https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sweetie-Pie-Bakes-Stuff/149724028448663
http://www.twitter.com/sweetiepielmk/
I’ve had a few people ask me over the past few days why I
bother making everything from scratch. As I mentioned in my post on homemade sprinkles, there are a few reasons. Of course, one gets the satisfaction of
having made your sweets and baked goods from scratch, which is a good enough
reason by itself before you consider any others, but also I a) get to control
the exact ingredients in my products, which is important for someone living a
life with any kind of restricted diet (wheat intolerance, lactose intolerance,
veganism, organic living, et cetera), and b) it’s much, much, much, much
cheaper.
Take this example. When I first began living a wheat-free
lifestyle, I went to my local supermarket to get some shopping. At first I
thought “this whole wheat-free thing isn’t too bad: I like rice and potatoes,
and sure can’t I get maize pasta. No biggie-smalls!” I didn’t worry too much
about buying wheat-free bread because I don’t really eat sandwiches or toast,
and making soup from scratch to avoid wheat-based thickeners is no skin off my
nose. I then thought “you can buy pretty good wheat-free biscuits now, I’m
told”, so I went to the ridiculously titled ‘Health Food’ aisle, where things
like dairy-free and gluten-free products are hidden.
Having found the shelf where
the biscuits were kept, my heart skipped a beat: not only was the selection as
exciting as a magnolia wall, but a packet of Bourbon biscuits, my favourite
biscuit, was €2.49. A few weeks previously, I could have bought a normal-person
packet of Bourbon biscuits for less than a euro, and that would have enough
biscuits in it to make me sick, but this wheat-free packet of biscuits had
eight biscuits in it; just eight. Once I had engaged my maths brain, I worked
out that this meant the wheat-free ones were over 30c per biscuit, and the
normal wheaty ones were less than 5c per biscuit. I left the shop with no
biscuits, and a bad taste in my mouth.
However, all was not lost. I discovered a few weeks later
that I could eat spelt and not abreact, and once I had done my research, I
began happily baking as I always had; and it meant a much cheaper lifestyle.
Let’s crunch a few numbers. Here is an example of a cost
sheet; these are the prices as of today, obviously subject to change:
Bourbon Creams
|
Euro
per packet
|
Grammes
per packet
|
Grammes
used in recipe
|
Cost
of grammes used
|
for
biscuits
|
||||
Spelt flour
|
2.89
|
1000
|
115
|
0.33
|
Cornflour
|
1.19
|
500
|
30
|
0.07
|
Cocoa Powder
|
3.45
|
250
|
25
|
0.35
|
Butter
|
2.19
|
450
|
115
|
0.56
|
Icing sugar
|
1.09
|
500
|
55
|
0.12
|
Vanilla essence
|
3.99
|
60
|
5
|
0.33
|
for
fillling
|
||||
Butter
|
2.19
|
450
|
115
|
0.56
|
Cocoa Powder
|
3.45
|
250
|
25
|
0.35
|
Icing sugar
|
1.09
|
500
|
255
|
0.56
|
Milk
|
0.75
|
1000
|
15
|
0.01
|
Vanilla essence
|
3.99
|
60
|
5
|
0.33
|
Total Cost
|
1.80
|
|||
Pieces
|
18 – 20
|
|||
Cost per item
|
0.10 – 0.09
|
Compare that to the aforementioned €2.49 packet of eight Bourbon creams. See? You could even make these cheaper again by using margarine instead of butter, omitting the vanilla essence, et cetera, without massively impacting the taste. It will a little, obviously, but not enough to make a huge difference.
Of course, what you save in money your trade for time. But
if you get into baking as a hobby, it’ll become a fun way to pass time and save
money at the same time. This allows
you to make all kinds of different and interesting baked goods that you
wouldn’t even be able to get in the shops; I haven’t yet come across a
wheat-free gingerbread man, for example, but I can make as many gingerbread men
as my wallet will allow at home.
Now, for ingredients: if you buy a packet of biscuits from
the shop, there will more than likely be a long list of ingredients which are
difficult to pronounce. Glucose syrup, hydrogenated vegetable fat, humectants,
surfactants, emulsifiers, a few vaguely titled ‘flavourings’, dehydrated
reconstituted egg protein, and whey powder are all commonplace in mass-produced
biscuits, and God knows what else; as you may have guessed, none of these is
particularly good for you. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that biscuits and
sweeties and lovely things aren’t supposed
to be good for you, and are just fine enjoyed in moderation, but there is
such a thing as damage control. It’s good to know exactly what has ended up in
your biscuits and, if you make them from scratch, you can. You can ensure that
nothing but a hundred percent natural everything has been used, you can even
make sure that the ingredients are organic and fair trade, if you so please.
Obviously, that will make them a little pricier.
So go ahead, become like me: an obsessive baker and saver of
money. You know it makes sense.
No comments:
Post a Comment