Last semester was a bit of a struggle for me. A few days out of the week I was on campus all day without a break, and some days I would be so overwhelmed with the assignments I had to do that I would look at them and decide to do them “later”. There were also plenty of times I would wait until late at night and, much like someone deciding to clean their room or go on a jog to clear their mind, I would procrastibake.
The definition of procrastibaking is fairly straightforward – a portmanteau of procrastinate and bake – baking because you would rather avoid something important, like homework in my case. There’s something great about throwing together flour, eggs, sugar and whatever else and knowing you’ll have a delectable treat (or the whole pan) to enjoy. I first started really taking baking seriously when the pandemic hit, and since then I’ve baked several different kinds of sweets but predominantly bread: from basic bread rolls to maintaining a sourdough starter and cold-fermenting pizza crusts for an authentic New York-style pie, my possibilities are endless in the kitchen. I find that I don’t need to buy any bread from the grocery store because I can easily whip up a batch in my apartment, all the while not doing that assignment with a deadline coming up.
With the Spring semester is underway and the fact that our university will be switching from remote learning to in-person learning next week, I have been trying not to procrastinate as much. Procrastinating too much was the bane of my existence last semester, especially during finals week. I would impulsively clean the apartment or play games instead of working on an essay, only to do it last minute.
Even so… would I consider procrastibaking being bad? Not necessarily. For New Year’s, since I wasn’t able to go back home to California, my boyfriend and I had a small two-person feast where we baked ladyfingers from scratch for a delicious tiramisu instead of filling out important forms. I participated in a club bake sale last semester instead of doing an assignment and was complimented on my brownies by my professor. Cheesecake bars, cheese danishes, croissants… all things I’ve made late at night or in the morning before school, and they were all things that made me feel better emotionally and better about my progress as a home baker: I can do these things, what can I bake next?
I’m grateful to have discovered a passion for baking (and cooking – just food in general!) instead of ordering takeout or relying on processed foods; not only do I get to enjoy something made at home but, depending on what I feel like eating or if I want to lighten something up, I can make substitutes for ingredients as needed and it will still have that same great taste. Although I don’t watch cooking shows that often, I feel like following chefs on social media and them explaining the process of cooking or baking something is just as tantalizing. I also can’t really wrap my head around sourdough hydration, the difference between polish and biga, or what baker’s percentage really means just yet, but you can probably tell by now that honing “adult skills” like learning how to make your own food is near and dear to my heart. So, in that sense, I’ll embrace procrastibaking for as long as I procrastinate!
Below are a few of the recipes/websites I always go to and the cookbooks I like to consult. Baking with yeast can be difficult at first, but I’ve grown to love it. If you’re not sure where to start with baking or just want to branch out to something different, I suggest you check out these links below – it could be your new favorite hobby!
My Go-To Recipes:
Dinner Rolls – https://www.momontimeout.com/the-best-dinner-rolls-recipe/
Hokkaido Milk Bread – https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/japanese-milk-bread-rolls-recipe
Sourdough Starter (you can use the starter/discard in a variety of recipes!) – https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/sourdough-starter-recipe
New-York Style Pizza Crust – https://feelingfoodish.com/the-best-new-york-style-pizza-dough/
Anything by Preppy Kitchen or the King Arthur website!
My Favorite Cookbooks:
King Arthur Baker’s Companion – https://shop.kingarthurbaking.com/items/king-arthur-bakers-companion
Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz – https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/609892/dessert-person-by-claire-saffitz/
Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish – https://kensartisan.com/flour-water-salt-yeast
The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt – https://www.amazon.com/Food-Lab-Cooking-Through-Science/dp/0393081087