Make your own bread
(Flickr photosource – thanks fuzuoko)
Buy a bread-making machine and start baking your own. It’s quicker to put all the ingredients in the machine than to run to the local supermarket or bakery. The bread is healthier, and you can choose a different type each day.
Depending on what sort of bread-maker you get, you could even have a day a week when you bake other goodies – like healthy cookies, the odd cake or two – and put these into lunch boxes instead of crisps and chocolates.
And you don’t have to get a bread maker, of course. You could just do it the good old-fashioned way – kneading your dough and baking it in your oven. It’s just that a bread maker gives great results with the minimum effort.
(Thanks to Vanessa for this suggestion.)
Here’s the ‘Which’ review of bread making machines
And here’s a BBC web page all about baking your own bread
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mavis, AF , 09 Apr 2009
I make wheat free bread (I live in North London so I have to be wheat free and drink soya milk, otherwise they’ll chase me out of Stoke Newington). Unfortunately you don’t have to knead it, which was something that I was looking forward to doing as apparently its very therapeutic. But it does make it a quick process, and if I bake a small loaf I put half of it in the freezer for toasting later.
Kingston upon Thames, GB , 05 May 2009
Been doing this since 2003 – I rarely ever buy bread and can’t imagine not having my own home made bread ;)
06 May 2009
I enjoy making bread – especially with the help of my christmas pressie, a super-duper certain brand name ‘chef’. It is such a doddle, measure everything, stick it in the bowl with the dough hook, switch on, wait, add drop of water if necessary. Stick bowl in airing cupboard, return to computer. Give a second quick knead with the dough hook (top tip from a friend – second kneading gives more even rising), bung in oven. Return to PC, wait. Take out bread. Now you really have to wait as over-eagerness in cutting in to the loaf causes it to sag. Finally you are allowed to add butter and jam (home-made, natch!)
new bradwell, milton keynes, GB , 21 May 2009
how easy is it to make bread with a bread maker? I burn microwave rice :( if its really (REALLY) easy i might give it a go!
Deepest, darkest Devon, GB , 22 Jun 2009
V. easy, but I find it even easier without, and doing it from scratch – it’s only flour, water, yeast and a tiny bit of sugar, after all, and basically if you don’t pull the dough apart you can’t go wrong. Cranks has a very simple recipe, or there are lots online for free.