³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

The cost of food is rising fast and the price of wheat is up by more than 50% in the last six months.

Wheat forms part of many of our food basket staples - including bread, which now costs 37% more than it did in 2006. Back then, the average cost of a white sliced loaf was only 83p but now, it'll set you back £1.14.

So would it be cheaper to make your own? Lucy Owen asked the advice of Bridgend based baker Mike Sweetman who runs his own organic bakery; Jones Organic. His sourdough bread recently won a True Taste award.

Mike believes that homemade is best and tells us that real bread is only made with four ingedients - flour, yeast, salt and water. Mike also thinks that making your own is not only satisfying, but you know exactly what's going into it, you can experiment with flavours and you can get all the family involved.

A loaf of bread baked by Mike and Lucy

Mike taught Lucy how to make her own loaves and here's his recipe:

Ingredients:
635g strong white bread flour
340g water
10g dried yeast
13g salt

Instructions:
1. Mix cold water with hot to try and achieve a temperature of around 37ËšC in Winter or 27ËšC in Summer.Ìý Mike says the temperature of your water is essential to baking a good loaf.
2. Add the yeast to the water, dissolve well using your fingers, and add to the bowl.
3. Next, add the flour to the bowl and if using an electric mixer, mix on a slow speed for about four minutes.Ìý If mixing by hand, mix until the dough starts to come together. Add the salt gradually.
4. Mix for a further 8-10 minutes, at a high speed until the dough is a smooth consistency.Ìý If the dough is sticking to the mixing bowl, add a little sprinkle of flour. Never add water though, Mike saysÌýyou should trust the recipe!
5. Your dough should now be ready.ÌýStretch it between your fingers and you should be able to see them through the dough without it tearing (if not, mix for another two minutes on fast speed and do the 'stretch test' again).
6. Now it's time to rest the dough. Lightly flour a bowl and pop the dough inside. Cover with cling film and leave to rest for about 30 minutes.
7. Cut the dough in half (to make two loaves) and stretch each dough ball into a long rectangle, then fold the sides over each other, and fold in half again.Ìý
8. Now it's time for the fun part - kneading!Ìý With your hand at 45 degree angle to the dough, push down on the edge of the ball and, applying a lot of pressure, roll it forwards with the flat of your hand. Do this for about ten or twelve good long strokes. You should feel the dough become tighter.Ìý
9. Once kneaded into a nice tight ball, dip the top in flour and place in a floured bowl, the floury part at the bottom.
10. The dough needs another rest (called 'proving').Ìý Cover the bowls with a warm damp cloth, or to follow Mike’s tip on the proving process, pour a little boiling water into a stew pot, sit the bowl on a stand so it isn’t submerged, and put the lid on. Leave for 20 to 40 minutes until the dough has increased by 50%-100%.
11. Now, tip the dough out of the bowl onto some baking paper so that the floured side is on top.Ìý Score your loaves with a sharp serrated knife and place on a baking tray.
12. Bake in a pre-heated oven for five minutes at 220ËšC, then turn down toÌý190ËšC and bake for another 25 minutes (based on baking two small loaves). If you have a temperature probe, your loaf is cooked when the centre is about 95ËšC.

Doing it all by hand can be a lot of fun, but if you feel that you don't have the time, using a breadmaker might be the option for you. You can pick them up from some retailers for as little as £30. They're economical too as they only cost, on average, around 5p per loaf to run.

We costed the ingredients needed for making a white loaf in a bread maker, and, including electricity, it came to just 62p. Now that's good use of your dough!

Do you make your own bread? If so, let us know below - or share your ownÌýrecipes for home-baked bread.