is stress-baking a real thing? absolutely.
I don't understand science in the slightest, but I know something goes on when I'm baking in my brain
The term “stress baking” I believe is a newer term, and is taken very seriously in this day and age. This little phrase skyrocketed at the beginning of the pandemic, as people turned to baked goods as a source of relief and release. I bet you know at least ONE person who was making sourdough or unlimited amounts of banana bread.
One thing about me, I will always make time to be in the kitchen, just ask my roommates!
I usually stick to meal prepping or snacks, but when desserts start to pop out, you’ll know I’m stressed (or anxious, or excited). Being in the kitchen gives your brain small tasks and steps, you’re so focused on one little thing instead of existentially large things.
For me, this is cutting and prepping vegetables, making overnight oats, planning next week’s grocery list.
For a while, I used to make my own peanut butter! I’d buy about a pound of peanuts in bulk, use my immersion blender for about 10 minutes, and completely turn my brain off.
The majority of my baking this past fall can be similar to a mini-manic episode. For the most part, they’ve been when I’m alone on a Saturday night, and something kicks in my brain around 9:30-10:30 PM. Before I know it, I’m deep into a random baked good that I have no recipe for, completely winging it; no thoughts going through my head, just baking. It’s almost euphoric! The end results are usually 50/50, but I don’t really care, I just needed to do something in the kitchen.
My favorite “manic” bake was about a month ago. I was having a pretty rough day, just a sad day, ya know? I’m home alone, I put on my recent comfort movie, When Harry Met Sally, and something clicks in my brain, and I start grabbing stuff in my pantry. Before I knew it I was making these pumpkin, oatmeal chocolate chip bars. They were delicious, and finished before the movie ended!
I’ve also gotten to the point of my “Siti”hood where most of the time I make something, I rarely ever measure. That’s typical for most savory dishes, but with baking being an exact science, it’s a risk! It’s fun not knowing how something will turn out though. I used to horribly stress myself out from baking, enthralled with perfectionism, everything having to be neat and delicious and exactly the same.
Now, I barely measure, I love growth.
Recently, most of my cooking and baking relies on “what do I need to get rid of?” in my fridge or pantry. Or, “what do I not have in my fridge?” For example, butter right now is four dollars a pound. And if anyone knows me, I’m pretty frugal about my groceries (about most expenses really), and so I just won’t bake any recipes with butter for a little bit!
Last week, I stress-baked a bunch of cookies for the cast and crew of a show I recently was in at my University, only using vegetable oil as my fat source. They turned out crisp and snappy on the outside but still had some chew on the inside. Flavor-wise, they were disappointing. But college kids don’t care all too much about flavor when there’s something free in front of them.
My last (and actual favorite) stress bake had more structure and purpose. It was during the afternoon, and we had a bag of mini galas about to go bad on the counter. I found some puff pastry scraps from August in the back of my freezer, and we made a galette while watching The Princess Diaries, it was amazing!
That’s all I got for this week!
With Love,
Cara
I can confirm: the pumpkin, oatmeal, chocolate chip bars were amazing!! :)