Want to start saving a little more on your budget weekly? A great way to do that is by cutting your grocery bills even by a little, which leads us into our main point; baking your own bread! You get to bite down on your own slices of warm, freshly-baked bread, which you adjusted to your tastes! Doesn’t that just sound heavenly?
Image by Couleur
You might be thinking that baking your own bread can be too much of a hassle since you have to put effort into baking the bread and how you have to take time out of your week to bake the bread, right? Don’t worry, you just need a little planning and a little practice. Once you’ve got the whole thing down, it’ll just become part of your weekly routine!
A Little Effort? Or A Little Spending?
Let’s say that you don’t want to put in the elbow grease of having to knead the dough for at least 15 minutes, you would need to splurge on a machine that can knead the dough for you. Mixers can be a big help and you can easily get one online. Of course, you have to know the basics. You have to know the recipes of the bread you’re trying to bake, you need to know how to knead, and so many more. If you want a more detailed guide on baking, click here.
Pros Of Baking Your Own Bread
The main focus of baking your own bread actually stems out from people wanting to save money when it comes to their weekly groceries, right? However, there are plenty more benefits to baking your own bread other than saving money! Homemade bread can be more nutritious, it can be customized to your needs, which can be so much tastier!
Lower Costs
I mean, sure, you might think that buying bread doesn’t really cost you much. But, if you really think about it, buying cheap bread doesn’t really benefit you in any way – it doesn’t taste that good, nor can you confidently say what goes into the bread. You just pay for the ingredients yourself, and the labor will be done by you, so there are no costs in that department.
Can Be More Nutritious
The cheap loaves that come from your supermarket don’t really come packed with nutrition. Instead, they are quite wimpy when it comes to nutrition. You’d get 2.3 grams of protein with less than a gram of fiber with the calories clocking in at 65 in a single slice of white bread. You could easily surpass those calculations with a good whole-wheat bread at home!
Tastier Bread
Going back to the cheap supermarket bread, you might say that it doesn’t taste all that bad despite being that cheap, right? If you can buy bread at that price and it tastes fairly okay, then why bother baking your own, right? However, since the bread is relatively cheap, you won’t get a hearty snack out of it. It’ll be just like biting through 5 sheets of paper!
With home-baked bread, though, you’ll get a good chew and a good bite out of your bread! Something that you can really bite down on and sink your teeth through since you can add your own touches like nuts and grains, unlike that bland, pale sheets of bread you get in the supermarkets.
Customize Recipes
I’m sure you’ve found a great guide and recipe online that you’ve been using for quite some time now whenever you bake your own bread. Don’t forget that you can always switch up your recipe and emphasize ingredients you need, like adding a kick-load of fiber. You know, like adding oats, bran, and seeds. You can even up the protein by adding some nuts!
Your Enjoyment
At the end of the day, you could just be doing this because baking is something that you thoroughly enjoy and love, like a hobby of yours. I’m pretty sure that you’re going to find the kneading quite the hassle and a bit of a drag. Still, with time, you’re going to find out that you really enjoy it, and maybe even find it quite the therapeutic activity to do!
Batches
The whole baking process done in the old-fashioned, traditional way will be labor-intensive, not to mention quite lengthy. You’re going to have to mix the ingredients, knead the dough, wait for it to rise, let the air out, knead it again, then let it rest before putting it into pans and baking. This could take you three hours, for a whole batch.
Though most of your time will just be because of you waiting, the mixing and kneading shouldn’t take you more than 25 minutes at a time. You just leave the bread to rest and rise on its own without having to even look after it. It’s going to be lengthy, but quite worth it!
Takeaway
You’re probably thinking that the idea of being able to bake your own bread is a swell one. Still, you’re probably lacking time to do so, don’t forget that doing this is entirely optional! You can just buy the ingredients(since they’re dry, they’ll last quite a while) and proceed to bake them whenever you can find the time! A load of homemade bread is great once in a while.
