Baking in the time of Covid 19

Chickpea biscuit fixin's

I used to bake my own bread, often. When I lived in small apartments in Banff I took time every week to bake a loaf or two. When I was growing up Mum was always baking.  She baked buns, bread, cookies, cakes and fruit loaves. In her later years fruit loaves were her Christmas gifts to family and friends. When she found herself sensitive to wheat, she ground up almonds and modified her recipes so she could make them with almond flour. As with so many other things, I don’t remember her ‘teaching’ me how to make bread. It was just something that happened around the house regularly. I don’t remember making bread when I lived at home, but I suspect that once I moved away and wanted to give it a go, I peppered her with questions which she patiently answered. When bread machines came along, I bought one and for many years I made bread for sandwiches to take to work.

            I’ve never had a lot of luck maintaining the body weight or composition that is ideal for me. Over the years I’ve discovered that what works best is to limit processed foods especially with flour. I stopped making bread and then stopped buying it.  I didn’t keep either flour or yeast in the house. I gave away the bread machine. It’s been years now since I made bread or baked anything, and I haven’t thought much about it. A couple of weeks ago I really, really wanted to make bread. Perhaps it’s a comfort thing harkening back to my childhood when the aroma of fresh bread met me as I walked in the door from school. Perhaps it’s a desire to do something a little different from the regular routine which isn’t routine anymore. Regardless of the reason, I wanted to make bread.

            Making bread is a problem when you don’t have any flour or yeast and when everyone else who is staying home, obeying public health directives also wants to make bread. Not a bag of flour or a jar of yeast to be had in the store. Ordinarily, Richard, the designated shopper for the household at the moment, would have gone to other stores until he found the necessary ingredients. We decided that satisfying my sudden desire to make bread wasn’t essential so no yeast and no flour.

            When I get an idea in my head I’m not easily discouraged, and I’m known for going on the internet and getting lost down rabbit holes for hours. No flour, okay Mum used almonds and I know there are all sorts of other kinds of flours people use. On goes the computer and off I go on a rabbit hunt. What do I have in the house that I could use to make flour? My first thought was rolled oats.  I don’t have any.  I do have steel-cut oats but the sites I visited didn’t recommend using those. What else have I got? Beans.  I have lots of dried beans. More googling and I came up with how to make chickpea flour. No yeast? No problem. I can make a quick bread. Shut down the computer and head for the kitchen.

            I thought I’d try the food processor.  I have two, a large one and a small one that came as part of the deal.  I tried the small one since I’d only be using about a cup of chickpeas for the experiment. That wasn’t a huge success. The blades kept spinning off the spindle and the chickpeas seemed to be thrown around rather than ground up. Also, I began to notice little bits of plastic on the inside of the blade housing. Clearly not up to the task. Haul out the Vitamix. This isn’t a commercial. We bought the Vitamix having burned out a couple of blenders making hummus. We decided to just spend the money and go for the heavy duty version. The Vitamix was up to the task, although the process involved grinding, sifting, putting the bits back in with more chickpeas and grinding again. The operation seemed to create almost as much dust as cutting maple on the table saw. Eventually a cup of flour.

Chickpea biscuits

            Recipe.  I need a recipe. Another entertaining few hours while I searched my cookbooks and spent some quality time with Google. Eventually I found a biscuit recipe I thought would work. I decided to try making them the old-fashioned way in a cast iron frying pan. I got the batter mixed up, heated the pan and placed the biscuits in it. When I came to turn them over, they fell apart. Plan B put them on a cookie sheet and bake them in the oven. I transferred the biscuits over and formed the rest of the dough into cookie-shaped-things. Into the oven they went. I kept a close watch on them, and they actually turned out quite well. Some were a bit crumbly: they tended to separate in the middle, but the cookie-like ones held together well. In texture and flavour, they were a little like corn bread. I deemed the experiment a success.

            There was only one problem: I didn’t have enough baking powder left to make another batch. I seem to remember that you can substitute baking soda and cream of tartar for baking powder but I didn’t go down that rabbit hole. I have lots of baking soda but no cream of tartar.

Regular biscuits

            A few days later rescue came in the form of a very kind neighbour from across the alley who asked if there was anything we wanted when she went shopping. We asked for a few things, among them flour and baking powder. She shops at a different store and we now have flour and baking powder. The first thing I did was to make a batch of biscuits. They were delicious. Then Richard asked if I would show him how to make them and he made a batch of biscuits. It would be entirely too easy to get into the habit of making biscuits on a regular basis instead of as just a treat so we are rationing ourselves. I think the next batch of biscuits should go to the neighbour across the lane who was able to find us the flour. In fact, I think I’ll take care of that today so they will be ready for her when she comes home from work. After that I might haul out some of my old muffin recipes. Again, I don’t want to make a habit of this but baking has become something a little different to look forward to, something a little different in these days that are at once very strange and all the same.

            Skype, zoom, phone each other and wash your hands.