Simple and Affordable Homemade Bread Recipes

Doves Farm is an organic flour company that is widely sold in health shops and supermarkets, if you like to make your own bakes and cakes and bread. Also look in your area, as many other organic flours are sold, some even help to keep windmills in use, to avoid them being turned into holiday homes.

Keep fresh dough (and salt, dried fruit, onion and garlic)away from pets. Read more on food safety for people and pets. Bin allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives) and tomato/citrus/rhubarb scraps (acids may harm compost creatures).

Also don’t give leftover stale/mouldy/crusty bread to garden birds or wildfowl (due to salt and fat, which can smear on feathers, affecting waterproofing/insulation).

Alongside usual wholegrain and white flours, you’ll find specialty flours like:

• Spelt flour (lighter on digestion)
• Chickpea flour (good to make vegan omelettes!)
• Various seed flours (high in protein and calcium)
• Pasta and pizza flours
• Ancient flours (rye, Emmer, Einkorn)
• Buckwheat flour (good for allergies)
• Sacks of flour (for professional chefs & catering)
• Organic baking powders and quick yeasts

The recipe pages 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

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

If you like making homemade bread, check out US author Shane’s two books:

The Vegan Bread Machine Cookbook has 65 recipes, and his book Baking Vegan Bread at Home has simple recipes for:

• 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.

Homemade (vegan) Bread and Butter Pudding

Forget gourmet desserts, most people in England enjoy a childhood-nostalgic pudding! Here are some plant-based updates on traditional teatime treats, serve with vegan ice-cream or custard.

This recipe for Bread and Butter Pudding (The Veg Space) is a vegan take on one of England’s favourite traditional desserts, and is a great way to use up leftover bread that’s gone a bit stale.

The ingredients are soaked in vegan custard, then topped with demerara sugar. You can even soak dried fruits in sherry or brandy (or fruit juice for a no-alcohol version).

This zesty bread & butter pudding is from Katy Beskow’s delightful recipe book Five Ingredient Vegan. It uses ready-made vegan custard and marmalade to greatly simplify the recipe.

This vegan bread pudding (Heartful Table) is a delightfully stodgy pudding, created and adapted by a Croatian chef.

Tips for Good Vegan Bread and Butter Pudding 

• Avoid breads with heavy seeds or thick crusts.
• Coconut sugar gives a nice molasses taste.
• Toast the bread first, to prevent a soggy pudding.
• Don’t oversoak before baking (to avoid a mushy pudding)
• Use a shallow baking dish to encourage even baking.

Battle Green’s Organic Cotton Bread Bag

Battle Green organic cotton bread bag is the ideal way to keep your bread loaves fresh, so you can buy plastic-free loaves at local bakeries or supermarkets. It can easily handle a large loaf or several bread rolls, and is wrapped in a recycled card ‘belly band’.

Wash on a cool setting and allow to air-dry. Made from organic cotton, so it won’t release plastic microfibers during washing.

The bag is made from GOTS certified organic Fair Trade cotton, with a label number inside each bag, meaning it is also made in fair working conditions and uses eco dyes.

Freshpaper (organic bread saver sheets)

Most bread on sale is wrapped in plastic, but this is actually not good to keep bread fresh, as it traps  moisture, and causes the crust to soften and encourages mould growth. Bread is one of the top food waste items (often because loaves are sold in too-large a size for one-or-two person households.

FreshPaper Bread Saver Sheets are one of our ‘not sold here but should be’ posts (Lakeland stores sell something a bit similar). Inspired by the founder’s Indian grandmother’s method of using oils to preserve food (there’s also a version for the fruit bowl), they basically keep bread fresh for longer.

Just drop a sheet into a bowl or bin containing baked goods, and the organic spices keep them fresher for longer. Ideal for fresh-from-the-bakery or homemade bread, and also good for anything else. This brand has over 5000 good reviews!

One pack of 8 sheets should last around 3 months, and pays for itself in two weeks, due to saving money on bread that goes stale too soon.

WRAP research says around 900,000 tons of bread is thrown out each year in the UK, along with 750,000 tons of potatoes and 490,000 tons of milk. Yet we have people not being able to afford food. And enough food waste on earth to feed every single hungry person on earth.