making excellent bread is challenging. making good bread, less so. making acceptable bread is simple. jim lahey's no-knead bread, made popular by NYT's mark bittman, is beloved for a reason. it's not the most amazing loaf of bread, but it's damn good for how little work goes into it. when i make it, i generally make it with these ingredients:
- 150 grams whole wheat flour
- 280 grams bread or AP flour
- 345 grams warm (body temp) water
- 16 grams kosher salt
- 1 gram instant yeast
brewing beer? if you brew with grains, you're going to have spent grains leftover. set some aside and freeze them immediately; those can be mixed into bread just like you would seeds or nuts. the rest can be dried in an oven and then milled into flour. right now i have a ton of spent grains from my last batch of dark beer.
all that dust and broken pieces in the bottom of a bag of nuts can be mixed into bread.
as bread gets old and dries out, that just means that it'll toast better (since there's less moisture to cook off). stale bread also works great for bread pudding, french toast, frittata, croutons, etc. baking bread is cheap.
right now (2023) you can buy a 5-lb bag of AP flour for $3. if you're making the above recipe, that's enough for 5 loaves. the salt will cost maybe 3 cents, depending on where you buy it and in what size. the yeast will add another cent or so (a pound of SAF instant yeast, which lasts forever, will set you back about $6). taken together and assuming a negligible cost for water, that's about 64 cents per loaf. a fancy loaf from the store will set you back at least $2-3, if not more.