Cheap & Easy… Bread
I grew up making large batches of whole wheat bread. It was dark with molasses and while not dense was certainly not light. By the time I got married I had adapted the recipe to use sugar and white whole wheat flour. My husband loves multigrain loaves so I started experimenting and ended up with high fiber, high protein bread which was surprisingly light.
And then I started looking for ways to spend as little as possible on food. At first this simply meant more bread as the grains were a great way to balance out all the legumes we eat. But then I started to run out of yeast, and I knew there was no way that I was going to buy more for at least another month. So I returned to my friend no-knead bread. I don’t like it as well as regular bread and thus was never won over by the fact that it is indeed less work than regular bread. But Josh loves it and could not care less about the fact that nutrient dense whole wheat bread has been replaced by the cheapest of low effort homemade breads.
You can read Mark Bittman‘s gushing or watch Foodwishes make it. You can make a beautiful round loaf in your Dutch oven. Or you can do what I do (hopefully without the healthfoodfreak feeling of shame at buying the cheapest of bleached flours).
Mix together:
4 cups White flour
1 heaping tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. yeast
2 1/4 cups warm water
Think about how it is far too sticky to be bread dough and how it is a good thing that you do not have to knead or shape it.
Cover the bowl and let the dough sit for 10-20 hours.
Remember the dough at some point, hopefully before 20 hours.
Turn the oven to 400°.
Grease and flour a baking pan.
Dump the dough onto the pan (this will probably involve scraping the bowl and smoothing the dough down slightly with the spatula).
Bake for around half an hour.
Or longer.
Worry that the bread is a little too brown.
Wonder how it was that it got eaten in less than a day.
Delight in the fact that a loaf of bread can be made with 1/4 tsp. of yeast rather than an entire tablespoon.
Do you have any cheap food tricks? In general I view food as an investment in long-term health, but these days I am focusing on short-term savings.
I make bread for our family using a bread machine (which sadly is flirting with its last legs). I am very interested in your recipe for the healthier kind! Will you share? Pretty please????
Unfortunately I tend to dump rather than measure, but when I get back to making it I will make a point to measure and let you know.
If you never want to have to buy yeast again try making your own sourdough starter with just flour and water. I made mine a year ago (I was no expert at the time) and it’s still alive and raising some tasty loaves…and I don’t have to buy any yeast! If you don’t want to make it yourself you can get some for the price of postage @ http://www.carlsfriends.org/ . If it makes you feel better I make all of my artisan loaves with the cheapest store brand flour possible…it makes really great loaves. I use whole wheat for daily sandwich loaves though. Once your starter is up and running you can also use it to replace the buttermilk in all of your quick breads, it reacts with the baking soda to raise them the same way buttermilk does and it’s a lot cheaper. I’ve used it successfully in pancakes, muffins and even chocolate cake! It has, by far, become my most versatile and economical kitchen staple. There are also a lot of people that swear by the health benefits of the bacteria in the starter.
I like the “no knead” aspect of your bread recipe, I suppose you could convert it to use with a starter as well. I’ll give it a try sometime, thanks!
Thanks for the recommendation. I used to make sourdough bread but never liked it even though my husband thought it was fine. But I’ve read that climate makes a big difference in the taste and I imagine that it will be different with white flour, so I am going to try it again. I am going to try it again.
And I think that you’re right about making no-knead sourdough bread, though I don’t know how much you’d use.
Mmm, fresh bread. As far as cheap meals go, I’m all about the beans and rice. With the right spices and veggies mixed in, it’s quite delicious.
yep, I second the advice of making yeast in your own kitchen, if you bake bread everyday or everyother day it’s the best way. Simply take a small piece of your dough, add flour and water to it, let it raise overnight. Done! Yours is the tasty healthy bread again…
I prefer making my own too… will have to save this recipe to try for my husband (I can’t have white wheat). I did a no knead with whole wheat that includes orange juice in it. Was pretty good. I still prefer my regular recipe (from the King Arthur bag), but still.. very easy & right now I need easy.
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