Anybody know how much it costs to run an oven for an hour(trying to work out if it'll be cheaper to make my own bread)???

[MilaMae]

Got the Panasonic bread maker but not keen on bread it makes so going to try doing it the old fashioned way now bread is sooo expensive(we get through masses of it). Trying to work out if it is cheaper when you add up electricity,flour and yeast.

Thanks,I'll be amazed if anybody does know

There was a thread about this last week - will have a look for you.

You could try using the dough cycle of the machine then baking in the oven and seeing if you prefer the bread that way. I make rolls that way and it must be cheaper electricity-wise. The dough cycle on the machine is 1.5 hours but if you bake as well it atkes it up to 3hrs in total but if you bake in the oven after the dough cycle it is only takes 15 mins.

Alternatively, if your dough-making skills are better than mine feel free to knead away (I found it very theraputic but it gave a shorter loaf )

To be perfectly honest with you I don't think it does actually work out cheaper to make your own bread. that is because the big supermarkets have huge buying power and can buy the raw materials much cheaper than they sell them to us. also when the economy goes south it is traditional for the big supermarkets to treat bread as a loss leader and sell it cheap, even below cost price, in order to keep their customers. hth.

Thread here

I think the general opinion at the end of the thread I linked to was that it was cheaper to make your own. For us it is but it depends on what bread you buy usually at the supermarket, where you source your flour, yeast etc for your own bread. Loads of tips on that thread and in the end, I think home made is much tastier and with no rubbish added!

Oh no, you get me wrong, I make my own bread regularly, it is definitely better and I find it enormously satisfying to make and to eat. That said, really and truly if you are just worried about price it would be virtually impossible to make a loaf cheaper than the 65p it costs in Asda for a bog standard 800g loaf.

carmenere thta's v interesting re loss leader...

Read your gas meter before and after baking and work out how many cubic metres you have used. Look on your gas bill and work out the price per cubic metre. Multiply by the number of cubic metres used.

I make bread once or twic a week and I've no idea how much gas I use! I think it doesn work out cheaper though, but that's just a hunch. You have to compare the sort of bread you would normally buy against the sort of flour you would buy. I think that if you buy stoneground, organic etc you probably won't save anything. But that's just a hunch.

I think most ovens are c 2.5-3kw, so while they are on (ie when the light is on, whether heating up from cold or cycling on and off) that's around 30p per hour these days.

I think.

Home-made bread must be soooo much nicer than soggy shop stuff though?

Ooops - I meant I think it IS cheaper to make your own (just a hunch) but much nicer and without the nasty additives.

Thanks for that. I don't like the cheaper supermarket bread either but have to buy it so am dreaming about crusty,dense w/m loaves which my Panasonic just doesn't make. It rises too much and is kind of pappy IYKWIM.

Will go with the 30p an hour suggestion until I get dp to work out the units and try to find a recipe that doesn't need long in the oven.

I'm guessing the bread machine takes less electricity than the normal oven. Might get dp to work out the difference(he's going to love me)

you could always time your bread making to match other baking/roasting jobs that you are doing anyway.

Suggestion I read somewhere recently, 'Green Kitchen' bit in Sat Times maybe, is to bake
several loaves at once in oven and freeze some. [bloke who writes it bangs on - no doubt correctly - about never using oven for just one thing.]

wouldn't it taste watery if you froze it?

I freeze excess bread all the time. Actually the opposite problem - if you don't bag it airtightly, it dries out.

In my case its breadmaker bread, DH needs salt-free but we just don't eat it fast enough and keeps better froz than not.

But the crustiness doesn't survive well.

No I freeze all my bread anyway as can't keep up with the dc we seem to demolish a loaf a day . It tastes really fresh.

I'm guessing you'd have to slice it 1st though,what a fab idea about several loaves at once that would bring the price down a lot.

I'm planning on making some this week with ds. We've bought the flour and yeast, I was going to put it in the food processor and see what happens, then cook it with the sunday roast to save the gas. I have made some nice banana loafs and strawberry loafs but this was a long time ago and I've forgoten the quantities. I find some supermarket loafs a bit tasteless, especially the one starting tith War--. I shall see if mines any better though.