Is it cheaper to make your own bread with a breadmaker? And is it as good?

[IlanaK]

We currently spend about £2-£3 per loaf of bread as we buy the really good solid loaves (usually spelt) from the farmer's market or places like Flour Power.

I have bought cheaper bread in supermarkets (including more expensive ones like M+S) and it just does not compare. We like a really solid loaf where the bread really fills you up.

So, if I got a breadmaker, can I make this type of bread? And is it much cheaper? How much does it cost per loaf (not including the cost of the machine)? And are they easy to use? I have three young kids so no time!

Thanks.

I won't pay the price for good bread and I hate cheap bread so I use my breadmaker all the time. It is very easy to use, you just put it all in and leave it for approx 3 hours. I haven't worked out the cost but you only use small amounts of everything except the flour. My nicest flour is £2.80 from the farm shop but I also get some from Lidl. The only downside is that we eat it quickly!

yes and better, we use Tesco's own at 42p which makes 3 loaves

Yes much cheaper and way better.

I use organic ingredients and it only works out about 50p a loaf.

I've no idea if it's cheaper but droooool @ home made bread. Mum used to make it and it's delish warm with butter.

We didn't like the breadmaker stuff tbh. DH never really made a decent loaf with it. He makes it by hand and it is gorgeous!!!

Doesn't last long in this house with 4 dc tho.

It is way cheaper than bought loaves.

cheaper, but you have to weigh up the fact that everyone will eat lots more, because it tastes so bloody good!

Thanks everyone for the responses. I thought it must be cheaper than what we buy, but just was not sure. I don't mind everyone eating more to be honest as I am trying to redo our weekly menus to be cheaper. My kids are still young enough that I control what they eat anway.

Ok, so any recommendations on what to look out for in buying one?

Panasonic, ours is now 4 years old and is great.

Panasonic - had mine 7 years, it is now used every single day, nothing ever gone wrong with it.

Because I'm using it every day I'm using a non organic bread mix as our every day bread - it's 24p in Waitrose. Yesterday I chucked in the free packet of cranberries that came with the Ocado shopping. It is yum.

I also make 'good' organic bread with spelt flour - works out at about 75p per loaf

Thank you both. Organic spelt is probably what we would make. At 75p a laof, that is way less than the £2-3 we currently pay!

We're recent converts to a bread machine here.

I've not worked out the cost of a made-from-scratch loaf but it is loads cheaper than the bakery bread we used to buy (around £1.30)

We've also used some bread mixes from Lidl (99p -makes 2 loaves), including sunflower seed bread and multigrain, that have been lovely

Make it by hand, so much nicer (and much cheaper too if you use fresh yeast). If you truly buy 'really good' loaves you will never achieve the same in a breadmaker, but you could easily do so by hand.

Doesn't really take much time, even with 3 young children (I've been there, done exactly that with 3 under-fives!) - for a basic recipe, literally 5-10 minutes of your time, then a bit of time sitting around unsupervised (the dough that is, although you're welcome to sit around too!), then another 2-5 minutes of your time and lastly a bit of cooking time.

It rises beautifully in the fridge too, if that fits in better with your routine. And once you've got the hang of the basic recipes, it's a doddle to move onto other recipes like sourdough or more 'artisan' loaves or whatever.

Looking at costs, I would say a loaf costs anywhere between 40p and £1, depending on what sort of flour I use - the upper limit being organic spelt from our farm shop. So really it's up to you what ingredients you choose.

I can see how loaves work (I assume the Panasonic comes with different sized tins?) - but what about bread rolls/different shapes? Do you make it in the breadmaker then cook in the oven?

if you're paying that much for a loaf then it is probably cheaper to make it in a bread machine.

we make all our own in a bread machine and for us it makes economic sense for us because the shops are quite far and we buy the ingredients in bulk.

can't be arsed kneading it by hand.

I use a cookworks breadmaker £25 approx, from Argos and Hovis bread mix (30p) and user the dough setting. 90 mins later I mould it into a loaf shape and plonk into a silicon 3lb tin, cover with greaseproof, turn oven to 180 degrees centigrade, wait until the loaf has risen above the tin, by which time the oven has warmed up and bake for 20 mins. The machine I have had for 5 years and no probs and it's not too much to spend if you decide you don't want to continue. As our local bread is about £1.40 per loaf and it's processed!, I think that about 50p per loaf foir home-made is great! Haven't tried slow rise bread yet, need a good recipe, anyone got one?

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Yes and Yes

Buy my flour from here in 25kg bags.

There is bound to be a mill near you. I think I worked out ours is 55p for a medium wholemeal loaf (14 substantial slices)

Ahh, Flour Power, you connoisseur!

check with your local independent healthfood shop or farmer's market or the like.

we get ours in bulk from there.

We've had our Panasonic for 13 years and it is only just starting to play up.

They are wonderful things. Ours are about 50-55p a loaf, too.

I have a friend that is bulk ordering from Suma at wholesale prices once a month. I bet I could get a great flour from them.

I really cannot see myself making it from scratch without a breadmaker - however nice the bread is.

Yes, flour power is lovely. And we even have an indepandant bakery shop on my street that only makes bread - lovely!

But I am desperate to cut all our costs so £2-3 a loaf at least twice a week is a lot of money.

I will look into the panasonic one - sounds good.

Which Panasonic do you all have? I have looked and there are two models.

Thanks for the link to that mill too. They have lovely variety of flours. I am going to compare prices locally and see the difference.

How long can flour keep? I live in a flat so no cool storage like a garage or anything. And in winter, the flat is actually quite hot.

Ilana - I could practically have posted your question myself - we pay just that for our bread, now can't bear supermarket bread that hasn't risen properly. But I don't know if breadmaker bread will be as good - certainly it isn't when my stepmother makes it, but that may just be her...

So now that everyone has answered the main question, a couple of follow-ups.

Can you use a breadmaker just to knead it (this is the bit that I am frankly not that good and/or patient enough for) and then cook it in the oven?

And can you make sourdough loaves with them?

And Ilana - where are you? I can recommend loads of good places for spelt in the SW, but if you are buying from FlourPower, I suspect you're not there.

this shower sell round us, and mail order, but my brief google seems to suggest that Ocado are also selling their flour too.

You can just knead it, that's how you make cakes and rolls and pizza dough in it not that I would know of course.

My onlky other hard earned tip is: put salt in. You really, REALLY miss it when it's not there, it tastes vile!

You will probably have trouble storing a lot of flour if you don't have somewhere cool, but 8kg or so at a time would get used quite quickly. Really any decent flour like Doves Farm is still cheaper than artisan/bakery bread.

Are you London then? Does anyone stand at Borough market doing flours, for instance?