Frugal Sourdough

The kids and I (mostly me) were wondering just how cost effective making your own bread its. Taste aside, is it worth it?

We drew up a graph, went to the store and found the best price for all ingredients. We came home and after jotting down the recipes discovered generically: Yes, it is worth it.
(Not counting gas to purchase it or electricity/gas to cook it.)

The only variable would be if you hated making bread or you felt that it wasn't worth any effort to save one dollar or if you went through a whole cube of butter every time you pulled a loaf from the oven.

The only exception is that I regularly buy a sliced, hearty whole grain bread for sandwiches. I don't care for my homemade 100% wheat, as I mentioned before, but I everyone eating that for lunches.

For example, 2 loaves of French bread costs $1.03 to make, compared to $3.79 for 2 similar sized loaves. Country white bread (with milk, eggs and butter) was $1.26 and wheat came to $1.12. My most expensive loaf was Northern Maine Oatmeal bread using molasses, honey, oats and egg. It cost $1.40 each loaf. Imagine what you'd pay at a specialty shop. Keep in mind though this was using unbleached flour, real butter or extra virgin olive oil. Good stuff.

By far, the greatest savings was in my quick sourdough. The cost of this loaf was .78 cents. Directions: Place 3 cups of flour into a bowl. Add 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp of sugar. Stir. Make a well in the center of the flour. Add 1/4 tsp of yeast. (yes that's all) (Note the following has been edited because of a mistake) Add enough water to 2 Tablespoons Apple cider vinegar to make 1 1/2 cups of liquid. Pour it on to the yeast. Stir well.
Let it sit covered, but not air tight for 24 hours.

For awhile I would stir up a new batch while the previous day's bread was baking. It became an easy routine because this bread is so simple.

It has a lovely texture. Pull the dough from the bowl and lightly press into a ball on a generously floured surface. You don't knead to need, you don't even need to knead. Pinch the bottom together to form a ball. Place on a lightly greased piece of tin foil and place a dutch oven in your oven, heat both to 450 degrees.

I haven't tried it without my dutch oven based on a podcast I watched from cooksillustratedonline.com.

You then lift the tin foil and transfer the bread to the hot dutch oven. Cover with the lid and bake for 30-35 minutes.