Is it worth baking bread/scones etc?

[LadyMaryofDownt0n]

Trying to save money by making bread, scones, puddings by making them at home. DH thinks it's not saving money but here's my thinking.

We live 4 miles from the nearest town so it's an 8 mile trip for one loaf of bread every day if we've ran out. Average loaf is 89p on offer or £1 if not. I like brown, DH likes white the kids like to have the choice of both.

I'd by all ingredients the cheapest I can find & I wouldn't be using a machine. I'd also have an aga so electric isn't an issue either.

Does it sound worth it?

I'd also like to bake my own garlic bread, pizza bases, pancakes. You name it I'll try it.

Personally, fairy cakes scones pizza base etc is a saving based on shop prices but I'm not sure on bread. It depends on your usage etc and what you put into it.can you be bothered every day??
If you buy 2 loaves of each & freeze them you wouldn't be back & fro the shop

I really don't think there's a lot in it from a money saving point of view, but your homemade efforts would probably be much more delicious and wholesome than the mass produced stuff.

so I say go for it!

IME you don't save much compared to the price if you normally buy from a basics range, but what you produce will be much nicer. It's a lot of labour for the pennies saved, but if you enjoy it and it saves you a trip to the shops then why not? It will also be better for you because your own bread will have less salt, sugar and additives. I find it very homely and life-affirming having lovely freshly baked bread all the time - it's something I do for quality-of-life reasons rather than to save money but the money saved is a bonus. (I knead in a bread machine or stand mixer, though, which saves most of the effort.)
Oh, and home-made pizza bases are way, way better than bought!

I make my own pizza bases, naan, tortillas, scones, fairy cakes etc etc
but the only thing I don't bake regularly is bread! If I find lovely flour on offer in Aldi then I do.
The thing is, if you look at the ingredients on shop bought pizza bases/scones etc there are often tons of completely pointless and unhealthy things in there.
Also homemade pizza bases and naan are 100x nicer than the board-like shop bought versions, so on that basis alone it's well worth doing!

Oh and I second Countess that there is something really nice and homey about standing there with a curry bubbling away, kneading your own naan bread.
I like thinking about the generations upon generations of women all over the world doing the same thing, in all their different kitchens!
(and before anyone flames me I'm a feminist through and through, just like thinking about the working class women, everywhere, all doing similar things)

Lots of great points made, thank you.

Yes, your all right it will be much healthier as well which is a reason alone to do it.

Bad.. Right there with you on that front!

Right looks like I'd better get started then :)

Oh feel free to contribute any recipies, I literally have no idea where to start. Pinterest should help.

The loaf you make will compare to very expensive (think £2.50) 'artisan' bread!

DH makes all our bread (just the two of us) & once you get into the routine & rythm of it it really doesn't take long. It takes about 10 - 15 mins (if you knead by hand) from getting the flour etc out to finishing the washing up. Then it just sits & rises and once you get the hang of it you can control that a bit by the temperature of the room you put it in. Then into tins, after a short knead, leave to rise & into the oven.

Dan Lepard books (library!) are great & a lot of his recipes are on line.

To start with your family will eat far more bread but will get used to it as the norm.

DH says the book:

Bread Matters by Andrew Whitely is the best he's ever used.

I like Bread Matters too.

The pikelets from here are lovely
I make smaller I think because a batch gives me loads, I freeze as soon as they are cool.

You could do pitta breads too. Home made is so much nicer.

In the run up to Christmas Tesco do flour and yeast of 3 for 2. Aldi/Lidl flour is really good.

Actually if you save the crusts and make them into breadcrumbs you can use them for treacle tart.

Pastrys easy in a food processor.

I went through a spell of making that no knead artisan bread which was all the rage a few years back. Sadly my waistline suffers I even think of bread, not to mention chronic indigestion. I say go for it. See how it goes.

Pizza bases (we use delias four seasons recipe), foccacia, fairy cakes all much cheaper.

A brill scotch pancake recipe that we use all the time is
240g SR flour, 60g caster sugar, 2 eggs and half a pint of milk - beat together, fry in a nonstick pan over a medium heat (you kind of bake them in the pan rather than fry in loads of oil) - rather than buying them 6 tiny pale ones in the shop for £1

We are overweight though, be careful!

I make rolls, baguettes, scones, pancakes, pizza bases etc. All those usually work out cheaper and are much nicer. I do make bread but we go through a lot so not every day. Homemade is much nicer though and it's relatively easy once you get into it and the reality is when you have all the stuff in your cupboard you never run out again.

Panasoic make the bread here, I just bung the ingredients in and push start.

How do you make nann bread? I fancy giving that a go.

frugalfeeding.com/2016/01/05/homemade-naan-bread/

This is a good recipe cindy, and a good blog!

Thanks. They worked, though think my mixture may have been a bit too wet.

mmmmm - That frugal feeding site looks great.

I make my own bread and cakes, cheaper and nicer.
River Cottage Bread is a great starting point, my first attempts were brick like but improved with practice. Good luck.