Who makes your own bread from scratch (flour) at home? (cakes, cream cheese)

[Sand&Salt]

Originally Posted by Threestep2

I have never seen major savings when it comes to somewhat elaborate breads. But - years of requests have kept me doing it. I sometimes bake a traditional Foccaccia just for breadcrumbs. You can tell the difference! Very thin flatbreads have basically replaced chips for us. They freeze well.
KitchenAid or a set of hands - not much of a difference.
Working my way up to getting a sour dough starter on the way. Any tips? Thank you!!!!

You can make your own starter in just a week; then maintain it by adding more flour/water each week.

We don't have decent yeast here, so I gave up on regular bread and started sourdough. It takes all day from my 4-page recipe that has 22 steps, lol. I enjoyed doing it, but got frustrated that the crust would be so hard and the interior so soft, it was impossible to slice.

I love working with dough, so no bread machine for me. It's cathartic, lol. I may try it again, if I can find any decent yeast. The bulk stuff we have here goes bad too quick---no "instant" packages.

Nothing like fresh homemade bread, but it's TOO good and we end up eating too much, though I do slice and freeze 4 slices in ziplocks for 2 servings.

[DontH8Me]

Originally Posted by RobertFisher

I think my impression of baking can save lots of money comes from the fact that almost every morning wife buys toasted bagel with cream cheese from a bagel shop for our kids. I believe each is over $2.50. When buying bagel from the shop of course she buys personal-size milk or juice as well. Add our coffee, all that add up to be $20.

If I make my own bagels -- according to YouTubers bagels are made simply by boiling the dough first then bake which is easy enough for me to try -- and buy cream cheese and the rest of the stuff from Costco, I suspect I can bring the cost for that breakfast meal for 4 down to maybe $5...

I buy bags of bagels from Amazon Fresh, 6 big bagels per bag, and the price for each bag is around $1.67 (or 3 bags/$5). If you're going to Costco, you can get 2 bags of those enormous Einstein's bagels (my kids love the parmesan) for $5, a huge tub of Philly cream cheese is around $7, and you can even get a double pack of smoked salmon for under $20.

Has your wife always shopped this way, buying breakfast, lunch and dinner prepared by someone else at a restaurant? Is she from the Rockefellers or the Rothschilds family?

I'm in agreement with most the other posters - baking your own bread isn't going to have a noticeable reduction in your food budget. Buying your own proteins and preparing them at home is going to have a much more profound impact on savings. Heck, if you limited your eating out to just 2-3 week instead of 3 times a day, you're going to cut spending by more than 50% easily.

ETA: Here's a thread on baking bread from the recipes subform, if you really wanna bake your own:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/reci...h-recipes.html

[atlguy44]

I make my own low sodium flatbread (Naan). If you look at the ones in the store, they are packed with sodium. They freeze well. I use a griddle to "bake" them!

[Old Rocky]

Originally Posted by Dogmama50

I make the no knead/le Creuset bread often in the winter, it's a pretty adaptable recipe so I change up the flour, add flax seed, sometimes oats, nuts, herbs etc... My biggest problem is a loaf gets devoured quickly and happily. It's not really cheaper but it's much better that what I can get at the market.

That's my go-to bread that I make most of the year. We like a sturdy bread with a good crust and that recipe is so easy and makes the style of bread we love. There's only two of us so I cut it in two and freeze a half. I've adjusted the recipe a bit by having one cup bread flour and two cups all purpose. I'll try your ideas of adding flax and other ingredients. I think this bread is a bit cheaper than buying a similar style of artisan bread in the store. Those loaves can be $4 or more. I doubt one loaf of No Knead costs even half that. But even if it were the same cost, I'd still make it, just because we enjoy it.

Originally Posted by Dogmama50

I will also on occasion make pasta, usually hand cut pappardelle, sometimes cavatelli or trofie. Usually when Pasta Grannies pops up on my Facebook feed and I get inspired to spend some time in the kitchen. I do have a hand crank pasta machine as well as an attachment for the KitchenAide but usually I mix it by hand and roll it out will a wooden rolling pin and then cut it. It really takes only about 20 minutes to make if I want some quick pappardelle.

I haven't done hand cut pasta yet. I picked up one of those Italian hand crank machines at an auction for $5 and it's been great. It makes tagliatelle and fettucine. I also have a ravioli maker. I make the pasta dough in my food processor. It makes the dough in less than a minute. Then I let it rest.

I just found Pasta Grannies and love them!

[Formerly Known As Twenty]

Originally Posted by RobertFisher

I intend to start making all my own bread and my own noodles. Based on YouTube videos it seems pretty easy; the ingredients are simple, just takes time.

Does anyone make all or most of your bread or noodles from flour? I'm curious:

1. Does it save significant amount of money? (assuming a family of 4 eat bread every morning and every other dinner)

2. Is it worthwhile to get one of those dough making machines? The video makes it look much easier; I hope to get first hand feedback.

I keep flour on hand to make things such as bread and various pastas and dumplings as needed. As an old hand when it comes to bread making and the like, I find it to be fairly easy, not overly time-consuming if I do my baking on a day when I'm hanging about the house doing other house things, and less expensive than buying similar items.

However, what I tend to make are specialty breads that tend to be more expensive when store-bought (ciabatta, herbed foccacia, cinnamon-raisin bread, challah, etc.) rather than basic white sandwich bread. Bagels are a bit of a production item when it comes to the process for making them and they're not something that I eat that often, so I don't make them at home.

Where the savings comes in in terms of pasta is when I make filled pastas and dumplings such as pierogis, ravioli, spaetzel, cavatelli, gnocchi, etc. It's far less expensive to make those rather than purchase them and you can use up odds and ends in making them that you might have lingering in the fridge/freezer/pantry to boot. Know that there is definitely a learning curve to making pasta--especially filled pastas--and that it will initially be more of a "production" when you are first learning to make them. With time and experience, the process goes far more quickly as you get a "system" that works best for you and your kitchen.

All doughs are generally made by hand in my favorite pottery bread bowls. Pottery is heavy enough to stay put on the counter while making dough and retains warmth, the latter of which is great for letting bread gently rise as I do other things around the house. I also use tea towels for covering rising bread and and pasta as I work with the doughs. It's old-fashioned, but it works well.

[aquietpath]

I make ciabatta bread a few times a month. I prepare the biga (sponge) the night before and leave it covered on the countertop until morning, then add the rest of the ingredients before I start work. Thankfully I work from home, so my first break coincides with punching the dough down and forming the loaves. Lunchtime the loaves go into the oven. Ciabatta is very easy to make.

On a day that I have free time I will make some specialty loaves, bagels, or pretzels. I love baking and the feel of kneading dough. It's a peaceful, relaxing experience, and you can't beat fresh hot bread. Store bought doesn't compare.

[TamaraSavannah]

Getting back to things, been working with flour for years. Pizza crusts, calzone, brownies, avocado bread (more of a dessert bread)........it's all just a natural progression. My pancakes are now corn meal/corn flour and I have made corn bread, too!

At first, part of it was economics because I was having so much pizza, I decided to start making my own. That sort of got into a personal competition for there were many years that I didn't order out or buy store pizza because I had promised myself that if I wanted pizza, I would make it myself.

And part of it was "romance", of working with flour, having my jeans streaked with it. That was from The Phantom book, The Mystery of the Sea Horse, where the femme fatale, Laura, cooks after midnight, her jeans covered like that.

[bale002]

Originally Posted by RobertFisher

1. Does it save significant amount of money? (assuming a family of 4 eat bread every morning and every other dinner)

Originally Posted by kj1065

Does it save money? Yes, if you buy your ingredients in bulk and store them correctly.

Originally Posted by RobertFisher

2. Is it worthwhile to get one of those dough making machines? The video makes it look much easier; I hope to get first hand feedback.

... and don't buy a dough machine. Human hands are so much better.

I also make my own yeast. I work with rye flour, whole wheat flour, white wheat flour, and occasionally spelt, oat and teff flour.

Besides shaping the flour into a loaf of bread, I also shape it into leavened pita bread, pizza, focaccia, pretzels, and sometimes bagels and hamburger buns.

But the basic process until shaping is pretty much the same.

I also make some flat breads, with no leavening, and pancakes.

It's definitely worth it, for a lot of reasons.

I don't make noodles or pasta: in my view that's too much work with little added benefit, especially if you buy durum semolina pasta, one ingredient, durum semolina.

[atlguy44]

Also make my Arepas at home. That way I control the amount of sodium in them.

[Bungalove]

Nope. The only bread I eat anyway is Dave's Killer Bread, the thin-sliced with all the seeds and whole grains in it. It takes me a while to go through one loaf by myself as it is, but I just love that stuff, and it's fairly low sodium as well.