I read a statistic recently that said people have done twice as much baking during the two months of the Coronavirus self-isolating than they typically do during November and December, the biggest baking months of the year.  I can totally understand that.

When I am stressed, I want to eat cookies.  Of course, I also want to eat cookies when I am happy or depressed or looking forward to something.  Tom and I normally control our compulsion to eat cookies by buying cookies at the store.  That way there is a limited quantity of them.  But the store where we are shopping doesn’t have a good cookie bakery.  All their cookies come out overdone.  And, we are shopping online, so we can’t pick and choose as we look at them.  Consequently, I have been baking for entertainment and deliciousness.

The easiest thing to bake is no-bake cookies.  I can make these in about 15 minutes before I go to work and they are ready at lunchtime.  Because we have a small refrigerator, I put the batter all in one 13 x 9 pan and cut them into bars.  They have the requisite cookie ingredients – chocolate and sugar – and don’t require heating up the oven.

About a month into self-isolating, I decided to make cinnamon rolls.  I use the Pioneer Woman’s recipe, which makes a lot of rolls.  Unfortunately my local store was out of cinnamon.  Fortunately Amazon had cinnamon.  But I had to order a pound of it!  So I can make several more batches before I run out.  The rolls were delicious and there were so many that I shared them with the interns, the rangers, and the other volunteers (Verbas were still here).  Everyone got at least six and I still had two dozen for the freezer.  So yummy.

I’ve also made pans of brownies and blondies.  Pan cookies are easier in our little house because they don’t take up as much counter space and I don’t have to keep the oven going as long.  When it is 90 degrees with 90% humidity, the air conditioning is working hard enough.  I usually bake first thing in the morning so it doesn’t stress the air conditioner.

Bread is always a good thing to bake.  And it is much easier than a lot of people think.  I made pizza dough and loaves of bread for the new Fort Frederica bake oven.  The bread is fully risen and ready by the time the oven is hot.

Baking for entertainment and deliciousness is one way to keep yourself occupied when you aren’t going out much.  It gives me a chance to play in the kitchen as well as giving us something delicious to eat for a few days.

How about you?  Tried any baking during this time of isolation?