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The Economics of Bread
Jan. 8th, 2012 02:39 pmMy bread maker is very busy these days. A little math made it so.
A loaf of prepackaged bread at the grocery store costs between $1.00 and $3.00, depending on what kind of bread you get. The low-end, mostly air, no-taste, no fiber store brand bread is the $1.00 stuff. A decent loaf of bread around here costs about $2.00. For $3, you get high end. Bread is, unfortunately, something you can't buy on sale and freeze--it goes stale after more than a week or two in the freezer because the moisture in the bread crystallizes and drops out.
The boys go through three to four loaves of store-bought bread a week. If I buy low-end stuff, that's about $4. If I want halfway decent bread, it's $8. We're talking between $10 and $20 per month just for bread.
A five-pound bag of flour, on the other hand, costs $1.23. Out of that, I can get about 7 loaves of home-made bread. The cost of the water, sugar, and oil are negligible. The yeast adds maybe ten cents to the cost. Cost? About 28 cents per loaf. And it's fresh bread, much higher quality, tastes delicious.
It doesn't really require a lot of effort. I have the recipe memorized. I drop everything into the bread maker, press the button, and three hours later, I have bread. I make some about every other day.
Since I always have lots of flour and yeast in the house, and a machine that does the kneading, I can also make pizza dough very easily, which saves on delivery pizza. I very rarely order it.
The bread maker cost $40. It paid for itself within a month, and I have the advantage of healthier bread that I control.
Here's the recipe I came up with after much experimentation:
3/4 c hot water
1 3/4 c flour (scant)
1 t sugar or honey
1 t salt
1 t yeast
1 T oil (olive or vegetable)
Pour water into bread maker. Add other ingredients in order on the list. Start bread maker. Check on dough at beginning--you may need to add a bit more flour or water if the dough isn't elastic enough or is too watery.
And you'll have bread!
A loaf of prepackaged bread at the grocery store costs between $1.00 and $3.00, depending on what kind of bread you get. The low-end, mostly air, no-taste, no fiber store brand bread is the $1.00 stuff. A decent loaf of bread around here costs about $2.00. For $3, you get high end. Bread is, unfortunately, something you can't buy on sale and freeze--it goes stale after more than a week or two in the freezer because the moisture in the bread crystallizes and drops out.
The boys go through three to four loaves of store-bought bread a week. If I buy low-end stuff, that's about $4. If I want halfway decent bread, it's $8. We're talking between $10 and $20 per month just for bread.
A five-pound bag of flour, on the other hand, costs $1.23. Out of that, I can get about 7 loaves of home-made bread. The cost of the water, sugar, and oil are negligible. The yeast adds maybe ten cents to the cost. Cost? About 28 cents per loaf. And it's fresh bread, much higher quality, tastes delicious.
It doesn't really require a lot of effort. I have the recipe memorized. I drop everything into the bread maker, press the button, and three hours later, I have bread. I make some about every other day.
Since I always have lots of flour and yeast in the house, and a machine that does the kneading, I can also make pizza dough very easily, which saves on delivery pizza. I very rarely order it.
The bread maker cost $40. It paid for itself within a month, and I have the advantage of healthier bread that I control.
Here's the recipe I came up with after much experimentation:
3/4 c hot water
1 3/4 c flour (scant)
1 t sugar or honey
1 t salt
1 t yeast
1 T oil (olive or vegetable)
Pour water into bread maker. Add other ingredients in order on the list. Start bread maker. Check on dough at beginning--you may need to add a bit more flour or water if the dough isn't elastic enough or is too watery.
And you'll have bread!
