Flour? Check; Sugar? Check; Eggs? Check; Butter? The more, the merrier. But better you still check! It’s December, a time for holiday-baking.
Though the weather is cold outside, the kitchen at home is warm because the oven has been in use for a large part of the day. And the aroma of cookies fills the air all the time.
Queens of the kitchen who are into big time baking have their mortars purring and rolling pins over-working. For some, it is a trial run for the big day ahead while for others, mostly those from large families, it is an attempt to stuff the larder with all the possible goodies of the season.
Bakeries in the city are also buzzing with activity with hordes of workers dishing out sweet-smelling cakes, cup-cakes, pies, brownies and cookies.
“I love this season because of the range of delectable treats it offers. Christmas invariably means baking a sinfully delicious red velvet cake lathered with cream cheese frosting by my aunt. The only shame in the experience is my increasing waist size,” chuckles Martha, looking at her doting aunt Remington.
To cater to the section of calorie-watchers, many outlets in the city have included gluten-free specialities in addition to the regular delectable bakery items.
When it comes to Christmas, baking ahead is a ritual. People go out shopping for the ingredients much in advance. They pick up a few bits each week to be ready to go by the end of the month.
“The big bakes that should be tackled early, before the madness of wrapping presents and decking halls kicks in, are the Christmas cake and the Christmas pudding. They all benefit from time to mature too so that they are at their peak once the big day rolls round,”
Karuna cannot wait for her mother to bake her favourite giant marshmallows. “I love the pillow-soft chewy sweets with loads of whipped cream. The extra layers of flab it may add can be taken care of post-festival. But honestly, every morsel of it is worth the wait,” says the beaming girl.
“The crowd in the city seem to be crazy about goodies like Chocó lava cakes and plum cakes with lots of dry fruits thrown in. Baking is a very creative exercise. It doesn’t require any specialist skills. What it does require however is organisation and a little bit of patience to measure the ingredients out before your start to blindly throw things into a bowl,” says Sadhana Anil Kumar, who runs cookery classes.
To ensure a great season ahead, there is unanimity on a set of things that are to be done; Get organized! Take stock of ingredients, decorations, tools and baking sheets and make sure you have everything you need. You don’t want to be making lemon extract cake and find you have no lemon extract in the eleventh hour, or have your heart set on cookies and find you have no cocoa powder.
Can’t remember when you last purchased baking powder and baking soda? Do yourself a favour: Toss the old and buy new. Baking powder and baking soda are key ingredients that are essential to baking success. And they don’t cost very much.
Measure your dry ingredients the night before you plan to bake. Set your butter and eggs out, too, and wake up to perfect room temperature ingredients and get baking.
Many cookies are freezer friendly, so make room for precious cargo in your freezer and bake ahead.
Agreed that Christmas is all about traditions, but there is a vast scope to branch out and try something new.
Make your trickiest, most challenging and time-consuming cookie or cookies first. Everything you make after that will seem like a cakewalk. If you prefer to leave the baking to others you can pop along to simply marvel at the baked goods, and do a little drooling if you like!
