Baking Bread Saves Dough

How much does a loaf of homemade bread cost?

I'm just going to get right down to it; I'm going to compare the cost of a recent bread recipe I made with the loaf of bread I used to buy from Trader Joe's: Soft Whole Wheat for $2.49. All my calculations will round up since we're dealing with money, and the prices are taken from the shelves at Fred Meyer in February of 2011. No need to fear if math isn't your thing - I've done all the calculations. Breathe deeply, and continue.

This receipt from Trader Joe's is dated from 11.13.2010, and to note, even bread from the "natural grocer" contains some suspect ingredients, such as the ambiguous "dough conditioners." 

Let's take the ingredients from this recipe that yields 4 loaves.

3 cups warm water 

1½ Tbs active dry yeast

1½ Tbs salt 

3 cups unbleached white bread flour

3 cups whole wheat flour

½ cup rye flour 

1 Tbs vital wheat gluten 

I'll start with 3 cups of warm water from the tap; well, our landlord pays the water bill, so it's free. $0.00 for tap water. Even if you pay the water bill it costs less than a penny for tap water. 

For the flour I used this conversion tool and found that 1 pound of flour is roughly 4 cups. Therefore, a 5 pound bag has about 20 cups of flour. At $3.57 per 5 pound bag (the white and whole wheat were the same price) the cost is $0.18 per cup. For the 6 cups of flour this recipe calls for, total cost is $1.08. 

I measured this one out because I didn't trust what the online conversion tools were telling me - and it was a good thing I did! For this 4oz jar I measured out 10 tablespoons of yeast. Therefore, for 1½ Tablespoons active dry yeast the cost is $0.73 per Tablespoon, or $1.09 for this recipe. 

Using this conversion tool (I didn't want to measure out over a pound of salt!) I found that 26oz of salt is equal to about 49 Tablespoons. That is $0.02 per Tablespoon, or $0.04 for our recipe.

This 22oz bag of vital wheat gluten flour converted to Tablespoons is equal to nearly 80 Tablespoons. At $6.99 per bag that is $0.09 per Tablespoon. 

Bob's Red Mill Dark Rye Flour

I forgot to take a picture of this in the store, but online from Bob's Red Mill you can buy a 6 pound bag of dark rye flour for $11.66. 6 pounds of rye flour converts to nearly 27 cups of flour. That's $0.43 per cup, so half a cup would be about $0.22. 

So, let's do the math (don't groan, I'm doing it for you):

Water                             $0.00

Flour                              $1.08

Yeast                               $1.09

Salt                                 $0.04

Vital Wheat Gluten        $0.09

Rye flour                       +$0.22

                                        $2.52 / 4 loaves = 

$0.63 per loaf!!!

Another question we could pose, then, is why does store-bough bread cost so much? (And $2.49 is very middle of the road - there are loaves out there for $.99 and some organic loaves as much as $4 or $5). 

With store-bought bread you also have to consider production, transportation, that lovely plastic bag it comes in, and the mark-up for profit. When you look at it from that point of view baking your own bread really is a radical act of environmentalism. When you bake it at home the only energy it uses is you mixing it and the oven to bake it. In contrast, consider the energy of a factory style bread making facility, the petroleum inputs for the transportation and the production of that plastic bag. 

Therefore, homemade bread should be carbon neutral, especially if the electricity or gas you purchase comes from renewable resources. 50% of the power Ross and I purchase comes from renewable energy sources through the Green Power Program from PSE. 

My conclusions: 

Cost: homemade bread < store-bought bread

Environmental Impact: homemade bread < store-bought bread

Taste: homemade bread > store-bought bread  

Ok, the last conclusion is anecdotal, but I'm never going back to buying bread. And after nearly two months of homemade bread I found Ross grumbling about some store-bought bread he was offered the other night. Just sayin' is all.

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Update: A few comments from my ravid readers (I've always wanted to use that phrase since Rita Skeeter used it in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) have asked "well what about this?" and "what about that?" I suppose there many more things to think about concerning the TRUE cost of bread. How much of my rent goes to pay for water? How much does the electricity cost to heat the oven? What about the environmental impact of transporting the different ingredients to the store? GOOD QUESTIONS.

And then I kept thinking them up - how much does it cost to get hot water out of the tap? What percentage of the cost of the yeast is for the jar? (Good tip from my cousin-in-law Blake; buy yeast in "bulk" and reuse the jar!) What's the environmental impact of the bags the flour comes in? What are the environmental implications of how the wheat was grown and harvested and milled? What farm(s) does the flour come from? How were the workers treated along the way? I could keep going...

Is it actually possible for me to figure out all these extra costs and impacts? It's just mind boggling. I will have to investigate further. And if you want to know the true cost and impacts of your bread - do some investigating yourself. And then comment and share what you have discovered, me myself and I would love to know.  

Until then - happy baking! 

Bread's Best Friend

What's your favorite companion for bread? 

To name just a few of mine:

Umm, who doesn't love Nutella? I love it slathered on bread right out of the oven; plus it helps motivate me read my textbook. Sometimes. 

Nutella took a recent blow with a suit filed against the chocolate hazelnut spread for its false promotion as a health food. However - I was never really fooled, and I don't blame Ross for teasing the kids at the Y in the mornings that they actually just melted a candy bar on their toast.

Nutella took a blow in my heart though; it is made with palm oil, and demand for it has risen drastically in the past and is expected to continue to increase, yet palm oil is associated with deforestation in tropical regions, social conflict and increased green house emissions. Additionally, we are seeing the same problems with palm oil that we have seen with corn - the cost is going up due to the dual use of these resources as a biofuel. You can read the full report from the Nation Wildlife Federation: Food, Fuel, or Forests?

So, what to do for all those Nutella lovers out there like me who are torn? Well, when we finish our current supply I'm going to try this: homemade Nutella! Then I'll probably blog about it. You know me.

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Micks Peppourri makes pepper jellies of all kinds and sells them at Pike Place Market in Seattle as well as online. It is always one of my favorite stops at the market since you can have free samples! I like many different flavors, but last trip I ended up with their Hot Roasted Garlic - with NO regrets.

The Trader Joe's Whipped Cream Cheese is pretty basic as far as cream cheeses go, no complaints, but I do like it whipped, especially for mixing with, say, pepper jelly or into a spinach artichoke dip. I LOVE that you can find affordable organics at Trader Joe's, cheap yet decent wine, though I wish the produce was sourced more locally. It also pains me to see the people who shop mainly in the frozen section. Ross and I started meal planning last fall, with that meant more cooking from scratch, and the first thing I noticed was that I didn't go to the frozen section anymore. Cooking from scratch, know the sources of our food - or Kitchen Literacy - is a valuable skill that so many have lost!

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Another one of my favorite combinations! Both from Trader Joe's, good products, but boy oh boy I should have stocked up on the pumpkin butter when it was in season! Trader Joe's has some pretty great seasonal items, and this is definitely one of them. I know I could make homemade pumpkin butter, but since it's out of season, I feel like perhaps I should be content in waiting and anticipation for the next harvest!

So, what's your favorite?

New USDA Guidelines and then... Mine.

Recently, the USDA released "new" guidelines to "help Americans make healthier food choices and combat the obesity epidemic." An astonishing 2/3 of Americans are overweight (BMI>25%) or obese (BMI>30%). If you are curious - here is a state-by-state map of obesity trends across the U.S. (Fascinating - Colorado is the leanest state, while Mississippi is the fattest. See where your state stands up! I am proud of my home state.) 

 From mypyramid.gov 

The new guidelines are not surprising, but the idea is that they can be presented in a clear and easy to understand way so that more people can grasp what they guidelines actually mean. It does seem strange that we need the government to tell us how to eat - Americans in general have lost a lot of traditional food knowledge (things our grandparents and great-grandparents knew) when Americans started eating from fast food restaurants and cooking with canned soup. The evidence that big industry and big advertising dollars completely changed nearly an entire culture's diet is astonishing - and the incredibly high incidence of obesity is the result. 

From the USDA press release:

• Enjoy your food, but eat less.

Tip: Eating off smaller plates and bowls will make this easier! And - well, only eat when you are hungry as opposed to when you're bored, or watching TV, or driving. 

• Avoid oversized portions.

Restaurants are notorious for this! Split meals, or put half your meal in a to-go container before you even start eating. 

• Make half your plate fruits and vegetables. 

Simple enough - just make sure they are REAL fruits and vegetables, whole foods. 

• Make half your grains whole. 

Or all of them!!!! Nutrient losses from refined (white) flour (from Bread Matters by Andrew Whitley) 

Nutrient	% Loss
Thiamine (B1)	77%
Riboflavin (B2)	80%
Niacin (nicotinic acid)	81%
Pyridoxine (B6)	72%
Pantothenic acid	50%
Vitamin E	86%
Calcium	60%
Phosphorus	71%
Magnesium	84%
Potassium	77%
Sodium	78%
Chromium	40%
Manganese	86%
Iron	76%
Cobalt	89%
Zinc	78%
Copper	68%
Selenium	16%
Molybdenum	48%

• Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk.

Or drink rice or soy milk. Be cautious of going on a completely fat-free diet: vitamins are fat soluble so you need fats for your body to utilize them! Go for healthy fats - poly and mono-unsaturated fats like olive oil or canola oil. 

• Compare sodium in foods like soup, bread, and frozen meals – and choose the foods with lower numbers.

Or avoid these processed foods all together and cook from scratch! Then YOU control all the ingredients. Ross and I make a large pot of soup a week then enjoy it as leftovers throughout the week, and it's super easy. Oh, and we make all our own bread. 

• Drink water instead of sugary drinks. 

The greatest source of discretionary calories in today's average American diet comes from beverages - the greatest culprit, pop. I would recommend starting right this moment and never drinking pop (soda if you insist), Gatorade, energy drinks, Kool-aid, or Sunny-D again. All of these beverages contain public enemy #1 - High Fructose Corn Syrup. HFCS comes genetically modified "Liberty Corn" and is subsidized by the government.  Drink water, REAL fruit juices, coffee and/or tea.

Here's another suggestion: eliminate HFCS entirely from your diet, read the labels and refuse to buy anything that contains HFCS. You will automatically steer clear of highly processed foods that contain high levels of sodium and artificial ingredients, and will be on the way to a healthier you! 

There was a great story on NPR yesterday from Talk of the Nation, which highlights the new guidelines and also discusses why the USDA isn't simply telling you to eat less red meat, or stop drinking pop: part of the USDA's mission is to promote American agriculture, and both the FDA and USDA are tied up in politics and lobbied by the Beef Council, the Dairy Council, the Council on Biotechnology, etc. So, that's what you get when government regulatory agencies supporting human health and nutrition are influenced by industry - 66% of your population overweight or obese. Clearly something hasn't been working. 

A solution? Follow these three rules from Michael Pollan: 

Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much. 

Check out Mark Bittman's (the author of my favorite vegetarian cookbook!) article "A Food Manifesto for the Future" here from the New York Times. Here's something that could be monumentally more effective that new, refurbished and spruced-up USDA dietary guidelines. 

(picture source)

In general, this is what he is argues needs to happen to the food "system" in the US. I agree. 

• End subsidies to processed food
• Start subsizing small farmers who sell actual food for direct consumption
• Break up the bureaucracies at the USDA and the FDA
• Ban factory-farm style animal feeding
• Encourage and subsidize home cooking
• Institute a junk food sales and marketing tax
• Encourage recycling while reducing waste
• Require truth in labeling
• Invest in sustainable agriculture research

And check out this fantastic cookbook for all your from-scratch cooking needs! 

Here's to a healthy you!!!!! 

What exactly is in your store-bought bread?

Readers beware: your bread purchases are about to change forever - for the better! Don't worry - I have also included lots of options of how to make or buy REAL bread.

First, things that are in my bread; flour (usually both white and wheat, this time rye), salt, sugar, water, yeast, sometimes a fat.

The things in store-bought bread: 

This a table taken almost entirely from Andrew Whitley's book Bread Matters, pgs. 8-13. Any of my additions are added in italics. 

Ingredient	What does it do?	What’s the problem?
Flour	Main ingredient: source of carbohydrates, protein, fat, minerals, vitamins and other micronutrients.	Many nutrients are depleted in refined (white) flours.
Added to refined flour: Nicain, reduced iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Calcium Sulfate	Restores lost vitamins and minerals to refined flour.	Synthetically derived; why not just use what nature provided before it was refined?
Water	Necessary to make flour into dough.
Salt	Adds flavor; strengthens the gluten network in the dough; aids in keeping the quality of the bread (as a water attractant and a partial mold inhibitor.)	Under pressure from food agencies, the bread industry is gradually reducing levels of salt in bread.
Yeast	Aerates bread, makes it light in texture, and may contribute to flavor.	Excessive use may lead to digestive problems. (Jenn’s note: ever wondered where gluten intolerances came from?)
Fat	Hard fats improve load volume, crumb softness, and keeping quality. Hydrogenated fats have been commonly used, thought plant bakers are phasing them out.	Not essential in traditional breadmaking, though often used. Hard to do without some fat in industrial bread. (Jenn's note: the fat in the label above is from canola and/or soy, which are generally derived from GM crops unless certified Organic.)
High Fructose Corn Syrup	HFCS is an artificial sweetener derived from corn that has undergone an enzymatic process to convert glucose into fructose. Bakery items use HFCS 42 – meaning 42% fructose and 58% glucose.	All HFCS is derived from genetically modified (GM) corn. It is labeled “generally recognized as safe” by the FDA, yet has health and environmental concerns and some HFCS contains mercury, a neurotoxin.
Non-fat dry milk	Is used to decrease staling rate, and improve crust color and softness.	Not essential in breakmaking, yet adds additional nutrition and calcium.
Flour Treatment Agent	L-ascorbic acid (E300). Can be added to flour by the miller or at the baking stage. Acts as an oxidant, which helps retain gas in the dough, making the loaf rise more.	No nutritional benefits to the consumer (because degraded by the heat of baking.) Increased loaf volume may give the false impression of value.
Bleach	Chlorine dioxide gas to make flour white, used by millers for decades until banned in the UK in 1999. In other countries, eg the US, flour may still be bleached.	No nutritional benefits to the consumer. Chlorine is a potent biocide and greenhouse gas.
Reducing Agent	L-cysteine hydrochloride (E920). Cysteine is a naturally occurring amino acid. Use in backing to create more stretchy dough, especially hamburger buns and baguettes.	No intended nutritional benefit, though also sold as a supplement. May be derived from animal hair and feathers. So vegans and vegetarians – watch out!
Soy Flour	Widely use in bread as “improvers.” Has a bleaching effect on flour, assists “machinability” of dough and volume and softness of bread. Enables more water to be added to the dough mix.	Increasingly likely to be derived from genetically modified soybeans. Over 90% of the acres of soybeans planted in the US are GM.
Emulsifiers	Widely used in bread “improvers” to control the size of gas bubbles, to enable to dough to hold more gas, and there grow bigger, to make the crumb softer, and to reduce the rate of staling. They include: E471: Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids E472e: Mono- and diacetyltartaric acid of esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids E481: Sodium strearoyl-2-lactylate (SSL) E422: Glycerol mono-stearate (GMS) E322” Lecithins – naturally occurring, mainly derived from soy	No nutritional benefit to consumer. Soy lecithin may be derived from GM soy. Increased loaf volumes gives misleading impression of value and post-baking softness may be confused with “freshness.”
Preservatives	Calcium propionate (E282) is widely used. Vinegar (E260 acetic acid) is also used, though less effective. Preservatives are only necessary for prolonged shelf life. Home freezing is a chemical-free alternative.	No nutritional benefit to consumer. Calcium propionate can cause “off” flavors if over-used and may be a carcinogen.
Enzymes	Came to the rescue of industrial breadmakers when additives like azodicarbonamide and potassium bromate were banned. Bread enzymes fall into various categories and have varied functions in breadmaking; Amylase Maltogenic amylase Oxidase Protease Peptidase Lipase Phospholipase Hemicellulase Xylanase Transglutaminase Note: In general, these are use to increase elasticity, delay staling, increase loaf volume, give better crust color, and keep bread soft. Interesting to note: the bread label I took a picture of does include the word "enzymes" as an ingredient.	No nutritional benefit to consumer. No requirements to be included on ingredient declarations, because they are currently treated as “processing aids.” Even if the EU law in amended, the single word “enzymes” will be all that is require on label, leaving consumers in the dark about the origin the particular enzymes used. Often produced by genetic engineering, though this is unlikely to be stated on consumer product labels. Use of phospholipase derived from pig pancreas would be unacceptable to vegetarians and some religious groups, but there is no requirement to declare enzymes, let alone their source. Some enzymes are potential allergens, notably Alpha-amylase. Bakery workers can become sensitized to enzymes from bread improvers. Amylase can retain some of its potency as an allergen in the crust of loaves after baking. Transglutaminase may act upon gliadin proteins in the dough to generate the epitope associated with celiac disease.

*Another thing to look out for is caramel coloring, which may give bread the appearance of wheat but will not have the benefits of whole grains. 

So, what to do? 

1. It may be time to start making your own bread! Check out the "Bread Recipes" page to get started, or find yourself a good cookbook! (Hayley and I had a blast making bread together!) 

2. Read the labels of your bread - and then only purchase bread if you are satisfied with the ingredients. 

3. Buy Organic bread - the Organic certification guarantees that there will be no GM ingredients, artificial chemicals or processing aids. Try Dave's Killer Bread! 

4. Find a local bakery and talk to the bakers, ask about how they make their bread and request an ingredient list. A great place to start around Bellingham - Avenue Bread! 

5. Enjoy your bread - enjoy the taste, the texture, and feel GOOD about the ingredients!