False stodgy economy (Tesco Value bread)

Member Name: happypanda

Product:	Tesco Value bread
Date:	01/07/09 (16 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Price, taste, texture

~What is it~
Tesco value bread, it comes in white and brown, in medium and thick and each weigh 800g. They cost 50p each from tesco.com and tesco stores.

~Is it nice?~
I wouldn't say nice per se, more stodgy and crumbly. This doesn't taste like good bread, and goes stale very quickly. Nor would I say it was good value for money, not taking into account the taste. Let's compare to Kingsmill soft white, also 800g, for 1 pound. It does cost twice as much, but it is significantly nicer and will last longer. Sometimes economy is not economy at all.

~Make your own bread~
Economy wise, making your own bread is just cheaper than buying bread, and much much nicer. Most people are put off at the idea of making bread because of all the preparation, but you can bake many loaves at once and freeze them, they keep for several months, or make up lots of dough and then freeze it for later.

For making bread you don't even need to use bread flour, I sometimes just use normal flour, but white bread flour from Tesco.com costs 68p for 1.5kg, which will make you about 3 loaves! You just add 7g of yeast, 56g set you back 67p! So for a load of bread it will cost about 30p! And there is nothing like fresh bread, with nice fresh butter.

So how do you make it?

500g of flour
7g fast action yeast
A tsp salt
300ml water
3tbps oil

1: Mix together the flour and salt, make a well in the middle add yeast and oil and water, mix well
2: Kneed, for about 15 minutes, then leave to rise for 1hr
3: Need briefly, then shape the dough
3: Leave to rise again for 30 minutes
4: Place in oven 220C/fan 200C/gas 7 for 25 -30 mins.

That's it. And when cold, wrap in clingfilm and tin foil. It will keep soft for about 3 days.

~Conclusion~
This 'cheap' bread is not worth it. False economy.

Summary: Not worth the price, make your own.