Baking Dough to Make $ome Dough!

We’ve all been feeling it lately. The sharp rise in the price of everything due to recently unheard of inflation rates. Pandemic, War, Supply Chain Shortages, you name it! They’ve all contributed in part. Among other things, the price of food has felt it the worst. Whether it’s due to actual direct inflationary causes, or perhaps more blatant price gouging (aka Loblaws), whose to say. And does it really matter at this point? That shite’s gone crazy high.

Not too long in the recent past, you use to be able to… :

…get a dozen eggs at shoppers routinely for ~$1.79.

…get a loaf of bread at No Frills for ~$1.69.

…buy a 24 pack of pop for under ~$8-9.

…and you used to be able to buy a cheap microwave dinner for $1.50

Not anymore!

Some things increased moderately, and others, well I don’t know what the hell would cause something to literally increase 100% of their baseline. But that ends here! At least for me! At least for bread! Today I want to talk about baking the dough, to make some dough!

What We Do

Our family makes most of our food at home. Always have. Not that we don’t go out to eat from time to time, but that’s mainly relegated to fast food stops, like McDonald’s. And of all places, that one seems to have disappointed us much less often than any other eat-in restaurant, and in several categories; food quality, food consistency, time, and price.

I also always pack my food with me for work. Lots of food. Lots of options. The few times I’ve ordered delivery, it’s again been a massive disappointment due to the soggy, bland mess of crap, compounded by the overpriced prices of said crap!

One thing I had been packing fairly consistently were those cheap microwave dinners. Usually priced at $2 a pop, occasionally on for $1.50, and even sometimes down to $0.99. You know, the Michelina’s type. But add in a handful of frozen peas and few pieces of cooked chicken and I’d be good to go. Not the most tasty stuff, but good enough, nutritious enough, and cheap! But I’ve stopped buying these because they’ve gone up to $3.50 or higher. What a dump truck of silliness!

It Get Worse

Then I saw recently at my local grocer – while not known for being an overly economical place to shop – had a 24 pack of Coke for $15!!!! FIFTEEN dollars! And that’s BEFORE tax! Never will I ever! Well, there was this one time in Italy where I ended up having to pay $8 for a can of pop. But that’s a different story.

The last straw for me, was bread. I like my whole wheat, no-name style sandwich bread. It’s a staple. My wife happened to be getting some of the weight watchers brand of whole wheat bread. Not that she needs it! Now, my normal no name whole wheat loaf could typically be procured for $2 or under. It’s now gone up to $2.50, and even $3.50 at times. The Dempsters brand is even higher at $4. And this weight watchers loaf, which by the way is absolutely NOT different in any nutritional category from a normal whole wheat loaf, other than be sliced thinner, is in fact 30% smaller than a normal loaf, yet comes with a 150% price premium for a whopping $6+!

Like what the hell! There’s no way I’ll be voluntarily succumbing to this nonsense!

So, I immediately thought to myself, “This is a bunch of silly hogwash! I might as well try and make my own bread.” And that’s what I set off to do. Near immediately, I sought out and bought the closest bag of white and whole wheat flour that I could find, a fresh bag of sugar, and a jar of instant yeast.

Then I began investigating recipes.

Warm and Fresh!

Did I know what I was getting into? Not really. Had I baked bread before? Nope. In my youth, I dabbled in cookies and the occasional cakes. But I had no idea about any of this active yeast, dry yeast, proofing, kneading, etc. It was definitely going to be a good time!

It’s funny to me when I say that, because during my childhood and teen years, my dad got into bread baking, and had a bread machine. We had fresh bread quite regularly, however, I never actually ventured into making it. I do remember those fresh, hot, buttery slices! Mmmmm!

Now my goal of all this, was not to make the tastiest, best DIY bread possible. I just wanted to make what I already eat. A basic, whole wheat bread that is soft, edible, toastable, etc. It had to be a no muss, no fuss, quick, easy, and CHEAP!!

And of all the recipes I could have ended up starting with, I wound up using by a YouTube baker named Jenny.

Cooking with Jenny

I found this YouTube channel called Jenny Can Cook fairly quickly. It featured this moderately sort-of-old lady, who was kinda funny, felt very familiar, and had some good recipes. At least they looked tasty and easy. And it was only after a few days that I looked more into her ABOUT section, and discovered it was none other than Jenny frigin’ Jones, the talk show host from the early 2000’s! I used to go home during public school and watch her at lunch time! Forget Maury. Forget Ricky Lake. Forget Jerry Springer. Jenny Jones was where it was at! Lol. Good times.

It turns out she has a bit of a cooking passion. The first recipe I tried was her White Artisan Bread Loaf. 4 ingredients. That’s it! No kneading necessary. Minimal time commitment. Just a little bit of patience. I didn’t even have the recommended dutch oven. Just a cooking pot with tin foil on top. Man did it ever turn out good! Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. Best of all, it could be made for under $1.00 of total ingredients. In fact, about $0.60 worth of flour and yeast.

That one was a white flour recipe. Most things with white flour are considered better tasting and usually turn out fluffier and less dense the alternative. But my ultimate goal was whole wheat. So I moved on to the next recipe.

The next loaf I tried was 100% whole wheat, again artisan style, because I didn’t have any loaf tins. And it was… ok… a bit dense for my liking, but still dirt cheap!

The 3^rd recipe was the hit! A bit more complicated than the previous two. I had three loafs pans by that point which I had recently ordered online. You know things are getting serious when you order loaf tins on Amazon for 1 day shipping! The recipe also involved hand kneading the dough for 10-12 minutes. So that’s what I did… Mostly. I also tripled the recipe to make 3 loaves. More precisely, I made 3 single recipes. I hand kneaded the dough for all 3. That’s a lot of work, let me tell you. By the end of the first one, my kneading muscles started to ache. I cut corners on the last two, and used more of a “rolling” as opposed to a “kneading” technique, but it seemed to do the trick.

They rose better than the first whole wheat recipe I had tried. They baked well and turned out nicely! Their smell and taste was notably better than store bought, which by comparison smelt like dog kibbles. I froze one of the loaves. It thawed out fine with minimal texture/flavour changes. I used old bread bags to store them in.

The main issue I still had with that recipe however, was the hands on time. Apart from the mixing, I don’t want to do 35 minutes worth of kneading to make 3 loaves. Then, I remembered one of Jenny Jones’ easy bread videos, where she used a dough mixer for a couple minutes before doing a minute or two of hand kneading. While I don’t have a dough mixer, I did have a food processor which had been laying dormant for a number of years too long! So I figured, why not try it out!

Improving the Process

I made the recipe again, this time mixing everything with the food processor. I processed that dough for about 90 to 120 seconds for each loaf, which seemed to get it into a descent pliable mass. It’s a bit unnerving once all the flour combines with the liquids and transforms into a heavy dough-ball, where it begins bouncing around so much you think the food processor is going to blow up!

After the mixing, came the proofing (rise) and shaping. The proofing accidentally went longer than the recipe called for, because I had to go pick of the family from school. It cooked well again and turned out to almost the height of store bought whole wheat bread. So I’d call that a success! The only thing I’d experiment more with is adding a bit of white flour next time, as this is supposed to help with any lacking gluten development that is part of the challenges of baking with 100% whole wheat.

Oh, and if you’re wondering how to get the soft fluffy crust that store breads have, just leave your baked bread in a bread bag. Something about keeping the moisture contained inside the loaf softens the crust. It should soften within the day.

All in all, the cost remained about $1 per loaf. There is something strangely satisfying about being able to bake your own bread. It’s both visceral and primal. Something that appears so basic of a task, yet so essential and ancient of a skill-set. You don’t need anything fancy to do it. You don’t need a bread maker. You don’t even really need a food processor. Just a couple simple ingredients and a little bit of effort.

I’ve done this process several times now, and am probably up to approximately 15 loaves. It doesn’t take that much hands-on time to make them. In fact, I find it takes more total time to clean the bowls and food processor than it does to put the dough together. Otherwise, you’re just waiting around for the proofing/rising and cooking parts.

Are there times when I still buy bread? Yes. If I don’t have enough time, or if it’s NOT $4 a loaf, perhaps around $2 is more reasonable, then I might grab a couple.

I also tried out a couple of homemade Subway bread recipes because the kids really enjoy subway, but it’s also quite pricey in it’s own right.

This recipe is to make a Subway Italian Herb and Cheese bread. I’ve made it once so far and it turned out great! I didn’t bother with the potato flakes though. It’s fun to make and see it all come together!

Is it worth the time, energy, and money to bake your own bread? I think so, especially if you’re using solid speed hacks. And it tastes better! And you can feel proud about it and share it with others! But even if it takes a little time, it’s sure better than having to fork out $4+ dollars a loaf! That’s plain silly!

What about you? Do you make your own bread?