Baking from scratch is usually cheaper (and healthier) than buying baked goods, but here are a few tips to keep the costs down even further:
**Substitute one Tbsp soy powder and one Tbsp water for one egg (this also reduces the fat in the recipe!)
**Use powdered milk mixed with the appropriate amount of water in place of fresh milk
**Most cookie recipes will taste just as good if you reduce the sugar by up to ½ (again – this healthier too!)
**Instead of buying a whole bag of self-rising flour for a special recipe, you can make your own by adding 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt to each cup of regular flour.
----If these tips put you in the mood to bake, check out one of my healthy and delicious recipes:
Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Use Leftover Cereal to Make Yummy & Healthy Muffins
Delicious & Easy No-Knead Bread Recipe
If you have any of your own "cheap" baking tips or have any input on these tips, please leave a comment!
See more great frugal tips here: Festival of Frugality #182 - Revenge of the Fallen Edition
You can also generally reduce the butter/oil by up to one half. Also, watch your local sales cycles. For example, many baking supplies go on sale around Thanksgiving. One year, we bought 40 lbs of flour for only about 25¢/lb. Real butter is also something we buy on sale. I can't remember the last time we bought butter for more than $2/lb, but when we see it on sale for that or less, we buy 8-10 lbs at a time and keep it in the freezer.
ReplyDeleteAmy is right - stock up on as many baking and pantry goods as you can while the stores are catering to the holiday cooks.
ReplyDeleteGreat tips! Both in the post and the comments. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI also know you can make your own cake flour by replacing 2tbsp of each cup of flour with corn starch. Don't know if this saves money over buying cake flour, but it keeps me from buying multiple flours anyway.
Wish I had known sooner about the self-rising flour tip, I just bought a bag of that!
ReplyDelete