Home Bread Making Guide – How to Make Bread

An Introduction to Home Bread Making

Why Bake Your Own Bread?

Home Bread MakingBread is one of our staple foods and the supermarkets try to keep the price as low as possible since bread is an item that is easily compared from shop to shop. All loaves in the UK are sold in multiples of 400g, a small loaf being 400g and a large loaf of bread being 800g

In the quest for lower costs, mass produced bread began to be made by a new process in the 1960s, which reduced the amount of time and labour involved. This process, known as the Chorleywood process, involved more mechanical input but also increased amounts of salt, sugar and the addition of chemical improvers.

Some people link this fundamental change in the bread making process with an increase in wheat (or gluten) intolerance otherwise known as Coeliac disease amongst the population in the UK.

There has been a small consumer revolt against this industrially produced bread, driven more by a desire for taste rather than plastic bread. Home bread making.  This, of course, has been taken as an opportunity by the supermarkets to produce speciality and organic breads although they’re reticent to discuss the production methods. Those ‘instore bakeries’ often just take a chilled loaf and cook it rather than actually make it.

Cost Of Bread

You can buy traditionally produced bread from craft or artisan bakeries, but at a premium price, obviously. I’m afraid cheap prices are usually at the cost of quality and if you want decent bread you either pay the premium or make your own.

Having covered the health benefit of home bread making – the reduced salt and chemical inputs, rather than industrial bread, the next benefit is cost.

Save Money By Home Bread Making

Buying in your flour and other ingredients will save you money on buying bread from a shop. Yes, it will take time but not a lot. You can save time by batch baking and then freezing loaves for another day.

Since your own bread is not full of yummy preservatives, it will go stale more quickly and may grow mouldy faster. Makes you wonder how good that industrial bread is for you when even mould growth is slowed on it.

Because you can make whatever size loaf you wish, you can make your loaves to fit your daily needs. If you eat 300g in a day, then make 300g loaves.

Your own loaves can be made as you like, various types of flour are available and you can even mix different types of flour to make a bread you like. Then you can make different shapes from the traditional tin loaf to rolls, braided breads and baguettes, whatever you fancy.

Your own loaves will taste better than anything you can buy from the supermarkets, the traditional process enables flavour to develop that is replaced with added salt and enhancers in industrial bread.

Finally, you can’t beat the smell of baking bread. When you’re home bread making the whole house smells wonderful when it’s in the oven. So, time to see how easy it is – Baking Your Own Bread

Home Bread Making Help & Information

Bread Making Guide - Ingredients and Traditional Method

Bread Making Guide - Ingredients and Traditional Method

A basic home bread making guide and help to baking various types of bread from ingredients to general method for traditional bread making by hand
Bread Making Guide - Shaping Bread Loaves

Bread Making Guide - Shaping Bread Loaves

There are a lot of different traditional shapes that you can make with your home made dough when you make bread in the traditional way by hand.

Related to Home Bread Making

Chorleywood Industrial Bread Making Process

Chorleywood Industrial Bread Making Process

The Chorleywood Process for making bread. What is wrong with bread made this way? Is it actually bad for you? We look at the process and the concerns

Share Your Recipe

If you've got a recipe you'd like to share with the community please send it to us:-

Our Storing & Preserving Books