Hey, c/frugal, I was reading through this little post, (https://lazysoci.al/post/23833029) when a comment about baking bread reminded me of something I had heard back on reddit: that apparently baking bread is a great way to be frugal. <br> I haven’t had bread for a while, and would love to engage with the bread-eating community again, and so I wish to ask your favorite frugal bread recipes! From loaves to naan, I would love your input :) <br> P.S. I would also love to ask what you all think of breadmakers, are they a good frugal buy?
We make pizza every weekend, so 1 or 2 dough at a time.
And we make bread with a generous amount of trail mix added at least 2 or three times a week.
Our entire level bread machine paid for itself in a few months.
And we could be using it to make all kinds of dough and bread. One of my most used appliances.
My wife bakes two loafes of sourdough bread every Weekend, without a breadmaker or anything Its always great, even when its “bad” its still way better than any storebought bread
I bought an old bread machine from a thrift store for $15. Took a little bit, but I found it’s original manual online and it had a bunch of recipes in there. We usually use the basic white bread recipe in a 2 pound loaf (matches the programs it has). Recipe is as follows:
1.25 cups +2tbsp of hot water
3tbsp sugar
3tbsp oil
1.5tsp salt
4 cups bread flour (I use all purpose and it works fine)
4tsp yeast
The program mixes the bread for about 5-10 minutes, then bake for a little under an hour. So in about an hour and pennies worth of ingredients, we have a homemade loaf of bread. The only issue I have is storing it and keeping it away from the air. The stuff gets stale pretty quick. That’s when I make French Toast. Good luck with your search.
For making a bread that doesn’t go stale, there’s a trick of mixing about 40% of the flour with a bit of water, heating it on a stove until it turns into a coagulated paste and then chilling it before mixing it back into the dough. That’s how I make a brioche type yeast bread, but it should be possible to do for regular bread too.
I make all my own bread, never owned a bread maker. Sourdough is delicious and healthy, but takes some planning. Highly recommend pantrymama.com for all things sourdough.
Pro tip, bread of any type freezes really well. I bake a loaf, slice it, and put slips of parchment in between each slice so I can pull one or two pieces out at a time. Never put it in the fridge though, because that just makes it stale.
King Arthur flour is another good resource (and good flour). They have a hotline where you can get help if needed.
Here’s a 4 ingredient Artisan loaf recipe that is foolproof:
Less than $1.75 cad with ‘regular priced’ groceries. If you buy bulk, etc, the cost drops below $1.40.
