Homemade Bread: Is It Worth It?

Last week I went to the supermarket and bought a ten-pound bag of flour. The cashier scanned it with a sour frown on her mouth, looked up at the price and asked, "You like to bake, huh?"

"Yup," I said, "I love the smell of fresh bread in the house."

"How do you find the time?" she asked, shaking her head. "I can barely get a frozen dinner on the table."

"Yeah," I said, "but it doesn't take as much time as you'd think. And it's worth it."

"Really?" she asked. "Is it worth it?"

REALLY, IT IS WORTH IT.

Bread can be made with just four ingredients:
• flour
• water
• yeast
• salt

For a richer flavor and texture, you can add:
• honey or sugar
• oil
• eggs

That's it!

It's kind of amazing how many different types of bread you can make using the same exact ingredients. If you change up the type of flour you're using, you increase the number of choices exponentially.

As for the cost-benefit analysis...

With one ten-pound bag of flour, I made the following:


4 loaves sourdough
1 large challah plus 2 small challah rolls
1 large oatmeal/wheat boule
1 dozen sweet potato rolls
3 dozen chocolate chip cookies
2 dozen sugar cookies
1 dozen soft pretzels
2 batches pancakes

The flour cost $8.95. Additional ingredients included a sweet potato, whole wheat flour (a couple of pounds), malted milk powder (a few teaspoons), honey (a few tablespoons), semolina flour (a few tablespoons), oatmeal (about a cup), oil (a cup), eggs (a half dozen), and salt (several teaspoons). All those things combined couldn't have cost more than $15.00. So by baking at home, I've saved quite a bit of money. If I had bought all those loaves of bread, cookies, pretzels, pancakes, etc., at the supermarket, I'm guessing I would have spent about $60.00.

But is it worth the time?

The cashier had also asked me "When do you have time to bake?"

Well, first of all, I find the time because I love to bake. But the real answer is that homemade bread doesn't actually take that much time out of my day.

Here's an example of what many people would consider a ton of time spent making two sourdough loaves. (This can serve as a recipe, too, for those of you who'd like to try this at home.)

Saturday 12:00 PM (5 minutes) — Take 1 cup sourdough starter out of the fridge, mix in 1/2 cup water and 1 cup flour. In a few hours this will triple in size and be considered "fed starter."

Saturday 5:00 PM (5 minutes) — Remove 1 cup of fed starter, put it in a large bowl, mix in 1.5 cups water and 3 cups flour. Cover the bowl with a towel and let it rest at room temperature. (Put the rest of the fed starter back in the fridge.)

Saturday 10:00 PM (2 seconds)— Put the bowl in the fridge, covered with a towel.

Sunday 8:00 AM (15 minutes) — Take the bowl out of the fridge, add 1 tablespoon raw honey, 2 heaping teaspoon salt, and 1 to 2 cups more flour. Mix into a shaggy mess and let sit at room temp.

Sunday 9:00 AM (30 seconds) — Fold dough a few times, shaping into a ball. Cover dough ball with oil and put it back in the bowl. Cover with a towel.

Sunday 10:00 AM (30 seconds) — Fold dough a few more times, cover back up, and let rise in warm place for about 5 hours.

Sunday 3:00 PM (2 minutes) — Take dough out of bowl and divide into two portions, shape into loaves, place on parchment paper to proof for about 3 hours.

Sunday 6:00 PM (2 minutes) — Turn oven on, place pan of water in oven. Heat oven to 450 degrees, place loaves in oven. Bake for 30 minutes.

Sunday 6:30 PM (1 second) — Remove loaves from oven to cool on wire rack.

Sunday 7:00 PM (1 second) — Slice bread and eat!

Total time spent "doing" stuff = 30 minutes and 3 seconds.

Total time rising, proofing, and baking without your having to "do" anything = about 30 hours.

The hard part can be getting the timing right. What I've discovered is that at any point in the rising or proofing process, I can slow things down by putting the dough in the fridge (or in my supercold pantry that used to be an entryway). For example, three hours proofing can turn into eight hours overnight if that works better for our weekend schedule.

Let me know if you try this or want a piece of sourdough starter!