It’s been probably twenty years since in-store bakeries became the rage in grocery stores. I remember walking into the store and smelling the wonderful aroma of freshly baked bread. I grabbed a bag of warm rolls and brought them home with anticipation.
But as good as they looked, they really didn’t have much taste. I tried that grocery store’s baked goods a few more times and finally decided that there was something they sprayed around the store that smelled like fresh bread, because the bread and rolls weren’t what was giving off such a great aroma.
Since then I’ve preferred my own baked goods. Several years ago, I got a bread machine as a gift. I hadn’t really wanted one, preferring to make my own bread the old-fashioned way, but once I tried the bread machine, I was hooked.
I especially liked the dough cycle: you could have the fun of shaping and baking the bread without the work of kneading the dough. And as far as I’m concerned, nothing smells as good as freshly baked homemade bread that tastes good, too.
At the grocery the other day, I saw a bag of dinner rolls for $2.49 in the bakery section. They didn’t look fresh, and in fact felt a bit hard. I thought $2.49 was a pretty steep price for day-old rolls. Those sad-looking rolls made me so glad to have my bread machine. I throw in a few ingredients in the morning, set the timer, and have lovely dough or even a baked loaf of bread when I want it at dinnertime.
I’ve had good luck with the recipes that came with my machine. But if you buy one secondhand, or are gifted with a used bread machine, you might want to visit this site for some good recipes.
BTW, I don’t use bread flour because it’s so expensive. I’ve had good luck with plain old (cheap) flour from Aldi’s. But if you’re picky about your bread, give bread flour a try.
Also, buying yeast in those tiny envelopes gets really expensive. Over at Sam’s Club, they sell two very large packages of yeast for less than $4. I freeze one and put the other in a Mason jar in the fridge, and it takes me quite a while to go through both. Definitely a money saver!
I have been using my bread machine for several months now. I just love it.
I gave my hubby a bread machine for his birthday just before Miss R was born almost 15 years ago. The real gift to him was endless homemade bread! I still use the same machine (Zojirushi)to this day. He won’t eat store bought bread anymore 🙂
I love homemade bread too, though I don’t use a bread machine. I use a mixture of cheap-o white flour and white-wheat flour. I sometimes put some flaxseed meal in too. A good website for bread ideas is: http://ayearinbread.earthandhearth.com/ . They don’t post very often, but you can visit their previous posts to get ideas too.
Ditto on the big package of yeast! We buy yeast twice a year and spend less than $5.00 total! For Valentine’s Day this year my husband gave me a stand mixer. I have arthritis in my hands and have been making almost all of our bread since December of 2007. That stand mixer ups the price per batch of bread and goodies, but I sure do love it! We’ve been using the slicer/shredder attachment to prepare veggies for salad every night, as well as grate cheese. It wasn’t a frugal purchase, but over the lifetime of the mixer it will more than pay for itself in saved time, wholesome food, and healthy hands!
We don’t eat a lot of bread in general here, but you are right, there is nothing better than homemade bread. We have a breadmaker collecting dust because it is broken…maybe a new one would be good for hubby for a birthday present as he really likes homemade wheat bread:)
I don’t make bread very often. We buy a freezer full at the bakery thrift store on Saturdays when everything in the store is $1. Even the whole grain breads sell for that price.
I did just start making homemade pizza dough though. I wish I’d started that earlier! It’s so simple. Why did I think it was hard?
My bread machine doesn’t make loaves big enough for our big family. So I buy it. I know, I’m a dork. 🙂
Thanks, everyone, for your comments. Unfortunately, right after I posted this, the mechanism in my bread machine’s pan broke! The manufacturer doesn’t have the parts for it and told us to go to Goodwill or eBay. So I’m on the hunt for a new one. Any recommendations?