So, the other day I decided to bake my own bread from scratch, which is something that I've always wanted to try, but never taken the time to do.
Baking your own bread is a great way to know exactly what's going into your bread, not to mention a great way to save money.
I bought a bag of flour for $2, a bottle of spring water for 90 cents, and a tub of instant dried yeast for $4.80.
Out of pure curiosity, I did a few calculations and worked out that my bag of flour would give me 2 and a half loaves of bread, the one bottle of water would make me 4 loaves of bread, and the instant dried yeast would make me 40 loaves of bread.
That means that my loaf of bread cost me 80 cents worth of flour, 22 cents worth of filtered water (I used bottled water because I wasn't sure if tap water might kill the yeast? Not to mention the fact that our tap water tastes disgusting!), and 12 cents worth of yeast to make.
So, based on my calculations above, I worked out that I can essentially make my own bread for around $1.14 per loaf. Not bad when you consider that bread from the shops can cost anywhere between $1.90 - $7.20!
Although there are some loaves of bread that aren't super expensive, with the way things are going at the moment, why not make every cent count (not to mention that some of the cheaper loaves of bread aren't necessarily the healthiest!)?
That was another satisfying thing that I liked about making my own bread - I knew exactly what ingredients went into it! No preservatives or weird ingredients that I can't pronounce or have never heard of, just wholemeal flour, water and dried instant yeast.
The first thing that I did was measure out my cup and a half of water which I put in the microwave for 30 seconds - water that is too hot will kill the yeast, so be careful.
I then added and mixed in 2 and a quarter teaspoons of instant dried yeast until I could see little bubbles and the water changed colour.
Next step was adding the 3 and a quarter cups of flour and mixing everything together before covering the dough with a tea towel and leaving it on the bench overnight.
The next day, I flipped my bread out onto some baking paper that I had dusted with flour (pretty sure I used a little too much flour for this).
I then folded the baking paper over the dough so that I could shape it the way I wanted without getting it stuck all over my hands.
When my dough was the shape that I wanted, I put it into a casserole dish (still on the baking paper) that had been heating in the oven for 20 minutes at around 250 degrees Celsius.
The dough then went into the oven inside the casserole dish with the lid on for 35 minutes before the lid came off and the bread was baked for another 5 minutes.
I seemed to have a bit of trouble getting the bread to cook all the way through, so I kept putting it back into the oven for a further 5 minutes each time I pulled it out and decided it wasn't ready (I probably did this about 3 times?).
I was too scared to put the bread back in the oven for longer than 5 minutes at a time because I didn't want it to burn, or for the crust to become too hard.
In the end, I decided to pull it out of the oven before it had entirely cooked through because I didn't want to throw it out due to being too tough or too burnt.
The recipe instructions that I followed did include the use of a ceramic Dutch oven to cook the bread in, but as I didn't have one, I opted to use a casserole dish instead (metal with glass lid), so I'm not sure if maybe that was the reason that it didn't cook through properly, the way that it was meant to?
Next time I try this particular recipe, I'll buy and use a ceramic Dutch oven instead and see if that makes a difference.
When the bread was finally ready (or not really), I took it out of the oven and let it cool on a wire rack before cutting it up for a taste test.
Oddly enough, my partner (who is usually a super-fussy eater) actually loved the bread but sadly, I honestly wasn't the biggest fan of it. To me it had a little bit of a strange, slightly bitter aftertaste. I also wasn't super happy with the texture of it as I found it way too tough.
I'm wondering if I possibly left the dough sitting for too long before cooking it, causing the dough to be a little too fermented for my liking? That's another thing I may modify a little next time I try this bread recipe - I won't leave the dough rising for so long.
Leaving it overnight wasn't the problem, it was the fact that I didn't get started with my baking until late the next day due to pure laziness (hey, it was Sunday, give me a break! 😉).
I did try the bread a few different ways once cooked - just on its own with butter, buttered and dipped in vegie stew, and probably my favourite way to have it (but still didn't love it) was when Matt made it with melted butter and Vegemite.
All in all, I'd give the bread a 3/10 for flavour and a 5/10 for texture. Matt gave the bread a 9/10 for flavour and an 8/10 for texture.
Oh well, at least it looked good! 😋
I was also happy that none of it went to waste, as Matt ended up eating it all.
Have you ever had a go at baking your own bread? If so, what recipe did you use, and how did yours turn out?
If you haven't baked your own bread yet, do you think it's something you might try in the future?
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Lisa. 😊 xx
That looks AMAZING!! 😄