is making my own bread crazy?

depends on wether or not you have the ovens and hobart already. Otherwise a real easy  way to lower cost from buying bread is to get frozen french roll dough (i know) put in proof box, rise, mark, egg wash, bake. price out the cases and see.

 

bread is easy to make. It just takes time. Even imperfect bread can make a good sandwich.  I am sure there are a bunch of great, simple recipes on this site pick one or two and give em a try. figure out your cost and time and decide if it's what you want to do.

 

well unless your buying REALLY cheap bread, i don't see how it could cost you more. your oven is already on, right? For the price of a nice loaf of artisan bread you could buy the ingredients to make 4 loaves. I mean it's just flour, eggs, salt, water and yeast and while the price of flour I hear has doubled it's still got to be cheaper.

 

i wonder how many think of that stuff as anathema.  anyhow i'll look up some recipes.

Not anathema at all, John. Lot's of people are making it, as it's become sort of an in thing. My concern would be making it work in a commercial environment, especially to be used as panninis.

Given your situation, I think I'd explore using various recipes but make the bread in the form of pullman loaves. That would require a small investment in the pans. But the trade off is lower costs for the bread, and more consistent portion control.

BTW, many bread recipes don't even call for eggs. Just flour, yeast, salt, and water. Can't get much more inexpensive than that.

 

   YES!  It is crazy! 
































  crazy good idea /img/vbsmilies/smilies/crazy.gif   I would think once you get your recipe and routine down things should become an easy routine.  Plus it's a great marketing tool as well.


    dan

 

Just to add one more thought to the equation.  What will customers think if they walk in to the place and smell freshly baked bread?

mjb.

 

Every 10 days or so I make a 6C loaf of country/artisan bread.  Total cost is approximately $1.50 USD per loaf using KA Unbleached Bread Flour.  Total effort amounts to 1/2 hour labor that's spread out over 4-6 hours of time.

 

Bread is relatively easy to make but for me it just takes too much time. I like fresh bread too, which is why my suggestion for you is to pick one up from your favorite bakery.  The bakery in my area makes fresh hot bread early in the morning and at around 3 in the afternoon.  So take a walk and get your fresh bread! 

 

Phil, have you actually been able to use your food processor for making bread dough?

Even with the special dough blade I've never gotten it to work. A stand mixer really is a better tool for that job.

I'd be interested in the recipes and proceedure that made the food processor viable.

 

JP, that's a fairly common technique among artisan bakers. It's called "delayed" or "retarded" fermentation. Generally speaking, breads using delayed fermentation also use pre-ferments as leavening agents; and that can add an extra day to the process.

There are certain benefits to delayed fermentation. However, in all but a few formula, the dough isn't actually rising in the fridge, and you still have to allow it to rise. Retarded fermentation, in most cases, although producing a better tasting bread, lengthens the process rather than shortening it.

I really urge you to read some of the baking books, such as The Bread Baker's Apprentice or  Artisan Bread At Home that explain the science of bread making in understandable terms. After that you can turn to some of the professional texts, to see what you'll need for your requirements.

 

Notice that these run about 50% hydration (if I'm using that term correctly--about half as much water as flour).

Well, yes and no, Phil. If the water actually was half the flour it would be 50% hydration. What's throwing you off, however, is that the formula is based on weight, rather than volume. So, in the Hazen recipe, for instance, what you have is 13.5 ounces of flour and 10 ounces of water, which yields a hydration level of 74%---which actually makes it a fairly slack dough; typical of flatbread recipes.

Based on my limited experience, I don't believe any home food processor has enough oomph to handle a 50% dough.