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Pic Courtesy of Morguefile.com
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If you are my "friend" over at facebook, then you may remember that last month I challenged myself to start making bread for our family instead of buying it. Have you seen how much bread is these days? For a healthy loaf of bread we are looking at $3.50 to $4.00 a loaf.
Of course you can always find a discount store and stock up a little less expensively. However food shopping in itself, with 3 boys, very little money, and traveling distance to the stores is like an Olympic sport for me. Add in my coupon addiction and health habits, well let's just say I end up being somewhat choosy on how many food stores I care to frequent.
So, I delved into bread making. Using my kids and husband (and a friend or two) as taste testers, I experimented with a few recipes, glass pans vs metal pans, kitchen aid mixer vs. a borrowed bread machine, packets of yeast vs. measuring it out of a bottle and so on. I came to some great conclusions!
I can now bake bread!!!
The best thing I could have done for myself, was to make the decision that I was not going to buy bread from the store at all. I refused to do it. This decision forced me to figure it all out.
For our house, we have come to some basic conclusions in bread making....
1. This house does NOT like bread machine bread. Yuck! Ugg.... never again.
2. It's better to measure the yeast, instead of using packets. Plus, it is less expensive.
3. Metal pans are better then glass! Especially when you find a set at the local Goodwill, for .97 cents! Booyah!
4. It's good to experiment with recipes and find what everyone likes.
5. Making your own bread means that you eat less bread and more butter.
6. Less bread, because you run out of it quickly.
7. More butter, because it tastes unbelievably delicious to eat piping hot homemade bread with a healthy slab of butter on it.
8. God really loves me.... He had my mom give me a Kitchen Aid mixer a year ago. I love my cobalt blue Kitchen Aid mixer..... I loooooove it.
9. I keep a laptop in the kitchen.10. This works wonders when I am looking up bread recipes! I tend to stick to allrecipes.com, but there are tons of sites out there that are helpful!
I also learned about how to get the darn bread to rise! Apparently I have a rather cold kitchen!
In the end, I am happy with my results. We are no longer buying bread!
Now, if I could just convince my husband to get me some chickens. I'd like to stop buying eggs too!
Hey Becky! I would love if you shared some of your recipes. Have you made any oatmeal or potato bread? Growing up with a Baker for a Dad and a Cook for a Mom has been great for my kitchen skills, but I have been really struggling with my bread making for some reason. I have a hard time getting the kneading time right in the kitchen aid. Any advice?
ReplyDeleteCamille
This is so awesome! :) I love to try to find the "perfect/most liked" way to make something! :)I REALLY want to get a laptop to keep in my kitchen too - just not sure what kind yet and how much it will cost! One day, I will have one too! :)
ReplyDeleteCamille,
ReplyDeleteThe Honey Oatmeal recipe above is my favorite so far. Although, I def have had to tweak it, adding more flour and yeast. I found if the bread was too sticky, it needed more flour. And that you should let the mixer take its time by only using a maxium speed of 2. That advice was taken straight from the KA manual. Also, I just decided to be a bit stubborn by not buying bread. Which meant that I had to find at least one recipe that works for us. Trust me when I say that the birds have been eating healthily lately.
I would encourage you, that if making bread is something you want to master for your house - then keep trying. You, my friend, have always been a great baker (from what I remember!). You totally will nail the bread making!
@Promises - I have a fabulous father in law, who scored a couple used laptops and hooked us up. This would be the second used one that I have had. And I keep it in my kitchen all the time. My husband has wifi in our house which makes it that I can access internet all day long. I keep up with everything, we also put a Google calendar that he and I both access up to help us with schedules. I'm telling you, it is a life saver! That and I am beyond blessed....
ReplyDelete