Richard Bertinet’s Dough presents a very persuasive argument for baking bread at home. Over a two-page spread, it describes the difference between a typical shop-bought loaf and one made at home. Here’s what it says:
Shop-bought loaf typically contains:
- wheatflour
- water
- yeast
- wheat protein
- salt
- vinegar
- dextrose
- soya flour
- vegetable fat
- emulsifier E472e (mono- and diacetyle tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids)
- flour treatment agent E300 (ascorbic acid)
- preservative calcium propionate (to inhibit mould growth).
Home-made loaf contains:
- flour
- yeast
- salt
- water
That was enough to convince us to start baking our own bread in 2006.
Now, three years on, we know where every ingredient in our bread comes from – our flour is Australian grown and processed in Kevin Sherrie’s state of the art mill; our oil is extra virgin cold-pressed from cousin Andrew’s olives. We buy Australian sea salt and control the exact amount we use, making our homemade bread about 30% less salty than supermarket loaves. Our sourdough leaven is constantly being renewed, providing us with crusty, low GI loaves two to three times a week. Additionally, baking bread satisfies my creative urges, and instills a rhythm and cadence in our lives that I find particularly comforting.
All this for a total outlay of 65c per loaf, about $4.50 a week. Can you see why we just can’t bring ourselves to buy commercial bread anymore?
If you’d like try baking your own bread at home, you might find our Bread #101 Tutorial useful. There are also lots of recipes on our Bread page. Have fun!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Today I got my Healthy Artisan Bread book in 5 minutes…..in the post. I’m so excited and want to get baking straight away but….perhaps I should wait!
Oooh, I’ve read all sorts of good things about that book! Look forward to seeing what you make with it! :)
Is there a link to the recipe?
Jan, I’ve posted a basic bread recipe here and a post on shaping cottage loaves here !
wow that cottage loaf has come a long way since the first one in the ‘w&g- loaf or death’ post! doesn’t it look just fabulous!!! nothing like the smell of baking bread to lift me up from the dumps. or a crusty slice with some garlic oil. yum. i’ve only made yeasted breads so far, i think it’s time i jump the ditch to sourdough. maybe one day i’ll develop my own schedule and never buy bread again… you’re an inspiration, celia, thanks!
Dana, I’m impressed you have time to bake at all in between tea parties with toddlers.. :)
Thanks for the kind words, I’m seriously chuffed with the last couple of cottage loaves – no tilting, no bulging, just perfect. They’re not great for school lunches, but they have so much personality that I just can’t stop making them!
If you’re ever looking for a sourdough starter, I bought mine from the US via mail order (then waited with apprehension as little sachets of white flakes were mailed to me) from Theresa at Northwest Sourdough. I’ve tried the San Francisco starter and the Northwest starter, both were wonderful. I’ve now had a live NW starter in the fridge for three years!
Plus there is the significant bonus of the amazing smell of baking bread! :D
Yes! It puts everyone in a cheery frame of mind! :)
Hmmm now you have me feeling very guilty. We were in IKEA today and I bought a packet of bread mix :-0
That shouldn’t make you feel guilty! A friend had the Ikea bread mix recently – the grain one – and it looked very good. Have a look at the ingredients list and see if there’s anything on it you don’t recognise.. :)
I think you should count the expanding number of sourdough bakers around Sydney and as far afield as Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane as part of your success too! Thanks to the bottle of live sourdough starter and bags of flour you gave me I too have now been baking all our bread for the last six or so months, and have passed on starter and flour to friends who are now also just as obsessed! And I am a gluten intolerant person too – that is how addictive this sourdough baking is!! Just pulled a batch of rolls and two big crusty loaves out of the oven before leaving to drop kids and school and come to work. It is a good thing I am not at home right now…that smell of freshly baked bread makes it seriously too hard to resist.