The Nourishing Gourmet

Bread baking is what made me fall in love with being in the kitchen. This may surprise my readers as baked bread recipes are rarely shared here, but it’s true. I love everything about the process of baking bread. The therapeutic kneading, stirring, shaping, and then sitting back as it rises into beautiful mounds of glory in the oven is a process that stirs my creative soul.

(Read the rest of the 52 ways to save money on a healthy diet here)

Of course, eating freshly baked bread is definitely a highlight too! When my mother started grinding her own whole wheat and baking homemade bread in my childhood, we would wait with bated breath to have our hot-out-of-the-oven slice slathered with butter and homemade strawberry freezer jam. I thought my mother was a crazy good cook (and still do).

Us kids who formally enjoyed our sliced supermarket bread, ate my mom’s whole wheat, healthier version like there was no tomorrow.

But there is another advantage to baking your own bread – it can save you a lot of money.
While there are a lot of variables, here is a quick rundown.

• The average cost of whole wheat bread in the U.S. is $2.00, but many healthier versions (long fermented sourdough, sprouted grain bread, etc.) can be $3-5 dollar a loaf. The gluten-free versions we find (and feel use acceptable ingredients) run from $5-7 dollars a loaf (or more).
• The average loaf of bread uses one pound of flour.
• If you are a bulk buyer, from my local co-op (Azure Standard), I can currently buy a 50 pound bag of organic hard wheat berries for, $32.40, which is $.64 a pound. (Average cost of unbleached white flour is .$52 a pound). Yeast (or sourdough starter), honey, and coconut oil bought at Costco is only going to add a little cost as you only use small amounts per loaf. This means that you can make a loaf, using organic ingredients, for around $1. This saves you at least one dollar a loaf, but even up to two to four dollars a loaf!
• The average person eats just under 80 loafs of bread a year. That means you can save between $80 to $320 dollars a year per person! For a family of four that would equal a savings of $320 to $1,280 per year!

While gluten-free baking is more expensive, your savings will be similar because store-bought gluten-free food is very expensive. Plus, I have found that it tastes way better than store-bought.

I find that many people are nervous about baking bread, but it’s really not as hard as you may think. Many people who don’t enjoy the whole bread making process like to use a bread machine. A machine that mixes, kneads and bakes a loaf of bread takes a lot of the fear and work out of it. I have not bought one yet since I don’t like using a lot of nonstick pans (which all the of the bread machines that I am aware of use). However, if you are buying a lot of storebought bread, they are very likely made in nonstick pans anyways.

So, if a bread machine helps you not only save money but make bread with good ingredients, then I say, go for it! Many people find them second hand for very little. When buying them new they run from inexpensive to a couple hundred dollars. This bread maker, West Bend 2 Lb. Breadmaker, is in the top 20 well rated bread machines on Amazon and costs $60 dollars, which is a great price (especially considering that most of the top twenty are at least $100 dollars or more).

Another method that is super simple, has gotten rave reviews, and is very easy to adapt to the “soaking” or “fermenting” bread making process is the Five Minute Bread technique. This method takes very little time and effort, yet produces beautiful results. The two books that use this method are Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients and  Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking. Jim Lahey uses a similar approach in his book, My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method

With these types of techniques you can achieve bakery worthy bread with very little invested money or time. A win-win, right?

I hope that I have convinced you that making your own bread is worth it. Because baking bread is such a beautiful process that I love, because it saves me money while being nutritionally superior, one of the goals for myself, and then to share on this blog are some good gluten-free whole grain bread recipes.

What about you? Have you, or do you bake your own bread? Why or why not?

Photo Credit: SurlyGirl/Flickr 

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