit of that. It comes out. I am thinking something like I take about a cup or so of milk and add the yeast around 2 tsp. Then I add a bit of butter and whirl it around a bit. I let that sit a few then add either honey or sugar and a bit of flour enough to stir. Then I stir it real good add a bit of salt and then more flour. Once I can't stir it I just throw in on some flour on the table and kneed away. That is how I make bread.


:jawdrop

This is the craziest "recipie" I've ever heard of! I am WAY uptight about baking bread... I'm always super worried about "killing" the yeast... wow.... I'm gunna hafta loosen up a bit and give this a try!! :nails :nails :shifty

[Littledisciples]

I don't use a recipie to do it by hand. I just dump a bit of this and a bit of that. It comes out. I am thinking something like I take about a cup or so of milk and add the yeast around 2 tsp. Then I add a bit of butter and whirl it around a bit. I let that sit a few then add either honey or sugar and a bit of flour enough to stir. Then I stir it real good add a bit of salt and then more flour. Once I can't stir it I just throw in on some flour on the table and kneed away. That is how I make bread.


:jawdrop

This is the craziest "recipie" I've ever heard of! I am WAY uptight about baking bread... I'm always super worried about "killing" the yeast... wow.... I'm gunna hafta loosen up a bit and give this a try!! :nails :nails :shifty


oh ya that is warm milk too. Not too warm just a bit warm so that it helps the yeast. About lukewarm. BTW I did not always bake bread this fashion. I just learned as I went along. My mom totaly did this when I was a kid I was always :jawdrop over her skills. Now I have inquired it. It is cool in a way because now my kids watch me do it that way.

[homemommy40]

I love homemade whole wheat bread, and used to make it quite often. But the strangest thing is that I always got a severe yeast infection from eating it. I always followed the recipe's by the letter, and I would always get the infection. I don't understand what the problem was, and I quit doing the bread because I was miserable. I don't get that from store bought whole wheat bread, but it bums me out as the taste of homemade just can't be beat.

[milkmommy]

I used to make all our bread but my machine broke my oven is soo outa wack bread comming out well is iffy at best and I'd be baking bread 24/7 to sastify my family so I make on occasion but buy for sanity. Once I was able to stock up on ingredients makes was way cheeper.

Deanna

[Blue Savannah]

Also, if you buy your own wheat, you can get hard white wheat instead of red wheat. Nutritionally they're nearly identical, but the taste of the white wheat is. . . well, whiter. I must bake bread today!! :)


ETA: As far as baking a lot of bread at once, I think once you get used to baking it, it won't be a problem to do it once a week or so. In the winter, I do one batch of slicing bread, and usually rolls or something another day. If I'm home anyway, it doesn't take that much time.

[LittleSweetPeas]

Anyone who has a bread maker mind sharing their bread recipe staples? I love my bread machine but it seems to be hit or miss with recipes.

[Wonder Woman]

2 c. warm water
3/4 c. oil
3 TBSP. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
4 cups flour
4 tsp. bread machine yeast

I use that on my breadmakers 'fast bake' cycle, and have a loaf of bread in 58 minutes :tu

[Mert]

I put all this in the bottom of the machine:
1 1/2 cups hot water
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup honey
2 tsp. salt
1 egg
I mix all this together in a separate bowl and then put on top of liquids:
4 ½ cups fresh milled flour
1/2 cup blenderized flax seed
1 Tbs. Lecithin
1 tsp. gluten
I make a small valley in the middle of the flour and add:
1 Tbs. Yeast

<edited because I had the water measurement wrong, and I didn't include the flax seed measurement. :shifty

[hink4687]

I try and bake all our bread but I do still sometimes buy it too. I also grind my wheat. We have the kitchenaide wheat grinder attachment to the mixer. I don't have a bread machine though which is something I should invest in! I use my mixer to knead my bread though so its not too much work. The main reason we started making bread other than freshed ground wheat is so much better is its just so hard to find bread without high fructose corn syrup! I got so frustrated going from store to store trying to find bread without it!!!

[tempus vernum]

I mill and make all of our bread. Mostly these days in the zojirushi breadmaker although I have been making bread for years and have done it with a mixer, by hand, with a hand crank. You name it, I've probably tried it. I was seoriusly thinking of getting out my hand crank dough kneader and doing some like that again. I was also thinking of trying my hand at bagels again - never successfully made those.

I do a 2 stage bread recipe in my zojirushi as I prefer to soak all of my flour to aid in digestability. http://www.gentlechristianmothers.com/mb/index.php?topic=98985.0.

[Amber]

:popcorn I'm still searching for the perfect bread recipie.

[jenny_islander]

Even with the exorbitant cost of electricity, I find that a loaf of homemade bread costs about forty percent as much as the cheapest storebought loaf that we are willing to eat. I make bread irregularly--basically, on weekdays when the weather is so bad that I can't go out walking with the kids. Sophia helps me mix the ingredients and Eva plays around our feet. Fresh bread tastes SO MUCH BETTER! Sometimes we share a loaf of whole-wheat bread, still warm from the oven, with butter and jam, and that's dessert--or even, after a rough day, dinner! Also, if I made it, I know that there is nothing in it that will give the baby red monkey butt.

I am actually a pretty new breadmaker. I am slowly baking my way through the yeast bread recipes in The Joy of Cooking. There have been some inedible flubs, but all in all, I wonder now why I was so nervous about getting started.

[COTK]

I wonder now why I was so nervous about getting started.


I was that exact way when I started. I still consider myself a newbie. But I called my mom up one day and said, "I want to learn to bake bread. Got some time?" Homemade bread does rock. :yes