Beautiful, tasty, healthy - and cheap too!
I have, for some time now been an advocate of making my own bread. Ever since I decided to overcome my fear of the 'alchemy' of turning four ingredients, including water, into something, not only edible, but delicious too, I have loved the process of converting flour, yeast, salt and water into a loaf. In a recent blog, the BBC decided to see not only how tasty and efficaceous a loaf can be, but also how cheap.
David Cameron doesn't know the price
of a value loaf from Tesco because he bakes his own bread. Is his way cheaper,
asks Denise Winterman.
Asked the cost of a "value sliced white bread loaf at Tesco this morning",
Prime Minister David Cameron said he didn't know because he
makes his own bread in his £100 breadmaker using flour costing about £4.40
for a 1.5kg bag.
But is the prime minister on to something? If you have a breadmaker and all
the basic ingredients at home, can you make a white loaf for 47p or less?
Seeing as it's a Tesco value loaf in question, let's assume all your
ingredients have come from Tesco and are the cheapest available.
The workings out
- Tesco Strong White Bread Flour £0.53 a kg - 30p
- Tesco Fast Action Dried Yeast £11.61 a kg - 6p
- Tesco Table Salt £0.39 a kg - 0.4p
- Tesco Organic Rapeseed Oil £0.30p a 100ml - 6p
Figures calculated to the nearest penny - apart from salt.
Tom Herbert is a fifth generation baker who won Young
Baker of the Year and is one half of Channel Four's Fabulous Baker Boys. He says
his recipe for a classic
white loaf is the most downloaded off his website. It also weighs roughly
800g, the same as the sliced white in question.
According to the recipe you need 560g of strong white flour, 10g of salt
(Herbert specifies sea salt but you only have Tesco's cheaper table salt), 5g of
dried yeast, 20ml of rapeseed oil and 300ml of warm water.
So does it come in at under 47p? Yes, 42.4p in fact, with the prices of the
ingredients (apart from salt) calculated to the nearest penny.
The taste, smell and quality of the homemade loaf will be "incomparable" to
the shop-bought one, says Herbert.
"You'll also feel great having made something with your own hands and your
home will smell lovely."
I couldn't agree more - and I would just love to see more people making their own loaves. I have written some previous pieces if you'd like a go:
and Here
I sincerely hope you'll have a go. It is fun and worth the little bit of effort and time that are required - I promise.
