Give us this day...

With the credit crunch moving into a full-blown recession, how can we tighten our belts a little further?

Easy!

Make your own bread. Now don't stop reading...it really is so simple. Trust me.

Making your own bread has many advantages:

It's cheap! A 1.5kg bag of bread flour will make three large loaves and is 48p, 8 sachets of yeast are 50p, the salt and sugar are negligible. So 16p and 7p is 23p. Compare this to a supermarket-own value loaf (40p last time I looked) and there is your answer. If you use the airing cupboard and the oven when it is already on, the heat is as good as financially and environmentally free.The only thing it takes is time but the results are well worth it.

It's greener Homemade bread has no nasty plastic wrapping and far fewer food miles. If you are lucky enough to source your flour locally, then there are even fewer miles!

It's healthier You know exactly what is in it. Shop-bought ‘plastic' bread contains many nasties. Does yours say ‘flour treatment agent' on the ingredient list? Thought so. According to Not on the Label's Felicity Lawrence, this treatment agent can contain, amongst other things, hydrogenated fat to help the bread hold its shape. Hydrogenated fats increase trans fats that can cause heart disease. Modern bread making processes favour quantity over quality, so much so that, again according to Lawrence, less than 2% of bread on sale in the UK is made entirely from scratch - with no pre-mixes containing flour treatment agents. (For a review of Not on the Label, please see next month's newsletter.)

It's fun Even my ‘cool' teenogres enjoy helping me make it. It is somehow immensely satisfying to produce your own bread.

It can be made into the most wonderful real pizzas - see below

It makes the house smell fabulous

It tastes fabulous!!

So here we are, a basic bread recipe from the marvellous Mrs Beeton. I have made this many times and it has never failed and, believe me, I am no domestic goddess:

You will need:

500g of strong flour (organic stoneground wholemeal is best but any bread flour will do)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 sachet of instant yeast
Warm (ie cooled boiled) water

Put the flour, salt, sugar and yeast into a bowl and mix. Make a well in the middle and pour in some of the water. Mix by hand, adding water as necessary until the mixture forms a dough. Then, on a floured surface, knead the dough for about 3-4 minutes until it becomes elastic. Put back in the bowl, cover with a tea towel and place in the airing cupboard for a couple of hours until doubled in size.

Knead very lightly to knock the air out of it and place in a greased loaf tin. Put somewhere warm (an oven that is still slightly warm after being used earlier is great) until it has risen above the tin (and looks like a real loaf!!), then cook in a hot oven until golden brown and sounds ‘hollow' when the bottom of the tin is tapped. Cool on a rack...slice, add butter and enjoy!

Variations:

Add seeds to up the omega factor - toasted sunflower seeds are lovely, as are hemp seeds to give a really nutty taste.

Rolls - instead of putting in a loaf tin, break into twelve equal balls and once risen, bake. These freeze well so are ideal for school lunchboxes.

Pizza!! - This is a great Saturday night tea as the children can make their own by adding their favourite toppings and it is a great way to use up leftovers in the fridge. It's amazing what you can create with a couple of mushrooms and a slice of ham!

Once the bread has risen for the first time, divide into four and pull out gently into pizza base shapes (they won't be perfect rounds, but are more fun that way).

Brush with a little olive oil then add a tomato sauce (onions, garlic and a tin of drained tomatoes sweated down, reduced and pureed), cheese and toppings of your choice. Our favourite toppings are: mushroom, pepper, ham, olives, odd scraps of cooked meat...and so on. Cook in a hot oven for about 10-15 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbling.

Go on, give it a try. You know you want to!!

Jo

photos (c) Sabrina Willekens 2009

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