Guest Post: Bake or Buy?

I love following Port City Foodies for everything food related in Wilmington, NC and surrounding areas. One day Paul featured a new blog, Bake or Buy and I fell in love with this idea! What could be better than someone else doing all the work and letting you know if you should make an item or just stick to the store bought version to save you time and money? I'm thrilled to have Bethany guest post today. 

Time for some fresh bread!  I'm going to attempt my first honey wheat bread recipe.

The Store Brand: La Brea 9 Grain Wheat Bread

My Recipe (adapted from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/simple-whole-wheat-bread/):

1 cup warm water

2 tsp active dry yeast (just about 1 packet)

2 tablespoons honey

1-1/2 cup bread flour

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 cup whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons sunflower seeds

In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast, and honey. Add white bread flour, and stir to combine. Let set for 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly.

Mix in melted butter and salt. Stir in 1 cup of whole wheat flour. Flour a flat surface and knead with whole wheat flour (continue to add in to avoid sticking). Knead in sunflower seeds as you go.  This may take up to 1 additional cup of whole wheat flour.

Place in a greased bowl and cover with a dishtowel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled. Punch down and place in greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans.  Allow to rise until dough has topped the pans by one inch.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

Both breads were delicious.  I think my version was a better sandwich type bread.  It didn't have the nice hard crust that I prefer, but it was very moist and tasty.  The store bread is obviously much smaller, but that's just because I bought a petite loaf so I would be on bread overload this week (I used full size for the cost comparison).

The cost difference is amazing!  It costs 4x as much to buy the store brand.  And before anyone says, WHO PAYS $5 FOR A LOAF OF BREAD??: I really don't like the preservative laden packaged breads, so I always buy the grocery store baked kind.  It is pricey, but it's SO much better.  And even if you are buying the $1.99 sliced wheat bread, it STILL costs less to make it - and it is wayyyy tastier than that type.

	Size	Cost	Cost/Oz
La Brea 9 Grain Wheat Bread	18 oz	$      4.99	$            0.28
Homemade	18 oz	$      1.21	$            0.07

So yeah, I had to knead bread for TEN minutes.  But it was totally worth it.  It was SO good.  I think next time I will look for a "crustier" recipe, but I will definitely be baking this again.

Bake or Buy?  BAKE!