Homemade Bread
 

Being on campus for on average of 8-12 hours a day and making an attempt not to spend 3/4th of my budget on eating out, I have resorted to eating about 15 sandwiches a week. I am curious if anyone would think baking my own bread would be worth it on a health, financial, and time scale. If it would be, anyone have some good recipes, techniques, or tips?

BTW, I am pretty much kitchen competent. I do eat more than just Ramon noodles and easy mac.

Over here you can buy little packs of bread dough mix, all ready to add water. I would think you'd have the same over there?

doubt it would be worth it $ and time-wise. maybe health-wise if you made nasty cardboard-textured stuff, but probably not. Will it taste much better if you don't worry about all of the above? hell, yes!

Go to a second hand store and get a $15 bread maker.... I make my bread in the bread maker, then take it out, shape it, let it rise and bake it in the oven. My recipe does two full size loaves at a time. The bread has no preservatives and is quite good. It stays fresh for about 2-3 days... if you are eating that many sandwiches a week, you would have to make bread twice a week, or so.

my basic sandwich loaf:

2 cups warm water
3 heaping tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 heaping teaspoon yeast
3 tablespoons of margarine
1 heaping tablespoon of skin milk powder (optional)
5 1/2 cups flour

This makes great buns and stuffed buns as well ( I add ham and cheese or hamburger and cabbage into the middle of the bun, seal and rise/bake like normal... great with soup or "on the go" lunches)

I am sure you could make this without the bread maker, in would just be the basic bread instructions, so: mix, knead for 3 min, let rise 'til double, punch down, knead 3 min, then shape and let rise.. bake at 350 for as long as it takes until tapping the top sounds hollow and is golden brown ( usually 25-35 min for loaves)

I find it costs me less than $0.95 per basic batch, where right now bread in the store is $2-3.50 a loaf!

I'm with Jaydaan on this one - bread machine bread is easy (not saying you can't manage the cooking thang, but sometimes there isn't the time ...) and a zillion times better than shop bought - especially if you've been buying budget bread :greenface .

I gave up making bread because my lot just scoffed it so quickly so that there was never a slice of bread when I wanted it, and I couldn't make enough of it to keep them happy.

I suppose that means it was costing me more to make bread because I had to make more bread. lol

Anyway, homemade is always yummier than bought, so if you've got the time, you should give it a go, but for us it was just more economical to buy bread that doesn't taste quite so good. :)

Yes, yes, and maybe. What else would you be doing with your time? If you would be playing video games, then yes. If you would be studying or working at a job, then no.

I'm in the midst of gearing up into breadmaking.

My sister had a bread machine, loves it and uses it quite frequently. I was never happy with the result, seemed more like a commercial loaf of bread than something lovingly handmade.

Thanks. For non-generic bread here is costs about $3.00-$3.50 for 15 slices.

If I do go through with this I will get a bread maker. I have a rice cooker and the convenience of it is much worth the $20 so I'm assuming this will be the same. Thanks for the advice everyone and hopefully this will turn out positive.

I do all my studying at work and on campus so when I'm at my house it is usually just relaxing and entertaining my friends. I'm decent at multitasking so I should have the time to at least get in a few loaves a week.

Health could go either way, many people get very very fat on homemade bread.

I've baked bread for years. Once when my kids were doing competitive Irish dancing I entered a loaf of Irish Soda Bread in a competition in Atlanta, Georgia but I called it Texas Style Irish Soda Bread and I packed it with cheddar cheese and fresh jalapenos.

One of the judges who was from Ireland took a bite and almost choked on it after a few bites and then spit it out. Apparently he thought the green things were like some kind of candied fruit. It was pretty funny! I didn't even rate and honorable mention or most creative prize!

True. Especially if you are just slathering the butter over nice warm bread.

:yum:

I made a test batch of jalapeno, cheddar and corn cornbread muffins today for the "chili" cook off at my girlfriend's job. They're pretty mild, as requested. The joke is that the real batch is going to be several times hotter.

I'm not sure I want to see what Montanan's do with chili, but at least I'll have fun watching people eat my muffins.