Tag: baking

Categories
Food

Why in the World is the Whole World Baking?

When I wrote my last post about the magic dough, I certainly wasn’t anticipating the current epidemic. You know, the global baking epidemic?

I don’t know about you, but my social media feeds are full of homemade chocolate-chip cookies, lemon bars, and carrot cakes. Dutch ovens stuffed with loaves of no-knead bread abound. People are whipping up impressive-looking cinnamon buns and drool-worthy biscuits – and my co-worker’s daughter even made churros.

My own frying pan was crowded with cinnamon-raisin English muffins last Sunday, filling my flat with a magical scent. Caramelized onion and artichoke heart pizza with a magic-dough crust made for several savoury meals.

  • Cinnamon-raisin English muffins
  • One of the only acceptable vehicles for raisins
  • Pizza with the magic dough

Thanks to the global pandemic, home baking has exploded among the quarantined, the self-isolating, and both veteran and newbie remote workers. People are keeping their kids busy with sprinkles, while others knead out their stresses.

What is it about baking that’s so comforting in the Weird Times (officially so named by my team at work) that we’re all living through? There is clearly something comforting about baked goods that you’ve made from scratch. It reminds us of normalcy and past celebrations, it warms our bellies, and our hearts. It reminds us how lucky some of us are to be safe in our homes, able to create something delicious out of a few ingredients.

Over the last 2 days I’ve tried to buy flour at 3 different grocery stores. Sold out. Ordinarily, there’s never a run on flour — even during peak pie season! Or autumn, when you start thinking about bread and soup. Seriously, I just wanna make some pasta, bread and cookies, people. Stop hoarding stuff you won’t use.

My Friend Charlotte

On the downside, hoarding flour – as with toilet paper – is definitely a faux-pandemic-pas. Please be kind to your fellow bakers, and leave some for the rest of your neighbours!

Have you noticed unusual baking activity in your part of the world? I’m interested in hearing about it.

Remote cookie-baking with current and former co-workers (and their kids)
Categories
Food

The Magic Dough

Homemade rolls with minestrone soup

What if I told you there’s a homemade bread dough you can put together in minutes, with only a handful of ingredients, and no rise time?

Gina (Skinnytaste) Homolka’s formula first caught my eye when she first published it as something called “Easy Bagel Recipe.” As a staunch defender of the Montreal bagel, I immediately doubted whether this concoction would resemble anything remotely like a bagel, but still I was intrigued enough to go out and buy some Greek yogurt so I could give it a try.

I was right – the result was nothing like a bagel, but it was inarguably yummy, and definitely easy!

I’ve continued to make the recipe, skipping the step of shaping them into tubes (really, why bother?), and instead rounding out the blobs of dough and baking them as rolls. I put the same dough to use for pizza – parbaking for about 10 minutes before topping – and even empanadas, stuffed with a mixture of veggies, chicken, and spices.

Honestly, this recipe has never turned out badly, no matter what I’ve done to it. Give it a try and see what you can come up with!

Skinnytaste’s Versatile Greek Yogurt Dough Recipe

  • Servings: 4 (or more) rolls, 2 pizzas, or 4 empanadas
  • Print

A simple dough for rolls, pizza, empanadas, or pseudo-bagels


1 cup (5 oz) unbleached all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (or a bit less table salt)
1 cup Greek yogurt (0% fat)
Optional toppings: beaten egg, egg white, or olive oil; poppy or sesame seeds

  • Preheat oven to 375F.
  • Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
  • With a fork, mix in yogurt.
  • Use your hands to finish blending in the yogurt and make a sticky dough. Knead about 15 times.
  • For rolls: Flour your hands, divide dough into four pieces, and shape into balls. (If you want mini-rolls, split it into 6 or more pieces instead.) Place on a greased baking sheet, or one lined with parchment paper. Optional: brush with egg or oil, sprinkle with seeds of your choice. Bake for 25 min.
  • For pizza: Roll out dough as thinly as possible and place on a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet or pizza pan. Brush with olive oil. Parbake for about 10 minutes, then add toppings and bake for about 20 more minutes, or until toppings are golden and cheese bubbling. I usually increase the oven temperature to about 450F for the final bake. You can also finish it off with a quick broil. (Skinnytaste also has grilled and breakfast pizza variations.)
  • For empanadas: Roll out dough and cut out circles. Fill half of each circle with your empanada mixture. I like leftover chicken or turkey, onions, peppers, mozzarella, and some spices like cumin and chili powder. Brush edges of discs with egg and flip half over the ingredients, squeezing edges to seal well. Bake for about 25 min. (Gina has more empanada ideas.)


The soup in the photo above is a variation of this minestrone recipe from Chowhound.