I’ve often lamented the fact that what I miss most about Germany (besides family and friends, obviously!) is freshly baked, whole grain bread with a crunchy crust and a soft, dense texture inside. You just can’t find this in the U.S. Anything that comes close to it, is insanely expensive and not even that great.
And please, let’s just get one thing out of the way: the pre-packaged “bread” that you can buy at the supermarket is no real bread. It’s what we’d call toast and it needs to be put in a toaster before you eat it. Period.
I’ve posted many photos of my bread making adventures (on Instagram mostly) and I have one favorite recipe that I’ve almost perfected now. The kicker: two loaves of this bread cost less than half of what you pay for a loaf of toast at the supermarket. That’s outright insane.
Yes, you guessed it: I calculated the expense for each ingredient down to the penny. Two loaves cost me $2.13 (ok, plus the cost of heating your oven. I give you that.)
Here’s the cost break-down:
1 sleeve active dry yeast – $0.38
½ tbsp sugar = $0.02
500g bread flour – $1.16
250g rye flour – $0.25
1 tbsp salt – $0.01
1 tbsp honey – $0.31
These prices were calculated from regular priced items (you can get even cheaper if you get some or all of these items on sale!).
You easily pay over $4 for a loaf of bread at the store. That’s 50% savings right there. Plus, this bread is healthier, more filling, made from simple ingredients, and fresh out of the oven. I don’t see how you can beat that. I will admit that you need to invest a little bit of time and patience to bake from scratch, but it’s well worth the effort, if you ask me.
suki
November 14, 2015 at 4:01 pmI do love freshly baked bread. :) And yes, it’s such a cost savings if you do it yourself, which is how most cooking is.
Heather
November 14, 2015 at 5:38 pmI was hoping for a recipe!! C says the same thing about the “toast” lol!
san
November 15, 2015 at 9:35 pmOh damn, I seriously thought I had shared this recipe before, but alas, I haven’t. But rest assured, I will :)
Tobia | craftaliciousme
November 14, 2015 at 11:09 pmYou are so right with the bread not being bread. I missed that too when I stayed in the U.S. Thank you for reminding me that I shoul bake some again soon.
Have a great Sunday, Tobia
san
November 15, 2015 at 9:35 pmYou’re welcome :)
Chrissy
November 15, 2015 at 7:36 amMmh, your homemade bread looks delicious – I can almost smell it coming out of the oven! I love homemade bread! It’s the best and I agree on the American toast bread. Not real bread at all.
Vanessa Meads
November 15, 2015 at 8:17 amYour bread looks so good! Baking bread is one of those things that I keep saying I’ll get around to and never do. I should really get on that.
san
November 15, 2015 at 9:36 pmIt really is pretty easy, you just have to have a little time to wait for the dough to rise ;) other than that, it’s really not much of an effort. Try it! :)
Linda
November 15, 2015 at 7:53 pmIt looks so inviting!
san
November 15, 2015 at 9:36 pmThank you :)
Holly
November 17, 2015 at 8:45 amWe have a bread maker and I love the taste of the bread but it always comes out in the strangest shapes. It doesn’t make for very easy slicing :) We buy our bread at Walmart and it’s $1.88 a loaf. It doesn’t taste nearly as good but with picky kids whose sandwiches have to be in a specific shape – I get the Walmart bread. We use the bread maker every month or two and Nathan and I eat that bread :)
Marie
November 17, 2015 at 11:06 amI know you’ve provided the recipe before, but do you mind doing so again? I’d like to try it! (Although I highly doubt it’ll look that good.)
Cait
November 17, 2015 at 6:07 pmThat bread looks really good! Is it easy to make? We don’t buy too much bread anyway, but it would be fun to make.