Bread!

I have just ventured into bread making and didn't realise it was so satisfying and easy. It's much tastier than the bought equivalent and at least you know what's went into it.
Living alone I go through very little bread and usually buy a yellow sticker loaf, bung it into the freezer and just take out the slices I require.

Haven't fully thought out my plan yet for switching to home made bread? The loaf I have made should hopefully stay fresh for three days or so with a damp tea towel over it? If there is any left I suppose I could slice the remainder and bung it in freezer to use as required?

Your thoughts please?

We’ve not brought bread for a few years now. Always make our own. But we do cheat by using a bread maker. Best thing we’ve ever brought. Yeah 3 days is about your limit for freshness. I wouldn’t put a damp tea towel over it. Straight into the bread bin or paper bag then bread bin. After cooling on a rack, obviously. Sliced & frozen should work. Never had any left to try that.

I bake all our bread and cobs, 3lb of flour makes 20-4oz bread cobs we leave a couple of days worth out then freeze the rest.
Same with loaves I bake 3 loaves they usually sliced then frozen.
Sourdough loaves keep fresher longer than normal bread so that doesn’t always get frozen.
Enjoy your bread Vinny homemades the best.

I used to make my own bread in a breadmaker but, now that I have a source of free Sourdough bread, there's no point in making it.
My bread didn't stay fresh for very long but you'll soon know how long yours keeps.

We used to make loaves by hand but switched to a bread maker about a year ago. The crust on a bread maker loaf isn't quite as good but the lack of effort required makes up for it. We still shape ciabatta and bread rolls by hand, but the dough mixing is all done in the bread maker.

I seem to have went the opposite way to everyone else!  I used to use a bread maker which gave up the ghost a while ago. It did everything, the mixing,kneading,proving and baking.
It wasn't until I made an oven loaf that I realised what I had bean missing. Apart from a better loaf I quite enjoyed the kneading and timing the proving before finally baking the bread in the oven. It appears to be time consuming but is a lot more enjoyable to me than just bunging it in breadmaker.
I am retired so my time is my own. I enjoyed doing it and the result was fantastic.

I think I will stick with it forr a while and try a few different flavours and shapes and see how it  works out.

In three days I have eaten half a loaf so if I freeze the sliced loaf I have left and use it for the rest of the week I should be able to get away with breadmaking once a week. If I time it right I can bake my bread when I have the oven on cooking something else so it will be a win win and not cost any more for electric!

I used to make my own bread in a breadmaker but, now that I have a source of free Sourdough bread, there's no point in making it.
My bread didn't stay fresh for very long but you'll soon know how long yours keeps.

I imagine bread will stay fresher for longer in winter months?

We’ve not brought bread for a few years now. Always make our own. But we do cheat by using a bread maker. Best thing we’ve ever brought. Yeah 3 days is about your limit for freshness. I wouldn’t put a damp tea towel over it. Straight into the bread bin or paper bag then bread bin. After cooling on a rack, obviously. Sliced & frozen should work. Never had any left to try that.

I might need to buy a bread bin then!  I have a big tub with 'BREAD' written on the side of it but it has no lid, never had as far as I remember.

I'm sure you can make a lid for your Bin out of summat you have knocking around.

Incidentally, if you don't want to turn your oven on , you can bake bread on a slowcooker. Never tried it myself but there are lots of recipes on the web Here's one
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/slow-cooker-bread

I used to make my own bread in a breadmaker but, now that I have a source of free Sourdough bread, there's no point in making it.
My bread didn't stay fresh for very long but you'll soon know how long yours keeps.

I imagine bread will stay fresher for longer in winter months?

Not really.

as it’s not full of nasty preservatives it’s not going to last long. I’ve not noticed temp, weather or seasons make any difference. But as you’ve already discovered it tastes so much better. So it won’t be around long enough to go stale/ mouldy. Unless you have considerably more self control than I do