Baking bread is a true homesteading skill. Almost a lost art, though it is making a come back.
There is nothing quite like biting into a freshly baked loaf of hot bread.
A friend once asked us why we bother to bake bread when it can be purchased so inexpensively in the store. There are many good reasons and these are what we shared with her.
- You can actually save money baking your own bread. We wait until flour is on sale and purchase a large quantity.
- We control the ingredients.
- Its fresh
- It tastes better than store-bought bread.
- It is impressive to our guests.
- It makes us proud when a well-formed loaf comes out of the oven.
- We don’t have to rely on store runs. We live about an hour from any reliable store, so this is a big one for us.
Whatever your reason, there are many recipes to chose from. We prefer sourdough and no kneed recipes. We do sourdough on the weekends and bake up a batch for the week. We do no-knead breads during the week because they are quick, no-fuss breads that we can leave to rise while we do our morning or evening chores, then bake when we get back indoors.
If you are gluten intolerant, you are in luck, making your own bread is way cheaper than store-bought gluten-free alternatives. There are literally thousands of recipes online to try and many of them with excellent results.
If you are going to be baking a lot of bread we highly recommend that you invest in a countertop mixer and a few other tools. You can find a lot of these items at the thrift store and I recommend you do but if you can’t there are links below to help you locate some of the tools you might want to invest in.
Here’s a good list to get started:
- mixer with a dough hook
- mixing bowl and measuring spoons/cups
- loaf baking pans
- pizza stone for round or rustic shaped bread
- bread slicer to make even slices
- bread knife
- Pastry brushes
What other tools would you recommend?
We admit we haven’t been baking for long but we sure do enjoy it and it has become a family ritual that the children enjoy doing with us. The smell of baking sourdough on Sundays, coupled with our Sunday roast or chicken, is a welcome thing after spending the day working on the property.
It smells like home.
What recipes have you tried or are you dying to try? Why is it your favorite?