Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Convenient Scratch Baking

Yes, it sounds like an impossible thing, but it's not! Read on!

I enjoy being in the kitchen - cooking or baking, old recipes or new. More and more often, I find myself baking from scratch - with my daughter's food allergies, it's often difficult to find 'safe' mixes. Plus, I just like knowing exactly what I'm serving to my family and friends. But how do I balance the work of scratch baking with the convenience of a mix? Especially when company's coming, and there's a birthday cake involved? Taking a cue from my friends at Dream Dinners, I created my own mixes!
I gathered the recipes I was planning to use, all of the dry ingredients, and got to work! I amended the recipes a bit to account for any of the mixing work I did ahead of time, printed them out, and put all of the ingredients and the recipe into a larger bag. I made two cake mixes and one cookie mix to use over the weekend. I'm tempted to mix up several batches of our favorites because this was just SO easy!

As much as my kids and I enjoy baking together, it just wasn't practical for our weekend. So, when I don't have time to spare, premeasuring my own mixes work for me!

For other great tips and tricks, visit Works for Me Wednesday over at We Are THAT Family.

6 comments:

John and Lisa said...

I used to do this more than I do now, but I really should start again! I love the convenience, and the end product is my preferred recipe, and it is much less expensive than store-bought mixes!

Melissa said...

This is a terrific idea. I've heard of it but have never tried it!

Erin said...

Thank you for sharing. It is certainly something I should do more of.

Kendra said...

I have containers in the pantry for the basics like flour and sugar, But your right, there should be some mixes in there, would save so much time.

Muthering Heights said...

That is such a great idea!

Mom2fur said...

I love having my dry ingredients mixed ahead! My husband uses protein powder and gives me the big containers. I wash them, then use them for mixes, such as pancakes or cake mix. What I do is multiply the dry ingredients in a recipe by four or so (depends on how much flour I've got), then measure out how much mix I have. If I have four times as much, I'll divide the final mix by four and write this down on the recipe--'measure out 1 1/2 cups of dry ingredients.' Then I just proceed with the rest of it as written. It is always easier to have that work done ahead of time! Is anything messier than measuring flour, LOL?