How to Bake Your Own Artisan Bread Loaves

Learning to bake your own bread is a good idea, as you can make small loaves (to avoid bread waste) and avoid palm oil and plastic packaging.

This simple seeded loaf for bread machines only needs a few ingredients. Just use Doves Farm seedhouse bread flour and quick yeast, then leave to cool on a wire rack and serve with Flora vegan butter (no palm oil).

Keep fresh dough away from young children & pets (due to bread dough, garlic, onion, dried fruit, salt). Read more on food safety for people & pets.

Don’t give leftover stale/mouldy/crusty bread to garden birds or wildfowl (due to salt again, also fat can smear on feathers, affecting waterproofing/insulation.

Lakeland compact breadmaker costs around £60, has great reviews and makes a 1lb loaf (it also has settings to make pizza dough and homemade rolls). It even has a delay start feature, so bread is ready just at the right time.

If buying any small electrical appliance, the law says the store that sells it has to legally take back old appliances for recycling (at no cost to you).

A Few Simple Homemade Bread Recipes

This 5-ingredient homemade bread recipe (Broke Bank Vegan) is a good starter recipe, if you fancy making your own bread.

All you need is good flour, rapeseed or sunflower oil, lukewarm water, a little cane sugar and instant yeast. Let dough rise in a low-temperature oven (or InstantPot). Use a serrated knife to carve and serve with Flora vegan butter.

Doves Farm is an organic flour company that has several simple vegan bread recipes, if you like to make your own loaves. The recipe page includes information on how to make:

• Wholemeal Spelt Air-Fryer Bread
• Heritage Seeded Sourdough Loaf
• Air-fryer Loaves (white or wholemeal)
• Simple Machine Loaves
• No Knead Overnight Bread
• Malthouse Bread Rolls
• Soda Bread
• Rye Bread & Scones
• 2-Hour Wholemeal Bread
• Breadsticks
• Chapati Flatbreads
• Focaccia & Ciabatta

This 5-ingredient soda bread (The Veg Space) is Irish-inspired. It’s easier to make than most bread as you don’t need to knead it and it has no yeast. This replaces the traditional ingredients with vegan milk and yoghurt to make a plant-based buttermilk.

An E-book on Making Vegan Breads

Basics of Bread is a beautiful e-book from Madeleine Olivia and her husband Alex, on how to make 20 simple plant-based bread recipes for beginners. We love Madeleine’s website and her cookbooks, plus before/after home makeovers for their country cottage. If you feel stressed out, pop over to view this site, and find creative inspiration. All will seem right with the world!

The book features the basics of how to knead bread plus recipes for pizza dough and bagels, to foccacia, hot cross buns and cinnamon rolls.

Improve Health with Fresh Ingredients

Shop-bought loaves often include preservatives, emulsifiers, and added sugar to keep bread soft on the shelf. Homemade bread keeps things simple. You choose the flour, the salt, and the extras. You set the tone for taste and nutrition.

Homemade Bread is Cheaper

A basic loaf uses flour, water, yeast, and salt. These staples cost less per slice than most shop loaves. You also reduce plastic packaging and can time your bakes to match your meals.

A rough cost comparison in the UK:

• Flour for one loaf, about 500 g, costs 20 to 40 pence from a 1.5 kg bag.
• Yeast costs a few pence per teaspoon.
• Salt and oil are pennies.
• Energy for a home oven might add 20 to 40 pence per bake.

A typical homemade loaf often lands near 60 to 90 pence. A standard shop loaf may cost £1.20 to £1.50, while bakery loaves can reach £2.50 to £4.00. If you bake two loaves a week, you can save several pounds each month. Over a year, that becomes a clear budget win.

You also control waste. Bake what you need, slice and freeze the rest, then toast from frozen as required.

Batch baking helps. Make two loaves on a Sunday, cool them, then slice and freeze one. Pull out slices as needed for lunch or breakfast. For better value, buy flour in bulk from local shops or co-ops, and store it in airtight tubs. Keep yeast in the fridge to extend its life.

Cut Down on Food Waste with Versatile Recipes

Bread does not need to be perfect to be useful. Turn stale slices into:

• Croutons for salads and soups
• Breadcrumbs for topping pasta bakes
• Bread and butter pudding for a simple dessert

Leftover dough can become rolls, flatbreads, or mini pizza bases. Use overripe bananas or apples in quick sweet breads. Plan bakes around your weekly shop. If you have a big stew one night, make a quick loaf for dipping. If you plan sandwiches, bake a soft tin loaf the day before.

A Quick Bread Machine Wholemeal Loaf

This quick wholemeal bread (Doves Farm) is a great way to make your own bread, rather than buying it from supermarkets (or just buy a small loaf from your independent baker). All the recipes on this site are designed to be quick and easy, so a bread machine is a good investment (get a small one, if you live alone or as a couple).

Just add your ingredients (quick yeast, bread flour, oil, salt, water and sugar, cook on a rapid setting, remove after baking, and cool on a wire rack. Nice with soup or vegan stew!

A Book of Simple Vegan Bread Recipes

The Vegan Bread Machine Cookbook is a book of 65 simple recipes, if you invest in a bread machine. It’s good to bake your own bread, but most people will only do this, with the added simplicity of a machine, to avoid kneading and proving the dough.

With this book, there’s no need to buy expensive artisan breads, instead just bake your own bakery-quality treats.

Following on from Shane’s debut book on how to bake homemade bread, this book takes this to a simpler level, with recipes to inspire you to dig out your bread-maker, or pop to the shop to buy one, with recipes that won’t leave it gathering dust in the cupboard. Recipes include:

• White or Wholewheat Sandwich Loaf
• Rapid-rise White Bread
• Sprouted Wheat Bread
• Jalapeno ‘Cheese’ Bread (above)
• Oatmeal Bread with Sunflower Seeds
• Rosemary & Thyme Gluten-Free Bread
• Speedy Herb Focaccia
• Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls
• Walnut Cranberry Artisan Loaf
• Celebration Challah
• Panettone Christmas bread

You’ll also find expert tips on how to get the best performance from your bread machine, especially when working with vegan ingredients. Plus tips on how to store and freeze your homemade bread.

Shane Martin is a cook, writer and photographer whose mission is to share easy vegan recipes. He became interested in sharing recipes, after he took time off as a Nashville songwriter to address obesity and other health concerns. He is the main cook in the household that he shares with his wife and five children in Mississippi, USA.

Pretty Breathable Reusable Bread Bags

Storing bread in plastic bags is not good, as bread just sweats. Battle Green organic cotton bread bag can easily handle a large loaf and is wrapped in a recycled card ‘belly band’.

The GOTS organic cotton license number appears on the inside label, and the bag uses eco dyes, made by workers who get paid and treated fairly.