Wow, that's amazing! I'm in awe of your move to Italy. How disappointing for you on the price of flours and yeast. I guess tomatoes and oils and wine are dirt-cheap :-)

I make our bread as well. I just stick to 2 kinds, really. The basic white bread, a honey and whole wheat bread that Annie, here makes regularly as well. Sometimes I'll do a brioche or a no-knead type bread. I use the same dough to make rolls, hamburger buns as well.

I make 2 loaves per week, generally. I haven't done many using a starter biga. Mainly because I never think of it!

A couple of weeks ago I tried my hand at bagels which turned out really well. They've actually spoiled us for the store-bought variety, which is just dense bread, really.

I make two loaves of challah every couple of weeks and French/Italian bread at least once a month with some other bread when I've got the urge. All of them start out in the bread machine for mixing and kneading, and then they're transferred to either loaf pans or cooking sheets.

You can buy a 125g package of yeast from Amazon.it for seven Euro. I buy a package that is three times that size, and I believe it costs about ten dollars, but it lasts me a long time. I store it in the freezer in a jar with a tightly fitting lid. This way I always have yeast on hand. It will keep in the freezer for several years.

I used to bake bread every week, but now I get bread for free from a specialty bakery that is next door to where I work. I made five large tablecloths for their Farmers' Market display, using heavy, high-end fabrics, and in return, they give me free bread whenever I ask for it. All of their bread is sourdough, and they make white, whole wheat, and seeded versions. The seeded bread is whole grain and is a bit heavy, but it is also the most nutritious. I still make whole wheat pizza dough and focaccia, calzone, etc, and I also make rye bread with fennel and caraway seeds, which I grind before I add them to the dough. I generally use potato water (the water left over from boiling potatoes) instead of regular water; otherwise I add potato starch. I pretty much always add semolina flour to my bread as well to give it a better texture.

I've not visited northern Italy, but we plan to go back to Europe in 2019, mainly to visit Greece, but we might revisit Italy as well. We only got as far north as Florence in 1916.

I bake bread at least once a week...used to do about 10 loaves...now it's usually 4, sometimes 2 loaves.
Most times I use the cuisinart to mix and knead. I like it best when I mix in the evening, lit it sit on the counter for an hour or 2 and put in the fridg over night and take out the next day, let it wake up and bake in the afternoon.
Only a couple of breads do I use a recipe for... a couple of rye breads, Dartmouth Oatmeal bread, Anadama and that NY Times no knead.
Mostly I put liquid in a bowl, add yeast and a bit of sugar and go from there....adding different grains, dried fruit seeds, nuts, salt eventually and white flour to work it up. It can be very heavy and fruity or as simple as a bit of rye flour, some molasses, caraway seeds and white flour.
I go by the general rule of 1 tsp of salt to 1 cup of liquid.....and that liquid can be water, beer, milk...or some of each. It can have sweeteners like sugar, molasses, honey, maple syrup....and all sorts of add ins...white flour with a bit of olive oil and a couple of tablespoons of pesto works well...for one example...parsley and grated parmesan cheese....all sorts of ideas....

I've always proofed the yeast in water and sugar, but the last few times I put the yeast in with the flour, sugar and salt, and added it to the water specified in the recipe. It's turned out beautifully each time. I credit it to the yeast that I'm using which is Red Star from Costco.

Most of the Active Dry Yeast in the US is pretty good, I think, including the Red Star, KAF, and Fleischmann's. I'm glad it's working for you Jasdip! I've had more trouble with the fresh cake yeast here and always proof it (but mostly don't even bother with it anymore since the ADY has gotten so good).

Melissa, I have four different classes of bread I bake. Challah, which is an enriched recipe developed by my mother. "Daily bread" which is a no-knead whole grain (I mill wheat and rye berries for it fresh for the purpose) with a lot of seeds and unmilled grains in it. "Recipe bread" which will be some specific interesting bread. I suppose my challah is also a recipe bread, but it also has a ritual and religious significance. And non-specific sourdough/wild yeast breads that may or may not start with a reference recipe but become improvisational.

Most of my breads start with a preferment (sponge) of some kind, and the whole grain ones also have a soaker. That is, the remainder of the flour and dry ingredients and remainder of the water are combined with a little acid (I use vitamin C crystals) and left to hydrate for at least 8 hours. It makes for a better bread texture because all the dry bits are hydrated, and the acidity takes down the antinutrients found in whole grains.

It sounds like your preferences might be more along the lines of my daily bread. Have you considered milling your own grains? There are a number of German grain mills that I'm aware of, so I assume it's something that's done at home in Europe and available to you. :) The initial investment is a commitment, but if you have good sources for the grain, it's inexpensive and keeps much better than flour does. You can also sieve the flour if you want to separate it from the bran, though that's a pain and a half and requires a very fine sieve (I don't say "sift" because I don't know of any mechanical sifters which are fine enough).

Plllog, you mentioned Vitamin C crystals. Where do you buy that? I'm asking because I make both milk and water kefir. Milk is not to our taste but it's super healthy. Water kefir is a fruit drink with the kefir grains eating the sugars.

Apparently, according to a beer-making forum I found, Vitamin C removes chloramine from drinking water. Leaving water out for 24 hours or boiling it removes chlorine, but not chloramine. Our city uses both. It would be easier and cheaper for me to be able to remove the chloramine from our tap water instead of buying the big jugs of bottled water. It's cheap, but those suckers are heavy lugging up 3 flights of stairs.

Currently, I'm cutting up a vitamin C tablet into very small pieces and putting it into a 4-litre jug of water. It only takes a pinch of ascorbic acid.

Mine is a quarter of a kilogram jar, Whole Foods brand "Vitamin C Powder". It's enough to last the rest of my lifetime, I think, if it doesn't get damp or something. I'd guess you could get it at any kind of pharmacy with a wide stock of vitamins and supplements, as well as health food stores or "natural sector" groceries like Whole Foods.

Melissa, I bake all of our bread and buns. What I make depends on my mood that day, I've made everything from Grandma's old Farmhouse White to the Honey Wheat Jasdip mentions, to an onion filled rye loaf, challah, brioche, a cheese and sundried tomato filled Pane Bianco, no knead white and wheat loaves, cheese loaves, a sugar lump studded Friesian type bread, Boston Brown bread, more I can't even think of!

I do have a grain mill and sometimes mill my own grains, including corn for the Pao de Milho I made a few weeks ago, Elery loved that one.

I usually have a chunk of the no-knead dough in the fridge so I can use it for a quick pizza dough or some burger buns in a hurry.

I also have "Beard on Bread" and use it often, and I've used several recipes from King Arthur's website. A couple of the recipes are "handed down" from Grandma.

I bake because I don't care for the squishy white stuff that passes for bread here, I might as well eat a Twinkie as that stuff. There's no such thing as a decent bakery, so I make my own. I have pretty much given up kneading as my carpal tunnel makes that painful, so I put everything in the Zojirushi, push the "dough" button and let the machine do the work, then I shape it and bake it. I've yet to find a recipe that hasn't worked in the Zo, as long as I do the shape and bake portion and not try to bake in the machine.

I don't care for the sour taste of sourdough, so I don't make that. (shrug) I buy yeast in 2 pound packages at Sam's Club or Costco, and freeze a portion, put the rest in the refrigerator in a quart canning jar so it's accessible. I never proof anything and the no-knead bread takes a very small amount of yeast because it has such a long rise time.

Annie

Thanks for all the answers, folks: I'm glad to hear from other bakers! Of all the breads I hear about here, plllog's are the ones that speak to me most. But, although, if I really set about it with determination and a decent financial investment, I might be able to get the tools and supplies necessary to make bread as I see described here, I'm not willing to do that. I live in the country in Italy, and 98% of my groceries come from our small local supermarket. There is no Costco. No Whole Foods. I have no store that offers rye flour, grain berries, molasses, bran, wheat germ, reasonably priced oatmeal, or a host of other ingredients for baking standard in the U.S. I don't like to drive, I don't like to run around, I'm reluctant to add to our terrible air pollution, and gas costs about $7 a gallon. Add to this the absolutely horrible dis-service offered by our post office-affiliated package delivery company, which, after my last traumatic experience, caused me to swear that I would never again order by mail anything that would have to be delivered through them (there are other couriers, if one has a choice).

So I work with what I have. This suits me, from a philosophical and practical standpoint, and while it's likely possible to make better bread, mine makes me happy. I've gotten used to the fresh yeast, which is reliable, and I have a fair variety of recipes I've worked out. The last one was potato and buckwheat (I was able to find buckwheat flour again, thank goodness!) and it turned out really tasty. That one was majority whole grain, simply because I had run out of white, and that improved it.

Plllog's comments make me think, again, about how much I could learn about bread baking. The "soaker" is new to me. Who knows, this may stimulate me to some modest experimentation. Like Annie, if I want substantial nourishing bread, I have to make it myself. The Italian bread is good with a bowl of beans and broth but it just doesn't work as standalone food. Add to this that Italians don't really eat breakfast, so there's not much of an offering of sturdy food for the start of the day.

I think my tolerance of grain-based foods has diminished as I've grown older, and it may be that baking with a sponge, and adding a variety of ingredients improves the digestibility of my breads. My diet is relatively low in cereals--I eat them regularly, but in much smaller amounts than when I was younger--and I mostly eat bread as the centerpiece of breakfast. It powers me up! in the most satisfactory way. Today is the potato and buckwheat bread--we're on our last loaf; I'll have to make more. There's a non-sweet almond bread in the freezer, made with milk, olive oil, and lots of almonds. If it gets cold enough I might even want to try a sweet bread. I made one last year with raisins, fennel, and orange juice and peel that I remember as being good. The basic dough of that one was similar to that of the almond bread, made with milk and oil. The loaves made with fats don't need butter. All my breads are part whole-grain, usually one third, though I may try upping that in some cases.

Melissa, I also make various gluten free breads, but I doubt that you'd have access to some of the ingredients in those. I did make the Boston Brown Bread in my crockpot and used buckwheat flour and it turned out very well, I was pleased with it. I don't know why we don't use buckwheat more.

Annie

Melissa, I don't know much about them but there are also ways to make bread out of cooked grains, rather than milling them. If you search online, you should find sites that talk about it. If you want to vary your bread, I suggest you start talking to the neighbors and surveying the countryside. If there's a flour mill anywhere near you, you might be able to get all kinds of interesting flours straight from them. It might be a little drive, but a couple times a year it might be a nice outing.

For the daily bread, I use up to 100 g of mix-ins to 425 g of gluten containing flour. I also add up to 25 g of vital wheat gluten to help support the 100 g of non-rising mass. The mix-ins include any kind of seed from as small as chia and quinoa, to as large as pumpkin seeds. I also add tasty whole grains from amaranth to millet to buckwheat. Any grain much bigger than buckwheat groats, like corn, gets milled. This way the slight variations keep it from getting boring. These mix-ins benefit a lot from the soaker. The soaker seems dry at first because a lot of the water is in the pre-ferment, but once the water is absorbed, it already feels doughy. When they're soaked, the seeds don't fall out when you slice. :) They're reputed to be more nutritious, and the whole thing handles better.

Another thing that can be done to increase the nutrition and disgestibility of whole grains, seeds, nuts, and legumes, is to sprout them. I don't usually. My kitchen is too hot, and my fridge is too cold, and I usually end up with mold. Sprouting until you have anything from a nubbin to a quarter inch tail, can be a good idea, however. That's something else you can easily read up on online. Also, read some of Grainlady's old threads.

Whole grain, especially when home milled (the bran in commercial whole wheat flour seems finer and softer), can have rising issues. The bran not only gets between the gluten, it can actually cut it. I've learned to handle as little as possible to get a good rise, and will mix the soaker and preferment with my Danish dough whisk right in a terracotta banneton, let the dough rise and bake right in the same vessel. The sides don't get a smooth, hard crust, but it makes for a good, well risen, loaf.