Adventures in Bread Making

I watched a video on break making.
Cover a table with flower, kneed for 8 minutes, let sit for an hour , need again , sit again 40 min ... very messy , very long , looks like hard work too. Why would I possibly want that ?

I've had my eye on a Bread Maker for a while now, and I finally scraped together the cash to buy one. The fact that "Black Friday" , traditionally an american only sales event , has migrated north and this 80 $ bread maker only cost me 50$ was a big help as well.

Apparently , you just pour the ingredients in , push the button , and walk away. An hour later, you come back to a nice freshly baked loaf of bread.

And the current price of a loaf of bread is $2.50 Canadian.  But baking it yourself is considerably cheaper. I estimate the 2.5kg of flour I bought will do me for at least 5 loaves of bread , and it cost $2.99 . The rest will last considerably longer than 5 loafs.

What the heck is that duck taped to the front of the bread maker you ask ? Funny thing about the recipie book that comes with this bread maker. It has 10 really complex recipies for really strange and bizarre loaves of bread. But it doesn't seem to have a "simple loaf of bread" recipie.  I had to go find one on the internet and tape it to the front so I wouldn't lose it.

And because I eventually plan on moving into public housing , and I seriously don't trust neibours on public housing vis a vis cock roaches , I put all the ingredients in a nice sealed plastic container.

I love sealed containers. Especially air tight ones. If I could , I'd put all my worldly possessions in them.
Note to self : Blow 10$ and get another one, there's still room on my shelves. And even if there isn't , they stack ok.

So ..inventory all the ingredients, check the recipie ...
ouch. Forgot the yeast.
Back to the grocery store. Luckily it's only a block or so away. Wait in line ...buy my one single item ...

Put ingredients in the "bucket" inside. Heed the warning in the instruction manual that the yeast always goes last.

Interesting thing about the bucket. There's a paddle in it that goes round and round and round ... is that going to leave a hole in the back of the bread? Hmmm....
Plus ... there's a heating wire ....you know, you look in your oven and there's this big wire that when you apply power heats up and turns red and gives off heat like crazy , there's one of those circling the bucket that I put all the ingredients in. I guess it automagically kneeds and cooks.   Cool.

Hmm...one hour and still not done.  Note to self. Get a pic when it's done.


Cost Per Loaf

 Total cost of start up ingredients (salt,surgar , vegetable oil , flour , yeast)  was 15$ (yeah I cheaped out and bought only the smallest packages of each. Cost efficiency is terrible for the first experimental batch ).

But at 3 cups per loaf, Flour is the one controlling the cost , really. The rest of the stuff I just took a little tiny bit out of each , they'll obviously last 50 loaves or something ridiculous. So 10$ divide by 50 is 20 cents a loaf for all of that. And the flour is 3 dollars for 5 loaves (at a guess, I'll likely get six or seven , but we'll say five) is 60 cents , so the total is 80 cents a loaf.

80 cents a loaf , compared to 2.50$.

And thats using the most cost inefficent bag of flour (you get discounts for buying larger bags). If this works , I can see that 80 cents becoming 40 cents , and me carrying home 8kg bags of flour once a month...or larger.  :)

Edit : Cost per loaf

The loaf this thing produces is freaking huge. Worth about two store bought loaves. So that 80 cents a loaf is really 40 cents for store bought sized loaf equiviliant. 

One Loaf of Bread (3 hours later)

Back of Loaf

Yes , as you can see , the paddle does leave a little hole in the back of the loaf.

Side View

Top View

That is a standard sized dinner plate , to give you an example of how big a 1 1/2 pound loaf of bread is.
It tastes ... like a store bought loaf of bread. Nothing special , nothing terrible , nothing wonderful. Perfectly edible.

Note to self : Get a proper bread cutting knife. The pruning knife you see in the pic just mangles it , and trying to eat peanut butter of a huge thick slice of fresh bread , still warm , that would put a slice of texas toast to shame , is a messy business.

Also , stand it up and cut it horizontally , seperating top from bottom . The loaf is freaking huge and you'll never be able to hold on to a full slice unless you chop it down to size.