With the price of dwelling disaster nonetheless rumbling on, reporter Alice Sjoberg shares how she’s stopped shopping for bread and as an alternative makes her personal sourdough loaf.

I have not purchased bread in months (Picture: Alice Sjoberg)
With the persevering with value of dwelling disaster, which has seen payments and costs of on a regular basis important rise, over 59% of households throughout the UK reporting rising prices in February 2026.
Due to this, many shall be on the lookout for methods to avoid wasting cash in any method they’ll, whether or not it is discovering methods decrease vitality payments, or altering the way in which they do the meals store. This will embody opting to go to cheaper supermarkets, or selecting up off-brand objects relatively than it is branded different.
My associate and I’ve made our personal methods to save cash, which incorporates now not shopping for bread throughout our weekly meals outlets. As an alternative, we choose to make our personal whereas the price of dwelling disaster rumbles on.
Since we each work full-time, neither of us have the time or vitality to spend hours within the kitchen, kneading a dough to then make it into bread. However as an alternative, we have discovered a pretty-much idiot proof technique to make bread that may be performed whereas we’re working.
And all of it comes down to 1 particular equipment, that has rapidly grew to become certainly one of our favorite devices in our house – the bread maker, which we received as a shifting in current from my boyfriend’s household after it had been forgotten about in a cabinet.
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We rapidly realised simply how straightforward this made bread making, as all that you must do is add the substances into the accompanying bowl, earlier than leaving it till the chosen programme is finished. As you come back to get it, you will see freshly made bread there ready for you.
The bread machine additionally got here with an accompanying e book of recipes the place you may take your choose of breads, pastries, and even pizza dough, as all of them have completely different settings. However as we already had a sourdough starter, we discovered a technique to make sourdough baking simpler than ever.
Learn how to make sourdough bread in a bread maker
All that you must do is add two cups of heat water and 1 / 4 cup of melted butter into the bread maker bowl. You may also make it dairy free through the use of margarine, or every other oil.
Then, add 4 cups of bread flour, two tablespoons of sugar (however maple syrup or honey additionally works and makes it scrumptious), and half a tablespoon of salt. Lastly, add 1 / 4 cup of your lively sourdough starter.
When all substances are added – do not combine it! Merely add the bowl into the bread maker and begin it on a dough setting. As soon as it is combined and rising, I prefer to take it out of the bread maker and add it to my oven, which I’ve heated at round 30 levels, as this makes the rising course of go by faster.
Because it’s sourdough, this does take a bit longer to rise, because it must double in measurement. However including it to a heat oven will make this course of go faster. However if you happen to’re simply making a standard loaf with yeast, this would possibly not be essential, because the time within the bread maker shall be sufficient.
As soon as it is doubled in measurement, it is time to rating the dough to assist it develop as soon as baking. If you’ve performed this, it is time to put it again within the breadmaker to bake it.
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Every bread maker shall be completely different, however for sourdough, I prefer to bake it for 50-55 minutes, as this enables it to get a pleasant, golden brown color throughout. As soon as performed, take it out and take away from the bread bowl.
Then, the arduous half begins, as you’ll need to let it calm down earlier than slicing into it, or danger the bread turn out to be rubbery in its texture. As soon as cool, you may reduce into your freshly made bread.















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