This is the bread that convinces friends and family to go buy themselves a bread machine. Because, not only can you NOT (double negative, WATCH OUT.) find anything that tastes this good at Wal-Mart, but would you believe it’s cheaper, too? (See below for price analysis.)
Ingredients:
7.5 oz water, 80 degrees
3 Tbs honey
2 c bread flour
1 c oats, quick or old fashioned
1.5 Tbs dry milk
1.25 tsp salt
1.5 Tbs butter, cut into four pieces
2 tsp active dry yeast
- Get out ye handy dandy bread machine.
- Add water and honey.
- Add dry ingredients.
- Tap to settle ingredients, make a well in the middle for your yeast. (Just a slight well, make sure no water is peeking through.)
- Place one piece of butter in each corner, and put the yeast in the middle.
- Set machine for basic.
- Watch while kneading – if it is crumbly, add water 1 Tbs at a time. If it is sticking to the sides after 5 minutes of kneading, add flour 1 Tbs at a time.
- Wait four hours with butter in one hand and knife in the other.
- Enjoy.
There are 20 cups in a 5 lb bag of flour that costs 1.49 = $0.149/loaf
There are 15 cups in a 42 oz. container of old fashioned oats that costs 1.39 = $0.093
There are 32 Tbs in 24 oz of honey that costs 2.99 = $0.28
There are 35.5 tsp in 4 oz of active dry yeast that costs roughly $5 = $0.282
All other ingredients are negligible.
Total cost for 1.5 lb loaf of bread = $0.80/loaf.
Of course, if I wanted to make plain white bread, it would be cheaper still and yield a larger loaf (same weight, less dense), but what’s the fun in that? Besides, this is healthier.
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What’s your favorite bread machine recipe?
That sounds fabulous. I think I might just have to give it a try today! The last few months I’ve fallen in love with my bread machine and am always looking for new things to try. Thanks for sharing!
And I love the price breakdown. 🙂 I do the same thing to make sure I’m saving over buying convenience, plus I love to announce how much I’ve saved every time I serve something. Drives my husband nuts! ha.
Oh, don’t send me running over to my Joy of Cooking to attempt to work out the conversion! Please tell me, in Tbs. or cups, how much water you use. Because I want to make this for supper. And I would sooner sit here typing out a comment than actually do the math. =)
I make this only I add a cup of wholewheat flour to it and increase my yeast to 3 tsp. Well actually since I don’t have a handy dandy bread machine, I double your recipe and mix it up in my kitchen-aid. My family loves this bread.
Rose, you need to get yourself a measure-all cup from the Pampered Chef! 🙂 It’s got ounces on it – which has saved me many a headache!
Okay, let’s see, 8 oz is 1cup… 1 tablespoon is 1/2 an ounce.
So I’d say, one cup minus one tablespoon.
Does that work for you? 🙂
Donielle, I do the same thing. I sit at the dinner table and crunch the numbers! “Let’s see, half a bag of stir-fry is $0.40, 2 cups of rice is… ” 😀
Beckie, I’ll have to try that! You went and made it even healthier with the whole wheat. 🙂
Gosh, that was a lot of smileys.
😀 🙂 😀 😉 😀 🙂 😀
I was wondering if you had ever substituted dry buttermilk for the dry milk? The recipe sounds yummy and I was planning on making bread tomorrow, now I don’t have to look for a recipe!
Thanks
Toni
Toni, I didn’t even know they made dry buttermilk. 🙂 Tell me how it goes tomorrow!
Thanks for this recipe!!! I’ve been making bread by hand and hoping to win the lottery so I can buy a breadmaker LOL! 🙂
this is the best bread!!!
probably the best bread i have ever tasted in my life!!
i googled honey oat bread and found this. i will keep this recipe forever! thank you so much!
I like the idea that you broke down the cost per loaf of bread and I do agree that water and salt are negligible but I have to disagree with you regarding the fact that the butter and powdered milk are negigible.
A stick of butter in today’s market is a minimum of $1 with 8 TBSP to a stick – the 1.5 TBSP called for the price of the butter is $0.1875… That is twice the amount for the oats…
I don’t know the breakdown of the dry milk but if I were putting together a total cost for a recipe – I would include that as well.
I do not mean to be nit-picky but these are touch economical times and especially when someone is making multiple loaves – the “negligible” items are not so negligible.
I still think it is much better priced than what you would buy in the store not to mention the fact that you know exactly what is going into your bread and when you have baked it.
I have had my bread machine for about 20 years now and I rarely bake a loaf in the machine itself. I much prefer the shape of the loaf when I shape it – not to mention that I always hated the big hole in the bottom…