Baking vs Buying: White Sandwich Loaf?
We bought a Kiss white sandwich loaf this week and I noticed it cost TT$10.75…i mean…how long ago was this $7? or … $6? Well, the $8 not too long…the others, I don’t recall.
Does anybody? I wish somebody kept track.
Anyway, I decided to work out how much it cost to make a sandwich loaf home.
The kiss bread said it was 590g so I used Peter Reinhart’s White Bread’s Percentage Formula to work out the ingredients and then tried to remember the cost of ingredients.
Shame on me for not remembering the cost of yeast. I use so much of it.
*sigh*
Some costs I can’t remember exactly but have decent-ish ideas.
If anybody wants to quibble on price…or contribute…feel free.
I’m sure mom will come along to save the day, yet again. I’ll edit as time goes on.
| Ingredient | g | oz | vol | cost | notes |
| Baker’s Flour | 303 | 10.66 | 2 3/8 cups | $2.17 | I think a 10kg bag of baker’s flour is TT$77 but it could be TT$73 or something. I forget. Went grocery, baker’s $71.49; AP $67.993 |
| Salt | 5.5 | 0.2 | < 1 tsp | $1.00 | let’s call this neglible and count this, sugar and water as $1? |
| Powdered milk | 19g | 0.66 | 1/8 cup | $1.19 | I think 800g costs about TT$50+-TT$5. I don’t buy it! And I’m not sure if that’s the correct size of the big bag.3 |
| Sugar | 23 | 0.82 | 5 tsp | – | see salt |
| Instant Yeast | 0.11 | 1 tsp | $0.502 | this is like half a packet? 5 packets in a box? which costs TT$52. I should know the cost of yeast. I use it so much. I just can’t remember. |
|
| Egg | 1/2 egg | $1.02 | um, use the other half as egg wash. i think we got 18 eggs at pricesmart for TT$18.xx |
||
| Water | 4/5 cup | – | see salt | ||
| Sub Total | 590 | $5.88 | Labour/Etc | ??? | Work Time: 30 min Bake Time: 45 min Total Time: 5 hrs |
| Total | ??? | ||||
Well, the ingredient cost for my equivalent white bread is say about TT$7 as opposed to TT$10.75. But I haven’t even factored in gas or labour charge. I guess since I’m making it for home, for me, I could work for free. Am I saving?
Well, at least for the most part I know what’s going into my bread.
Would you still bake bread?
- If you’re interested, I still calculate/estimate the exchange rate at US$1 = TT$6.30 tho…I can’t recall what it is exactly. XE.com lists a mid-market rate of TT$6.22580
- Edit 6:30 am: Checked with mom, she’s not sure cost of yeast but thinks it’s around $5…so I don’t feel so bad!
- Went grocery today. Country Pride Baker’s Flour is $71.49 for 10kg and All-Purpose Flour is $67.99 for 10kg. Also, checked with mom…the powdered milk price is about right. I forget which is more (skim or full-cream) but the range is more like TT$48-$53 so I’ll leave it as is.
the $1 for the water, salt and sugar might be high…you could check the cost of that too
you do need to add labour if only to cater for time and effort spent, when you could possibly have been doing something else money-wise
but yeah, even if it doesn’t end up being a HUGE difference, fresh bread with fresh ingredients is hard to beat
Comment by Chennette — Friday 29th, August 2008 @ 1:43 am
oh, but then…if you made more than one loaf at a time, the time/labour costs would be split making making the unit cost less
Comment by Chennette — Friday 29th, August 2008 @ 1:45 am
i have to figure out how much to cater for those
and i know some could be high
but figure overestimate for now
Comment by Lilandra — Friday 29th, August 2008 @ 1:51 am
yeah! good to know!
this is about half the recipe
so the recipe gets about two 1-pound loaves
when i first made it i doubled the recipe
second time in the bread machine halved (because of what can fit) but then it’s less time involved just electricity as i just emptied in all the ingredients and it did all the work. i just had to wash the pan after
and the third time…well 1 of the recipe. it was tedious and tiring because i was rushing (you know for the barbeque) and had jsut rushed home from the doctor
Comment by Lilandra — Friday 29th, August 2008 @ 2:06 am
HMMMMM…. fantastic job……your costing not too far off…. and since we ahrdly ever factor in labour cost then it really does not matter for us unless we were going to sell what we made.
But nothing beats hot home made bread and hoooooops…..hehehe.
But we can always bake more and freeze so we use same amount of time to make more than one loaf of bread….but hops should always be fresh, just my preference…. do we pay for water?????
Comment by trinimom — Friday 29th, August 2008 @ 7:28 am
WASA!
Comment by Lilandra — Friday 29th, August 2008 @ 4:48 pm