Onion bread rolls

I love my bread machine. I've always enjoyed baking bread, but although I used to find kneading it by hand very relaxing and sometimes even therapeutic, I never managed to get the bread light and even enough to be a real treat. I've been using bread machines for about 12 ye4ars now, and my goodness! How they have changed. Early models produced an oddly shaped and often strangely flavoured loaf that everyone would enthuse over to be polite. Nowadays, the shape, texture and taste of a loaf made in a  machine can rival those of the very best bakery-bought breads.  And the magic of putting flour, water and yeast into a box and opening it three hours later to find a freshly baked loaf does wonders  for my inner alchemist!

But does baking your own bread save any money? When you take into account the cost of flour and yeast, the fuel used for baking, any additional ingredients and unless, like me, you won it, the cost of your machine, a home made loaf probably works out at about the same price as a supermarket one, although with a little practice you will end up with a far superior product.

Where the savings start to really mount up is when you start to branch out into speciality breads. Just look at the price of speciality hand made artisan breads in  your local specialist shop  or  at a farmers' market. £3 or more for a smallish loaf is not unusual - yet made at home  similar breads will cost you little or no more than making a simple loaf.

My favourite range of speciality flours comes from Wessex Mill. The flours can be bought online or from farm shops all over the country. I love the onion flour - the smell of it reminds me of the Zwiebelbrotchen we used to buy from the local bakers when we lived in Celle, in Germany, 34 years ago. (And yes, I do sniff bags of flour..... what of it?)

 

 

My own rolls can't be described as Brotchen because the -chen suffix  is the diminutive - and there was nothing diminutive about these! I followed the dinner rolls recipe in my bread machine handbook, and the rolls rose.... and rose.... and rose..... The finished rolls were huge, light and utterly delicious. 

 



Taking everything into account, I reckon the whole batch of rolls cost around £1 and each is big and fulling enough to be the basis of a sandwich  or soup-and-roll meal. Because that makes then such a bargain, I am submitting them to Credit Crunch Munch hosted for Fuss Free Flavours by Fab Food 4 All.