the economics of baking bread

One of my favourite money saving strategies is to buy food in bulk. My good friend L and I organize a bulk buying club, the premise of which is that we and our friends order enough product that we meet the minimum order requirements for a wholesale account. I’ll discuss this strategy in greater depth another time, since it merits it. The result is that we have access to totally affordable, organic whole foods.

While baking bread today I decided to actually calculate the amount spent on each loaf, rather than just guess like I usually do. First I divided the cost of the flour by the number of pounds per bag to get a price per pound; then I weighed the flour as I added it to my loaves to figure out exactly how much flour went into each. I added $1.00 for incidentals, such as tablespoons of honey and baking powder. I think $1.00 is very high for these ingredients, but I definitely don’t want to give a false impression of how cheap it is to bake 100% organic bread, so I rounded up. The breakdown?

Finnish rye bread per loaf: rye flour: $1.14 x 0.25 lb = $0.29, white flour: $1.36 x .75 lb = $1.02, incidentals: $1.00. Total: $2.31.

Honey whole wheat bread per loaf: whole wheat flour: $1.36 x .5 lb = $.68, white flour: $1.36 x .5 lb = $.68, milk: $.75, incidentals: $1.00. Total: $3.11.

The organic milk in the honey whole wheat bread definitely adds to the cost, but this loaf is a favourite around here.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

makes one regular loaf

adapted from Whole Grain Breads by Beatrice Ojakangas

1C milk (I use Vital Greens whole milk)

2Tbsp honey

1 1/2Tbsp butter, soft

1 /2tsp salt

1 1/2C whole wheat flour

1 1/2C unbleached white flour

1 1/2tsp dry yeast

Heat the milk until warm but not hot. Pour into a bowl and add the yeast and honey. Cover and let this sit for a few minutes, until it begins to foam. Stir in the butter, whole wheat flour and half of the white flour. Mix this well, then cover and let rest for 15 minutes (this period, called autolyse, allows the flour to absorb the liquid and begin the formation of gluten). Add the remaining white flour and salt. Turn the dough out on to a floured surface and knead, adding flour if necessary, until the dough is smooth, about 5 minutes. Cover and let rise until doubled, about an hour.

Turn the dough out on to your floured surface again and punch down. Shape into a loaf and place into a greased bread pan. Cover and let rise until doubled again, 45-60 minutes. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes. Shake the bread out of the pan and knock on the bottom; if it sounds hollow, it’s ready.