We are all kneaded out of the same dough but not baked in the same oven. Baking yourself rich is not some half-baked idea but a simple proven way to up your creative skills, increase the quality of your bread and lower your expenses sustainably – so you can bake your world a better place without cutting back too much in life.
We are baking our own bread for many years already. It all started one fine day when my Singapore neighbour Jason knocked on the door. In his hands, he held a freshly baked bread – as a gift for us – thanks again Jason for sharing!!!
Jason’s bread came straight from the oven, it was still warm. The smell was irresistible. Therefore, we did the only thing reasonable human beings would do: We sat down together, got some olive oil and salt, and started to devour this loaf of goodness – on the spot.
It was a snaccident.
Imagine the crispiness, the cracking of the crust, then the fine vapor escaping the warm, moist and soft inside of this wonderful bread.
Yes, getting good bread in Asia is difficult – and I was starved.
I wanted to try to bake it myself.
Baking bread is no rocket science doesn’t take a lot of time. Hey I could do it and I’m a trained economist and banker… how hard can it be!? It’s just some flour and water mixed and baked.
Give me your 5 minutes and I shall show you how.
How to Bake Awesome Bread
My friend Jason introduced this plain simple but perfect recipe (click here to download printable PDF) to bake my own bread a few years ago:
Before you get started be sure to have:
Ingredients: flour, water, yeast and salt.
Tools: a dough kneader or food processor (although you could use your hands as well – but beware, it’s a wet dough!), a dutch-oven or coverable pan (we have a Le Cleuset) and an oven.
Click on the above links – just some recommendations: You can use similar tools as well of course.
Step 1: Mix it! Put all ingredients together and mix them for about 5 minutes.
Step 2: Let the dough rise for at least 8 hours. Cover the dough with a towel! We prefer to let this happen overnight in order to have warm bread for breakfast. Spend around 5 mins before going to bed and leave it till the next day.
Step 3: Baking: Put additional flour into your dutch-oven to avoid the bread to stick later on, add the cover and bake for about 30 minutes. Then take cover off and keep baking for about 5 minuts or until crust is brown.
Step 4: Done! Let it cool down somewhat and enjoy!
My neighbour Jason and me became good friends, he later also taught me how to brew my own beer – I used to refer to him as the Beer Doctor! We frequently savoured our own beer creations in our condo jacuzzi and brainstormed more ideas.
But that’s another story.
Rise Your Own Dough $$$
The necessary ingredients are cheap, in average it cost me less than $1 to bake one loaf following the above recipe. Depending where you live and what flour and yeast you use, there will be different costs.
Try to experiment.
For us, each bread baked results in savings of about $2-3 in Europe and even more if we are in Asia.
If you’d like to check out how small but regular savings can compound into a substantial amount of money, please also make sure to check out my recent post “Million Dollar Haircut” to save more.
For bread, money is not the main reason for us to bake.
It’s the combination of having fresh quality bread – we simply LOVE this bread over the stuff we could buy – and second convenience: Once you do it a few times, your active “working time” required is less than 10 minutes per loaf.
Conclusion
Freshly baked bread right out the oven is just so much better than buying from the store. Baking your own bread is no rocket-science. It also saves you money and you can explore more fancy alternatives if you like.
Nothing says home like the smell of of baking.
Now, don’t be procrastibaking and get started. Be sure to at least try it once.
Download the above recipe and give it a try.
Let me know in the comments how it tasted and felt to start baking.
If you like it please bake someone else happy by sharing your bread or this recipe with family and friends just as Jason did with us one day. .
Happiness is having self-baked bread!
Bakers gonna bake!
Matt
Disclaimer: Please be made aware that the some of the links used above may be affiliate links for which Financial Imagineer could receive a compensation.