what's your price limit for bread?

Mine is $6. I will not buy a "regular" loaf of bread for more than $6. By regular I mean it has no fruit or other exotic ingredients. I went up to the counter at Marion St. Cheese Market with a loaf of Red Hen multi-grain bread. With tax it came out to $7.40. My brain cannot yet comprehend paying that much for a loaf of bread, so I took it back to the shelf and got a loaf of their wheat bread which was a dollar less (same size loaf though). Good bread though.

Never try to buy bread at Zingerman's.

It's linked to the price of a bag of premium flour. If a loaf (which usually contains about 3 cups of flour) costs more than 5 lbs of flour, I have trouble paying more than $5, which is just over the price of a bag of King Arthur. But that's why I now bake a lot of bread!

MariaTheresa wrote:It's linked to the price of a bag of premium flour. If a loaf (which usually contains about 3 cups of flour) costs more than 5 lbs of flour, I have trouble paying more than $5, which is just over the price of a bag of King Arthur. But that's why I now bake a lot of bread!

I've never baked bread successfully, but wish to try a basic white loaf from Cook's Illustrated.

I've paid $6.50 for Brioche from Floriole Bakery at Green City Market. I can never finish the loaf, b/c no one else in the house will eat basic white sandwich bread but me. I figure as long as I take 2 slices out of it I break even on the cost of a sandwich out. I have to do the same thing with milk.

FYI, I had a vegetarian sandwich on Red Hen's ciabbatta (2 med. slices) at Intellegentsia coffee downtown yesterday. I think Southport Grocer may have "made/assembled" the sandwich. The sandwich had cream cheese & maybe provolone, a few baby lettuces, red onion, & maybe tomato. The sandwich was normal-sized and tasty. It was also $7 before tax.

I top out at about $8.00 a loaf when I'm up at our family summer place in Glen Arbor, MI. for an occasional loaf from Stone House Bread. Pricey, but very, very good and worth the occasional splurge. The 7 Grain Sourdough and the Asiago are particular favorites and make a nice change from the somewhat limited selection available up there.

pairs4life wrote:I've never baked bread successfully, but wish to try a basic white loaf from Cook's Illustrated.

The Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day recipe is really easy and makes very good bread.

Also, pairs, we freeze all our sandwich bread - it thaws just fine in the toaster, and then we don't have to eat an entire loaf right after we buy it, whether it is preservative-free or not.

Mhays wrote:Also, pairs, we freeze all our sandwich bread - it thaws just fine in the toaster, and then we don't have to eat an entire loaf right after we buy it, whether it is preservative-free or not.

I bake all our bread in the house and generally freeze about 2/3rds of what I bake. I always bake two loaves at a time. When fresh bread is frozen, and stored well, it thaws very well even just on the counter for 20 minutes (no toaster required). My cost per loaf is very low, especially now that I'm using wild yeast that lives in a jar in my fridge.