Baking During The Pandemic

Posted on 02/04/2020 By All Things Baked

With more people at home now, baking seems to be one of the top hobbies that are being picked up as it’s a great time to make certain foods if supermarkets are running out of the essentials due to the Coronavirus. Items such as bread are difficult to find at the moment so we know that baking your very own is the best thing to do, it gets the whole family involved and it’s also a great skill to have and you don’t just have to stop at bread, there’s cakes biscuits and so much more…

The one thing that we believe in when it comes to baking however is that baking from scratch is better than using box mixes because you don’t feel that sense of achievement and we can also truly say you can really tell the difference!

We’ve been baking from scratch from since we were young and enjoyed the whole baking process from shopping for the ingredients, to weighing them out for the recipe, mixing them together and then baking them to produce these wonderful bakes which we then decorated to look very pretty. We had so much fun with our families and this is how All Things Baked started! It gave us the idea to start a business which would help other families to do a fun activity together and it gives children and new bakers a chance to learn a new skill 🙂 Our recipes are suitable for all and we like to also incorporate fun one of a kind ingredients that kids will love to use so it’s great for everyone!

Now more than ever with the whole family being home, sometimes you need an activity that can keep everyone occupied and also give everyone something delicious to look forward to. Children will also love baking as it will help them feel more productive and keep them busy. Even though children will say they don’t like going to school, they may still feel lost at the moment and bored while they’re home because they’re not with their friends and are unable to just go out and play. We think by baking with them they’ll feel productive and creative so it will also help take their minds of the stressful situation.

With the box mixes there are a lot of additives and preservatives added in them and although it may be quicker just to add water, oil or an egg to the packet mix, the result will not be the same as baking it yourself. This is because bakes won’t be as fresh, the texture will be a little more dense and the taste won’t be as delicious. The truth about baking from scratch is, is that it may be a little bit more expensive to buy all the ingredients but knowing that you’re getting a better end product isn’t that more worth it? Sometimes we know that people don’t have much time but still want fresh cakes, breads and biscuits so they may just want a quicker way to make them. However if you compared the time it takes to make a box mix and baking from scratch there is only a few minutes difference (the only thing you may have to do is wash an extra dish but we promise the taste will be worth the extra work!).

Therefore we can say with much confidence that baking from scratch and using the best ingredients is the better option. We hope that for those of you who use box mixes will consider trying baking from scratch and we will try and be there for you all with easy recipes over the next few months that require fewer ingredients or just store cupboard ingredients. As it’s already stressful with the pandemic at the moment we don’t want to add more stress to cooking and baking! We can guarantee that you will see the quality of bakes when you make desserts from scratch!

Here is a simple recipe to make your very own bread rolls.

Ingredients you will need:

-500g strong white flour

-2tsp caster sugar

-2tsp salt

-14g dried yeast

Method:

Start off by greasing a baking tray with a little oil. Then sieve the flour and salt into a large bowl to get rid of any lumps and add then add in the yeast and sugar. Now mix everything together until it’s well combined.
Next make a well in the middle of the bowl and add in the water a little bit at a time and mix to form a soft dough.
Onto a clean surface sprinkle a little flour and then tip the dough and start kneading. You will need to do this for a bout 10 minutes until you have a smooth and soft dough.
Now that the dough is ready divide it into either 6 large or 8 smaller rolls. Make the dough into rounded balls and space evenly apart on the tray. Then cover the baking tray with a damp tea towel and let the dough prove for an hour until they have doubled in size.
Once the dough has been proving for about 30 minutes, preheat the oven to gas mark 7/ 425F/ 220C.
Once the rolls have doubled in size place in the oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes until nice and golden brown.