Cost and Calories

CALORIES

I was curious about the amount of calories in the Pane Pugliese, so here are the nutrition facts of Unbleached All Purpose Flour:

Nutrition Facts (Kroger All Purpose Flour)
Serving Size: 1/4 cup

Amount per Serving
Calories 100
Total Carbohydrate 22g
Dietary Fiber 0g
Protein 3g

Depending on the source, it looks like 30g of flour is equal to a 1/4 cup. So if we divide the 625g (flour) by 30 = 20.84 and multiply by 100 calories, the total calories in the loaf are approximately 2084 calories.

Using the Weight Watchers points method (old version), I figure that you need to get 36 slices of bread at about 60 calories per slice. My loaves are 8.5" in diameter, and about 3.5 inches tall. Cut that into 4 quarters, so each quarter needs to be cut into slices of bread to have 1 point per slice. Each slice would be 3.5 inches tall, by 4.25 inches long, by 3/8". Of course, the slices get smaller as you move toward the edge - maybe slice the longer pieces thinner, and the shorter pieces fatter.

Another way of calculating would be to actually weigh your loaf - mine came out to be a little over 2 lbs. Multiply the number of pounds by 454(grams in a pound), and then divide that number by 36 to get the number of grams in each 1 point slice. In my case, 2x454=908/36 = 25 grams per slice.

COST

I use Kroger Unbleached All Purpose Flour that cost $1.98 for a 5lb bag. The price just went up from $1.48 a bag.

There are approximately 454 grams in a pound, so a bag of flour has 5x454 = 2270 grams of flour. If our recipe contains 625 grams of flour, then we get 3.6 loaves from a bag. Rounding that off to 3.5 to account for bench flour, then the cost of a loaf is around $.57, or say 60 cents (add a few cents for yeast) per loaf. Not bad.

You could use King Arthur flour if you want to pay over $5 per bag for the same nutritional values, but that is your choice. I did try a bag once, and had the exact same results in the bread taste, rise, etc.

By the way, I found a 1lb bag of SAF Instant Yeast at Costco Business (not at the regular Costco - they only had active dry yeast) for around $2.50. Using 4 grams of yeast per loaf, that should be over 110 loaves. That calculates out to less than 3 cents per loaf for the cost of yeast.