Fortune in Francs

Ok look. I get it. You don’t have time, bread sticks to your fingers, there are lots of trained bakers in Switzerland who know how to make killer loaves of bread. Why not outsource this?

I’m here to convince you that it’s actually very worthwhile and extremely easy, to make your own bread. I do it for a few reasons:

1. I hate seeing all the preservatives that go into every single loaf I have found in the stores. Have you looked at a loaf from Migros? They all have some kind of preservative, like ascorbic acid, in the list.

2. Fresh bread tastes better! Nothing really beats the flavor of a homemade loaf. Even if you’re just a beginner, the extra flavor of that home-made goodness makes up for any lack of skill you might have.

3. It’s significantly cheaper. The cost of a 500g loaf of whole-wheat bread in the store is 3-6 Francs. The cost of making the same amount of bread at home, factoring in the cost of all ingredients, is approximately 0.85 cents (rappes). If you do sourdough and don’t need yeast, the cost lowers down to a mere 75 cents per 500g loaf. This is an approximately 75% reduction in bread cost compared to buying pre-made bread.

4. Self-made bread does not take a lot of additional time! With the rise of no-knead bread, it takes me a mere 3 minutes to get a loaf rising and then in the oven. No sticky hands and cleanup time is negligible.

I use a standard recipe for no-knead bread. I hear it’s better to let it rise 18 hours instead of 2 or 3, but with kids I never manage and just do a few hours at home. I don’t use a Dutch oven, nor a bread machine, nor a fancy KitchenAid mixer – just a bowl and a spoon.

No-knead bread

Ingredients:

• 450g flour (I use whole wheat flour but you can use any)
• 1.5 tsp salt (we have pink himalayan salt right now, for some extra fanciness but not necessary)
• 1.5 -1.75cup warm water (water should be a comfortable hot tub temperature, or around 40-45 degrees)
• 1 package (7g) dry yeast – all the yeast around here is instant yeast, and can be mixed directly with the flour. You can also use active yeast but for bread I haven’t noticed a big difference.

Instructions

1. Combine ingredients in a large bowl. The dough should be sticky and wet and just cling together. You might have to add more water to make it this consistency.
2. Cover and let it sit for 2-3 hours or until it doubles. You can put it in a cold oven. Our oven has a proofing function; I have not yet used this function. At this point, you could also put it in the fridge and let it sit for up to 18 hours to develop flavor, then let it come back to room temperature for an hour before baking. I have never managed to get to this point because I have a hungry family that wants to eat.
3. Bake at 200 degrees (with humidity if your oven has this function) for 30-40 mins until golden.

That’s it! Easy and simple.

Why do I do this? I save a couple francs per loaf, and I learn a skill. In this way I can reduce the cost of one of my grocery items by around 75% – that’s saving about 5 francs a week. This stuff really adds up, people.

Nowadays we usually make a Zopf on the weekends instead of buying it. It is fresher, has zero preservatives, and the house smells great as a result.

Sometimes flour goes on sale and then I buy a lot at once. I usually buy 8kg flour at once now. I’m on the hunt for bigger bags of flour; maybe my next trip should be to Aligro!