I don't disagree, but I think a lot of people have skewed perception of cost and effort in cooking. The two complaints I hear from people are generally, "But I don't know what I'm going to _want_ to eat until it's dinner time!" and "It's too hard/I don't know how to cook."
I love to cook and bake, though I have the luxury of doing it when I want to. (My wife usually does most of it). I can make a batch of bread dough for three baguettes in under three minutes. Letting it rise takes no time, though it does require some foresight. Baking is only a few extra minutes of additional effort. I think I calculated that one baguette costs me about $0.17 of ingredients, almost all going toward flour, which I buy in bulk. It's also delicious - frankly, much better than anything I've bought anywhere else except for the boulangeries in France.
Do you have a Kitchenaid or similar mixer, a large sink, counter space, nice cupboards, an assortment of pans/bowls, a quality oven and a dishwasher?
I learned to bake bread as a child in my mother's kitchen, equipped with all these amenities. I made some fantastic bread.
I tried it again as a young adult in a small apartment with no dishwasher, a tiny sink, mixing the bread entirely by hand, kneading it on the one corner of a counter not occupied by the microwave, then hand-washing the mixing bowl in a sink with a non-spray faucet while the dough rose before baking it in a cheap oven from 1992.
My apartment was not shitty. Many American adults are currently raising their children in equivalent apartments... more bedrooms, no significant kitchen space, no tools.
A kitchenaid mixer is 1/4 of a month's rent for most.
"Three baguettes in under three minutes" ignores every externality involved in the process.
Actually, I mix everything by hand, have fairly limited counterspace, use mixing bowls from Goodwill and a run-of-the-mill electric oven. I don't deny that I have certain privilege, but my baking is _far_ from privileged save for having an upbringing in which I had a mom that did a lot of baking and was patient with my 'helping out'.
Apologies for missing your question. Here's the link for my recipe[0]. It's really easy, but I think keeping the dough moist and the oven sufficiently humid is quite important. Fortunately, that's generally hard to mess up. Bonne chance !
I love to cook and bake, though I have the luxury of doing it when I want to. (My wife usually does most of it). I can make a batch of bread dough for three baguettes in under three minutes. Letting it rise takes no time, though it does require some foresight. Baking is only a few extra minutes of additional effort. I think I calculated that one baguette costs me about $0.17 of ingredients, almost all going toward flour, which I buy in bulk. It's also delicious - frankly, much better than anything I've bought anywhere else except for the boulangeries in France.