Christmas Baking On a Budget
Baking is not only one of the most beautiful and delicious ways to celebrate and enjoy the Christmas season, it is also practical and economical. If you don’t have a lot of money to spend on vacation events, theater or lavish parties, try Christmas baking as an alternative. It’s not difficult to learn how to do. Plus, baking is fun and makes something delicious to eat or give as a gift.
The first tip for avoiding mistakes in baking is to stick to the basics. Think of homemade preparations rather than perfect baked goods. Picturesque decorations often add to the cost of equipment and special ingredients. Get rid of them immediately to save money. We are obsessed with making things look, taste and smell like they were made in Grandma’s kitchen.
Start with what you have in your kitchen. Since we recently moved overseas, we gave away most of our stuff, including pots and pans and dishes. Armed with cookie sheets, cake pans, ramekins, skillets and soup kettles, I discovered that a large soup kettle worked best as a large mixing bowl. We quickly realized the difference between wants and needs.
Realizing that I had everything I needed opened up new possibilities. Before, I regretted giving up everything and throwing it away. There was a nostalgia for the old days, when there were endless bowls of different sizes, tools and spices. Then I realized that this attitude was leading me in the wrong direction. Instead, I needed a new approach. How creative can I be with simple materials and tools? Since I will be publishing a book of 15 Christmas recipes in a few months, I needed to improve the recipes for Gingerbread Man, Linda’s Sweet Christmas Wreath, Pumpkin Walnut Bread, Willa’s Apple Cookies, and Caitilne’s favorite Christmas cookies! We had to do it. I still had a few more plates to wash, but I got it all done.
As far as shopping goes, I limited myself to the most important ingredients. It wasn’t that easy, as I prefer to shop in the merchandise and food departments. I bought all the kitchen utensils I needed, such as the rubber spatula, mixing spoon, paring knife and heating pad, at the Dollar Shop. The food items were found at sale prices.
It was there that Bridget Lancaster, a cooking expert from America’s Test Kitchen, taught me that you could make bread with wholemeal flour, but the texture was a little different. Bread flour is expensive, so I opted for the unbleached wholemeal flour, which I prefer. I bought ready-made spices and chocolate chips. When I make Rocky Road or Christmas crust, I buy my favorite chocolate. After all, it’s the key to the taste. However, when I added semi-sweet chocolate to the cookies, I didn’t see much difference.
To save even more money, when the sales were over, I looked in the aisles to see if there were still opportunities for discounted products. In the store aisles, you’ll sometimes find crumpled jars, spices and flour. Check the expiration date. If a store wants to discount a pumpkin jar because it’s crumpled, I’m sure that’s a good idea!
The key is the bill for all the baked goods. Flour (£10), white sugar (£8), brown sugar (2 x 16oz bags), chocolate chips, apples, baking powder, chilli, raisins, cinnamon, oats, treacle. Ginger, salt, unsalted butter (2 pounds), eggs (2 dozen), pumpkin (29 ounces), nuts, rubber spatula, mixing spoon and detergent cost less than $65 ($56.83). Not everything was purchased at one time, but the purchases were split three ways.
With these ingredients, I’ve made Willa’s apple cookies, stubborn gingerbread men, Linda’s Reese’s Bread, oatmeal raisin cookies, chocolate cookies and apple pies. I think I even had a boatload of Snickers cookies there – three to five dozen medium-sized cookies at a time. This weekend I’m going to make pumpkin walnut muffins, and I have all the ingredients.
If you calculate how much it costs to get all the ingredients from scratch, versus buying ready-made baked goods, the difference is huge. If you try to buy cookies at a specialty store, you can easily spend $12 to $15 for a dozen. A cake purchased from a bakery costs between $8 and $16. While supermarkets offer cheaper cakes and cookies, they don’t have the aroma and flavor of a home bakery.
About Author
Sara is a qualified food expert at Main food line, Canada. She had graduated from the University of Cambridge. Sara loves to write about healthy nutrients which help to prevent the human body from various diseases. So people enjoy a healthy lifestyle. She is well experienced in pumpkin pie near me and has an impressive portfolio of serving international clients.