Store bought bread is now a foreign concept for us. For the last 4 years, we have been baking all our own bread with and without help from a bread machine. We find that the convenience of using a bread machine with the timer function works great. We can have freshly baked bread ready at 4:00 am when we get up for work or have it baked and ready at 2:30pm when I get home from work or from a weekend day out. We have it down to such a routine that a new loaf can be ready to start within 5 minutes.

We found that it took many experimental loafs to test and find what ratio of ingredients works best for us and now have a spiral bound book with about 20 different recipes of which we use 7-8 of them on a regular basis. We also use the machine to make pizza dough which we double the recipe and freeze 1/2 of the dough for future use.

The cost for the machine was nothing as it was given to us for free. In the long run, we know exactly what goes into the bread and it is one less thing to have buy at the store.

On the odd ocassion, we still make bread the old school way...by hand and baked in the oven which does make a nicer loaf but a little more time consuming and not as flexible for our schedules as mentioned above.

Either method, our cost for a loaf of bread (we only make wholewheat, rye or multigrain) ranges from .40 cents to .90 cents per 1-1/2 lb loaf...the price difference depends on the ingredients used. It should be noted that in our AO, a loaf of 7 multigrain bread is now $2.99 so there is significant cost benefits for home baked bread.

Yeast bread can also be made very easily without any pans and over an open campfire when out multi-day hiking or camping. No time to post the methods tonight, I'll try at some later date though.

Really awsome conributions. There are things I have never thought about like the 'survival' part of it.

My DW makes cakes and cookies but we never tried bread. That's going to change now.

About the vegetarian part. I am not vegetarian either, but seem to be leaning towards it. I wrote before that I have a problem killing and processing game (even the pigeons all over our house), and these days I am eating less and less meat. Beans and other protein sources are taking the place of meat. So, baking my own bread with my favourite ingredients will be a bonus to make my diet closely fitting to my needs.

Thanks guys.

My dad used to bake bread all the time. Well, we had his recipe that he would use, but he always seemed to modify it slightly.

Well, after he passed, no one was able to make it quite the way he did. I finally got the recipe he used and I tried making it. I used to help him when he made it and he would taste the dough before he was finished. I had that taste stored back in my mind.

Sure enough, I hit upon what he did and was able to replicate it.

So, for me, there is certainly a connection there everytime a bake a loaf... Plus, there is nothing like the smell or taste of freshly baked bread. My wife often asks me to bake some for her.

well my DW has an opposite view. When I told her I want to start baking bread she said: Oh, so now you dont need me anyomre? She thinks I am invading her territory.



OK , here is a related question

Some posters mentioned bread makers or bread making machines

Are they any different from the normal oven ? What are the advantages of a dedicated bread maker over an oven ?

Thankx

I originally learned how to bake bread the old way... Kneeding by hand, baking in the oven...

Now I use a bread machine and I love it. Mind you, the techniques you learned baking bread traditionally also can apply to the bread machine... Some machines are better than others... You still need to make sure you have the right texture of the dough before it bakes. You are also limited to one, or in some models, two loaves of bread.

Some people think you can set it and forget it, but that isn't true. Not if you want a good loaf. If you take the time and have the right machine, it is tough to determine any difference from the bread made by hand using the same recipe.

One trick I did learn was to remove the paddle before the bread bakes... Keeps from having that huge hole in the bottom of the loaf.

A bread machine is a compromise to the law of averages. Baking bread can be as much about art as about the science. If you accept some limitations about the creativeness of the work, you can generate a decent enough loaf just on the science of it all. Manipulation of the dough is a key to the quality of the crumb, so to speak, and bread machines are built around what an average loaf recipe takes to make an average dough, then baking it for an average cooking time. To the degree that the baker physically manipulates the preset conditions of the bread machine, they are defeating the intended purpose of the machine, which is to automate as much as possible the process.

A typical bread machine is not going to make artisan loaves like what you get at a Panera or such. However good the finished loaf will be, it will not replace bakery quality. It is suitable for most needs around the house, usually in the form of old fashioned sandwich loaf.

I don't mind using a bread machine as a convenience for making my house smell like fresh baked bread (bread machines are good for that too) and for keeping my bread pantry stocked. When I want to make something to be proud of, I get out the kithcenaid, my dough board, and spend an afternoon cranking out a few good home made, hand kneaded loaves of bread.

All good bakers have a process they follow as part of an overall recipe, and all good bakers have ways of evaluating their product through the various stages and adjusting the recipe as needed to yield as close to the perfect loaf as their ability will allow. Things like pre-ferment, steaming, and forming are not an option with a bread machine, unless as I stated before you interrupt the automated process and revert to the hand made method.

I have yet to have a truly good sourdough recipe work out in any bread machine without implementing at least some part of a manual method.

A bread machine is a good compromise for the standard daily loaf, I don't have the time to keep cranking out hand made on a regular basis.

Bread machine's are the Ron Popeil principle for me. You add the ingredients, set it, and forget it. I can do a lot better than a bread machine if I do it myself.

once again too many replys to wade thru but heres my take.
sourdough--Google that and you will find places that give away old--read 1800's--starters..if it is survival and just not homesteading you will run out of yeast before long..
Bannock--making bread takes up a lot of time,energy and fuel in a survival situation. bannock may not meet your need for slice of toast and jam but it will fill you up.
i make bread in a machine mostly in the winter when a hot slab of bread and butter is almost survival food.

One thing to keep in mind about sourdoughs; they are very territorial. A San Francisco strain of sourdough (a combination of both the yeast and the lactobaccillus strains native to that region) will not remain pure in a different region once it is exposed to the air. Eventually it will be colonized by the local yeast and bacteria and will take on the character of that native strain combination as it become dominant. Even commercial yeast starters don't remain pure in perpetuity. Some native sourdough strains do not produce a good sourdough bread. I was never able to get a decent native sourdough loaf in eastern Washington, and had to start new store bought San Francisco starters regularly to get the desired yield. Some sourdough strains are fragile, such as the San Francisco strain, which doesn't like temperature extremes or tap water one whit, others, like some of the Russian rye strains, really don't mind if the temp drops, and can tolerate a more saline environment than other varieties.

Yeasted bread need not be that difficult. Many old miners and cow camp cooks from the mid-late 1800s did quite well making and keeping their sourdough starters and breads without much fuss. Once it gets started, a good native starter is usually fairly durable. As with most things, practice is what makes the difference.

It's like making sausage. The first few atttempts might be a real pain, and the outcome may not be that good, but with practice you learn what to look for, and you get familiar with a process. A hundred years ago folks had a lot less convenience than is available to us nowadays, and they managed to do quite well with what they had. The difference was knowledge; they knew from lots of experience what they were doing.