(and, for those who do, five sources of great bread flour)

The smell of freshly baked bread is THE great smell of home – or it should be. But it’s a distant memory for most since, like many things in the aftermath of post-war austerity, the emergence of convenience shopping and commercial bread slicing the baby was firmly slung out with the bathwater.

It is easy to see the point of the 1950′s woman – bread making involved time, patience and a fair bit of physical effort. It was traditionally done around traditional ovens based on open coal fires. All of these things were done for by modernity and it’s hard to say that most of the consequences – not least clean air and the liberation of women from domestic drudge – were not genuine ‘progress’. Our collective rejection of bread making even found its place in the language as ‘the greatest thing since sliced bread’ – a phrase that says mass-produced bread is ‘better’.

I beg to differ. By comparison to an average home made loaf its mass produced competitor doesn’t even make the starting grid. But didn’t in-store baking at the supermarket provide an alternative to the commercial sliced loaf? True but home made bread trounces supermarket baking.

I’ve enjoyed home made bread for the past two years because:

1. It tastes miles better

2. You don’t need to eat anything like as much of it to feel satisfied

3. With a tiny bit of imagination there is fantastic variety at your fingertips

4. Generally speaking homemade bread stays fresher for longer, and

5. Making your own bread saves money.

My mother rejected commercial bread in the early 1970s and made her own by hand for as long as my father, who had declared it “better by a long chalk”, had lived. She did it all by hand, but people who work and don’t have a lot of time on their hands can still make their own bread with the help of a bread machine.

Bread machines do take up kitchen real estate but they are seriously productive gadgets. A half decent one will cost between £80 and £150 but that investment will easily pay back within the first year, after which a home made loaf (500g of flour) can be less than half the price of the commercial equivalent. You can choose whether you use the machine to do the whole lot including baking the loaf or just to mix and rise the dough which can then be transferred to the oven (better, in my opinion, as the oven is hotter). Either way, we are taking about five minutes work to weigh our flour, add yeast and water and flick a switch.

Good bread does, however, need good bread flour and it’s a question of finding a few that suit your taste. Bread flour is different to bog standard baking flour. It has a higher protein and gluten content that makes for better absorption of water and a more elastic dough – so it rises better. Some are available in good supermarkets but are also some excellent specialist sources on line.

Lidl

Like most other stuff stocked by the shopping equivalent of Ryanair, availability can be hit and miss, however, this discounter stocks an excellent range of German flours that include rye and multi seed options. The brands are random and frequently unpronounceable – but with beer so with bread flour – if it is German it is almost certainly decent and it’s 99p a kilo!

Doves Farm Organic

(www.dovesfarm.co.uk)

Doves Barleycorn Bread Flour is a personal favourite as is their White Spelt. Not the cheapest at £1.59 a kilo but well worth it. Available through most of the major supermarkets including Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury, Tesco, and Waitrose.

Shipton Mill

(www.shipton-mill.com)

Organic and based at Tetbury and with reputation for high quality bread flours, Shipton Mill offers a range of bread flours including white, French flour, wholemeal, light rye and three malt with sunflower (highly recommended). Prices range from £1.30 per kilo to £21.50 for £25kg. Delivery is £5 or free above 24Kg.

Wessex Flour Mill

(www.wessexmill.co.uk)

Based locally at Wantage supplying locally grown flours. Stocked locally at The Herb Farm, Sonning Common, Wickcroft Farm, Theale, The Spinney at Pangbourne and Lockey Farm at Arborfield. Try six seed bread flour – £2.30 for 1.5 kilos or strong white at £1.70.

The Flour Bin

(www.flourbin.com)

A good and apparently award-winning source of all kinds of baking flour around £2.10 for 1.5Kg. Unfortunately the website is just dreadful.