It costs more to make your own bread?

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Im not sure if this is true and there are different ways of making bread which might be cheaper. I use an oven and a 'no knead' method which means putting the oven on for a very long time.

I think this is costing me more than a loaf of bread might do? Or at least the same

Oven goes on for 40 mins at 240 degrees, then bread goes in for about the same time, perhaps a little more. So nearly 1.5hrs of really high heat.

The ingredients probably dont cost that much, I get the flour and yeast in Aldi.

I think in a breadmaker it must be cheap as chips

Or if you only had the oven on a shorter time for properly made bread.

Mary Berry does a farmhouse loaf that only needs 45 mins in the oven, and 30 of those are on 180.

I agree fresh bread tastes so much better!

If you hate kneading you can do a soda bread with just 40 mins baking. Mix flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda in one bowl. Mix milk and buttermilk in other bowl. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix with a round bladed knife, plop onto floured surface, make a ball, stick on baking tray, score, bake,

You may be able to speed up the preheat by putting a kettle full of boiling water in the Dutch oven. Pour it out when the sides get warm, then into the oven already warmed.

Top tip I read on here years ago. You can usually get fresh yeast from the bakery in supermarkets, just ask.

Usually free, or a nominal charge.

Then don't use a no-knead method, so your oven isn't on as long, and make several loaves at a time, and freeze them. It tastes just as good, just I find sometimes the crust separates a bit after thawing out. Also big bread rolls freeze well. And buy better flour, say from a mill or online, the flavour difference is amazing.

Thats reassuring

Mine has five: flour, water, yeast, olive oil, salt. Made in breadmaker for less than a quid. Tastes delicious!

And this is a stupid question, how do I check the temperature of my oven?

I make a couple/few loaves a week. I have a dough hook in my mixer which saves time and no extra kneading. I do two loaves at a time, turn the oven on to 200 about 5 mins before putting them in and it’s on for half an hour. It’s quick, cheap, tastes better, healthier, I use the same recipe for loaves, rolls, plaits, pittas.

Oh no, what have you done to me now!!!

Im going to have to investigate that arent I, the slow cooker option

Only last night I was reading about the airfryer, I have an airfryer oven, not a tiny airfryer so I want to experiment with that because thats bound to be cheaper to run but its too small for the dutch oven, it wont fit in

I might try for less time then, the woman I was watching on youtube, quite a number of different people actually, had their pots in for a long time while the oven heated up.

The bread doesnt wasted here either.

Gas
Ingredients
Travelling to purchase ingredients
Transportation costs
Potential wate of excess ingredients

I think that is probably properly kneaded bread though isnt it. I cant do all that.

I think my OH showed me an article in the Guardian that set all this off, I didnt even realise you can make bread without kneading it unless it was soda bread, IU made that many years ago but I didnt like the texture or taste. Shame as its nice and easy

That is a brilliant idea thanks

I did this yesterday as I realised we’d ran out of bread, I was wfh and had time to quickly stir this up and bake before dcs got up.
So much better than shop bought. I keep forgetting how easy it is and end up buying bread when I do the supermarket shop.

I make 6-8 sourdough loaves a week and worked out the cost at around £1 a loaf (including electricity). I’d be at least £4 a loaf for the equivalent I.e. not from a supermarket

The warm up time sounds way over the top for a cast iron pot, but even so, the cost is likely cheaper than a comparable shop bought loaf.

You could experiment with a shorter pre-heat, also heat the pot when you're already using the oven for something else.

But unless you're on a very tight budget, as you don't make this bread very often, the cost is probably not worth worrying about.

For the airfryer I used the 2 tin method..so 2 x 1lb loaf tins with the dough and a couple of ice cubes in one, with another tin on top. Cooked at 200 for 15 mins with "lid" and then top tin removed and another 15 mins at 200. I used a meat thermometer to check the internal temp and was done. The lid recreated the steamy/sealed atmosphere of the dutch oven. Loaf not quite as good but still better than anything sliced/upf from.the supermarket

No Im not worried about it, I was just musing to myself that I thought it might cost more than shop bought. And I suppose if you're not fussy it definitely would cost more

We only make about a loaf a fortnight, takes that long to get through it and we barely use the oven now so not concerned, just interested

But I would like to know if I can shorten the preheat time as that would save me time overall

180 is not hot enough - I cook bread on about 220-230 (Celsius!). It is always really good.

I noticed OP gets her flour in Aldi.
Years ago, when I made bread regularly, I did a flour comparison.
One day I bought Tesco Value flour, very cheap, to make my bread.
The next day I bought Waitrose organic etc, more than twice the price.
I found the taste of the bread made from Waitrose flour much superior to the cheapest flour.
It's something worth considering.

Those who make bread in a bread maker, do you knead the dough before putting in? And if not, doesn’t the loaf come out dense and heavy?

I don’t know it’s because my bread maker wasn’t good quality but when I made loaves in there, they took far less time than in the oven and came out dense and heavy.

So I gave the bread maker away.

Another one who would never heat the dutch oven that long. Jim Lahey (the guy who first popularised this method) says to bring it up to 500 degrees and gives no time for that.

You can buy an oven thermometer, they are not very expensive and would take the guesswork out of it.

Has anyone had success in air fryer? And have recipe they could share?

I use a breadmaker we put a loaf on every 2 days id say. As others have said.
Flour. £0.33
salt. . £0.01
water. £0.01
Oil. £0.10
yeast. £0.05
Electricity £0.05
total of. £0.56 a loaf.

Even compared to a hovis loaf at £1.50 (had to google that as not bought one in years) thats cheaper.

Tastes way better and better nutrients Keeps ypu full for longer.
Should be compared to a artisan loaf at £4.00 a piece

I also googled cost of running a breadmaker

How to calculate your own cost
Find your electricity price: Look at your last energy bill for the cost per kWh.
Check your bread maker's energy use: Your appliance manual or a "kill-a-watt" gadget can provide the energy usage in kWh for a standard cycle.
Multiply: (kWh per cycle) x (cost per kWh) = cost per loaf.
A bread maker costs pence to run in electricity, though this varies with the model, cycle time, and your local electricity price per kWh. For example, Which? estimated that two loaves a week would cost between £7.53 and £11.66 annually under the October 2023 energy price cap