Bread making urge...am I mad?!

[misspollysdolly]

Just been watching 'The Hairy Bakers' - love them so much!

Now feel a somewhat irrational urge to start baking my own bread. Am I mad?

Do I really have enough time? How many times a week and how many loaves will I need to bake for my family of 4+baby? (Breakfast toast mainly - not realy sandwich-y people)

Is it more trouble than it's worth?!

It's a doddle, really !

Just practice.

I have 2 grown-up + 2 kids and I bake 1 batch every three days.

You have to be around for a couple of hours, but there's only actually ten minutes work in it. It was a major eye opener for me, I thought it would be a serious hassle, but it's quite therapeutic, and after a week or so and a couple of disasters (although that may just be me) you soon get in the swing.

Best of luck, you'll never eat soft pappy shop bought again!

Thanks snigger - you've encouraged me! Will give it a go for a few weeks I think.

Why put yourself under the pressure of making enough to replace what you buy? Why not just make it when you want to for pleasure? at least until you get good at it and then if you want to make it regularly it won't be such a chore.

I have just started too and am loving the smells coming from my kitchen!

I only bought 1 loaf last week (family of 5)
so I feel pretty chuffed and its not much hassle either.

Thanks for this.. Just prompted me to go out to the kitchen and make a batch of dough to make some rolls..

I wouldn't have enough time to do it by hand, but I use my bread-maker every day.

I have only bought one loaf of bread this year, and that was because we were away camping.

I wouldn't go back to shop loafs now.

We have started making our own. It's so much nicer than shop-bought (as well as cheaper) and there are health benefits. A GP friend of mine went on a course about reducing blood pressure levels and was told that one of the easiest ways for patients to reduce salt intake - and therefore blood pressure - was to make their own bread.

I use my food processor to make bread. I have tried a bread maker and by hand and my results were always poor.

My only issue now is keeping it fresh as I always find its nearly stale by the next day.

Yes - I only out 1 teaspoon of salt in my bread. I dread to think how much goes into a shop loaf.

Mines ok for 2 days, by the 3rd day it's only good for toast.

It is so simple! We've barely bought a loaf for nearly 10 years. We are a family of five, and I tend to make 4 loaves twice a week for lunches/the occasional breakfast or tea. I keep one or two out and freeze the rest.

Then when I feel like it I might make a more 'speciality' bread or try a new bread recipe.

Like someone else said, it's almost no real work, and the 'waiting' you can fit around your everyday life.

I have a bread maker, but I also love to bake bread "properly" Hmm - maybe I should link this to my losing weight thread!

The bread maker is really easy, but so is making it the old fashioned way - once you know what you're doing (after a loaf or two) you'll find that it doesn't take much time. It takes a while to rise, but you can go off and do other stuff - the actual hands on time is probably about 20 minutes.