I present to you the $0.50 loaf of awesome bread.

I was in the grocery store a few weeks ago looking at a loaf of very nice, crusty Tuscan bread.

It was $4.75.

I said to myself: "Self? I really like this bread, but $4.75 is just idiocy. I can make that!"

And I did.

And cost me about a half a buck.

So in the interest of spreading the joy of incredible bread for 20% of the price of a crappy factory white loaf, here you go:

Crusty Italian Bread

This makes beautiful, crusty bread with a crisp crust and a warm, soft interior. It’s as good as anything you’ll ever get from any bakery.

Give it a try and you’ll never go back to buying bread.

Ingredients:

710g (710ml) Water, room temperature. If your water has a smell or a taste, use filtered or bottled.
5g Sugar
4g Instant Yeast
1,000g Unbleached, unenriched bread flour.
22g Kosher Salt
Corn Meal

Equipment:

Directions:

Add the the water, sugar & yeast to the dough mixer bowl and whisk (by hand) until dissolved. Let sit for 10 minutes.
Put the dough hook on the mixer, add about half the flour and start the mixer on slow.
Once the ingredients have been mixed, add the salt. You need to add the salt after the yeast/water has been mixed into the dough, since the salt retards the action of the yeast.
Increase speed to medium
Add the rest of the flour now.
Keep kneading for another 5 minutes then transfer to 4 Quart plastic bucket with a snap-on lid, and let rise in a cool place (about 50°–60°) for 12 hours, or until doubled in size.
When doubled, reach into the bucket, grab one side of the dough, give it a quick pull until it’s about 3x the length it was, and fold it over. Rotate 90° and repeat until you have done this 4 times.
Let rise again until double.
Preheat oven and steel or stone to 425°F
Generously flour a cutting board and dump all the dough from the bucket onto the board. Cut dough into two pieces, form each piece into a loaf shape and place on a pizza peel dusted with corn meal for the final rise.
Make some slashes across the top with a very sharp knife, lame or razor blade. The slashes allow the bread to expand in the oven.
If your oven has a depression in the bottom for water, pour about 2 cups of hot water into it now. If not, add 2 cups of hot water to small pan and place on the bottom of your oven.

Makes (2) large loaves of bread

edit

Fixed the "preheat" step.

FWIW, I'm not broke, I just hate wasting money. Or maybe I'm not broke because I hate wasting money. Not sure which. 8-)

I started doing this right after I discovered that all the bread I like was almost $5/loaf and it really bothered me.

Making my own bread has been the most recent change along with my other "WTF was I doing?" changes like:

I never pay interest anymore
I use a double-edge razor with $0.40 blades instead of one of those multi-blade monsters with $2.00+ blades.
Cancelled cable and got Netflix and an antenna.

Bread was just my latest change.

March 22, 2018 at 04:03PM

Frugal Tip