easy bread that dont break the bank

[bulldawg1]

I've recently became the chef of the little restaurant Ciao i work at and have inherited all the problems that come with it. I found out that we spend $900 on pre baked bread from publix a month for our 50 seater restaurant. I was wondering if anyone out there have any recipes for an easy good bread that i wont need a convection to bake. Please help!! No foccasia i feel its to cliche

[heidih]

What style of bread are they serving now?

[baroness]

Bread is very inexpensive to make; please provide more info on what you want to serve.

[Lisa Shock]

Are you serving bread baskets before dinner, making sandwiches, or what? There are a lot of types of bread, most have very inexpensive ingredients. The main cost is labor. We can guide you, but need to know how it will be used to be able to give suggestions.

[Heartsurgeon]

what sort of equipment do you already have? (Hobart mixer? capacity?)

ovens? capacity? trays? workspace? refrigeration/cold room?

you can probably source high protein unbleached flour from a local mill for pretty cheap (50 pound bags). bulk yeast from Sam's club is dirt cheap. If your really a tightwad, you can go sourdough and maintain your own starter or poolish for nothing.

The King Arthur Flour web site has a professional section that lists recipes.

You will have to tweak the bread recipe to accomodate your flour/ovens/etc.

you have to think about labor, and when you want the bread available. You can pre-mix dough and keep in the cooler for up to a week, using as needed. With this approach (no knead bread, see the "Artisan bread in 5 minutes" thread, look on page 17-18 for the pictorial)

you can make buns 1-2 hours ahead, then bake.

hey, don't diss focciacia bread. it can be astonishing good, and FYI, it's ridiculously easy to make. with a fresh rosemary infused olive oil. you can store the mixed doug in the fridge, take out a lump, roll it out in a silpat lined baking sheet, let it rise for 1-2 hours, then cook it off.

timing, labor and storage are the key. the ingredients are not where your costs are going to be.

[HungryC]

The ciabatta recipe in Dan Leader's "Local Breads" is an easy high-hydration loaf; it makes nice small ciabatta loaves as well as large loaves. As previous posters have mentioned, storage & staling are the two big obstacles to overcome. The ciabatta loaves (par-baked) freeze nicely; you can bake weekly or bi-weekly, defrost the loaves at room temp for a few hours, then warm in the oven just before you need them.

If focaccia is too cliched, why not bake grissini? Dead easy, keeps for several days, and the long, crisp sticks appeal to customers who may not indulge in the bread. The same sort of dough for grissini can be used for seeded crackers.