Easily Replace Store Bought Bread with Homemade Honey Brown Sugar Bread-Machine Bread for Pennies a Loaf

Making homemade bread is not only worth the extra effort, it has a texture and flavor that’s much better than packaged, store-bought bread from the supermarket, and the whole process of making your own bread and then baking it in the oven can be fun for the whole family. Once you’ve tasted this bread recipe, you won’t consider buying supermarket bread again.

Not only does homemade bread taste better, it’s much cheaper than it’s store-bought counterpart with the benefit of having no preservatives or chemicals.

It’s cheaper for me to make bread than buy it and it’s super fast to put the ingredients in the machine. My bread machine kneads the dough for me then I bake the loaf in the oven. If I’m looking to make a round or other shaped loaf , no problem! I just shape it before the second rise and bake as if it were in a loaf pan. I have a stone pizza pan that I leave in the oven for that.

Where I live in PA, bread costs $2.87 to $3.98 for a 20-oz. loaf of italian/sandwich bread. Sometimes I can find the Italian bread we like at Sam’s Club for $3.98 for 2 loaves. But then I have to find room in my freezer for the second loaf and I’d rather use that freezer space for other things.

Here’s my Homemade Honey Brown Sugar Bread Cost Breakdown:

• 25 lbs. of flour: $5.94 at Walmart ($0.21 per loaf)
• 2 lb pkg Instant Yeast: $4.49 at Sam’s Club ($0.03 per loaf)
  DO NOT buy those little yeast packages in the dairy aisle — they are WAAAAAY overpriced!
• 2 40-oz bottles Honey: $14.98 at Sam’s Club ($0.18 per loaf)
• 2 lbs Brown Sugar: $0.98 at Walmart ($0.03 per loaf)
• Gallon of Whole Milk: $3.47 at Walmart ($0.01 per loaf)
• 48 oz Canola Oil: $1.38 at Walmart ($0.02 per loaf)

At our house, we’ve gotten spoiled because the bread I make is so much tastier than the store-bought bread. It costs me $0.48 for the bread ingredients to make a 1-1/2 lb (24-oz) loaf that lasts us 2 days. This recipe includes honey & brown sugar in addition to the regular bread ingredients which is why it’s more expensive than a regular white loaf. A regular white 1-1/2 lb. loaf will cost around $0.27 and the no-knead Artisan bread costs me $0.15-$0.18 per loaf depending on the size.

Yearly Cost Savings

It doesn’t seem like much, but here’s the yearly difference based on 1 loaf a week for 1 year (52 loaves):

• Store-Bought Bread=$149.24-$206.96
• Honey Brown Sugar Loaf=$24.96
• Standard White Bread Loaf=$14.04
• 5 Minute Artisan Loaf=$7.80

SAVINGS: $149.24 – $24.96 = $124.28 per year

Let’s Bake Some Bread

I put all the ingredients in my bread machine — a Zojirushi I purchased over 25 years ago and still going strong — and put it on the dough setting.

Once the dough setting is completed, spray a standard sized bread loaf pan with oil and pull the bread from the machine pan and into pan. Turn the dough over once to coat on both sides. Allow it to rise for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the over to 350 degrees and then bake the loaf for 30 minutes.

Once the loaf is out of the oven, remove it from the pan and allow to cool on a baking rack. If you try to slice it while it’s still hot, you will crush and compress the loaf.

Homemade Honey Brown Sugar Bread Machine Loaf

Winter!

Making homemade bread is not only worth the extra effort. It has a texture and flavor that's much better than packaged, store-bought bread from the supermarket, and the whole process of making your own bread and then baking it in the oven can be fun for the whole family. Once you've tasted this bread recipe, you won't consider buying supermarket bread again.

4 from 2 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 40 minutes mins

Course Bread

Cuisine American

Servings 1 -1/2 lb loaf

Ingredients

  

• 1 cup warm water 110 – 115 degrees
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons instant active dry yeast or active dry yeast

Instructions

 

• Put ingredients in your bread machine in the order specified by the manufacturer.
• Set bread machine on dough setting, and let it make the dough for you.
• Once dough is made (it takes my machine about 1 1/2 hours to make), remove dough and place in loaf pan sprayed with oil. Turn to grease on both sides.
• Let rise for about 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Bake for 30 minutes
• Remove from the oven and transfer to cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before slicing.

Notes

Note – if you’re away from home during the day you can let the bread machine do all the work for you.