Ah, bread. The staff of life. So beautiful in its simplicity. And yet, when you scan the prices in your grocery store, you can’t help but wonder, “Why is something so simple so frigging expensive?” Sure, you can get some not-so-wonderful bread void of nutritional content for a $1.80 a loaf. But Frankenfood is not my thing. I look for whole grains, a paucity of ingredients, and stuff I can actually pronounce, all of which has relegated me to the high-end of the bread category for many years. Before I starting making my own, I was begrudgingly loyal to the Silver Hills brand, which is made of organic sprouted grain. My favourite was their flax bread, which could run as high as $5.00 a loaf in some stores. (Then I found I could buy it in a two-pack at Costco for $3.25 per loaf. But still!) That’s more than double the price of a default loaf of white bread. I had a hunch that I could make my own for a better price, so I set out to do the math with the understanding that $3.25 was the price to beat. I wasn’t so fussed about whether my final product was organic or not… I just wanted it to be healthy, tasty and inexpensive.
But first, I needed a good comparable bread recipe that would work for sandwiches and toast. I was already pretty good at making a baguette type of bread by hand, but had never managed to make a good sandwich loaf.
My favourite bread recipe
I tried a few recipes, but this was is my fave. It’s adapted from one I found on the King Arthur Flour website, by way of Mrs. Frugalwoods. I tweaked it to make it work for my Breville Custom Loaf bread machine. Then I calculated the cost of each ingredient in my postal code to see how the prices stack up, loaf to loaf.
- 3 cups of whole wheat flour (I use No Name), $0.50
- 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil, $0.16
- 2 1/4 Tbsp honey, $0.28
- 1 1/5 tsp salt, $0.02
- 2 tsp quick-rise yeast, $0.35
- 2 Tbs flax seed, $0.06
- 2 tsp vital wheat gluten, $0.05
Total: $1.43 per 1.5 lb loaf
So there you have it, $1.43 per loaf, which represents a savings of $1.82. At that price, bread can go on to sustain us for another millennia or two.