Baking Therapy

Baking therapy

I don't just bake as a form of  IBS self preservation, I bake because i find it relaxing.  The kitchen is one of the few places I feel in control.  I'm not scared of trying out unfamiliar  techniques, recipes or foods.  Lol, which is a total contradiction to my anxiety disorder.  Where the idea of going some where Iv never been before fills me with panic.  But who said anxiety was logical...

So cooking and baking all my food from scratch, helps both my physical and my mental health.  I can understand why people can panic about cooking and baking, especially when a recipe has a long list of ingredients and steps required to make the finished product.  That's why I try to keep mine as simple as possible. 

There are days when even I get stressed, on these days I follow some basic CBT  cognitive Behaviour techniques IV been taught to control my anxiety.  CBT is about splitting a task down it too its individual steps. 

 Look out and measure recipe ingredients, tools required and pre-heat your oven

With some recipes like Tea loaf, you need to look out some of the ingredients the night before.   I usually sit down and have a cup of tea and re-read the recipe before moving on to the next step. Just make sure you cover any food ingredients, for food hygiene purposes.

Prepare your cake tin, baking tin or baking tray by greasing it with oil or lining with grease proof paper

This will make it easier to remove your cake, cookies or pies once cooked. 

Follow recipe and mix ingredients as suggested

There are 4 main methods for baking.

1. The creaming method, where you mix your butter and sugar together till they turn light and pale. 

2. The wet/dry method, where you mix all your wet ingredients together in a jug and your dry ingredients in a bowl before combining together.  ( Used in cake recipes, that use oil)

3. The all in one method, where all the ingredients can be added to the same bowl regardless of order and mix together at the same time for several minutes to combine.

4. The Rub in method,  where the butter is cut into small cubes and rubbed into the flour by hand till it resembles bread crumbs.  Then the wet ingredients added.  e.g. Used when making Scones

Pour into cake tin or baking tray and place in oven. 

Cookie dough can be rested in the fridge. Or placed there to firm up but cakes need to be cooked straight away.

When the raising agent hits the moisture of your wet ingredients it,  activates.  So cakes need to be placed straight into the oven once the batter is ready.  

Then Set your oven timer or keep a check on the time

Don't be tempted to peak too early.  The more you open your oven, the more heat will be lost.   This doesn't cause to many problems with cookies, they will just take longer to bake.

However opening  the oven to soon when baking a cake, can cause it too sink in the middle. It will still be edible, it just won't be pretty. 

Breaking a recipe down into steps, makes baking/cooking a lot easier and a lot less stressful xxx