Home Baking - The Benefits of Staying In

One of the many phases of quarantine people went through during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown period was the period of home-baking bread for the first time.

Maybe it was that people finally found themselves with enough time to go through the rigorous processes making bread involves, or boredom got the better of them.

Personally, the closest I got to baking ‘bread’ during this period was sitting on a stool while two of my friends made banana bread (so what if it was technically a banana cake?).

But there were plenty of fine individuals who delved further than I did and researched what it took to make some wonderful carb creations.

As it so happens, the benefits of making a hearty loaf go beyond just nourishment for the body – it can also be very good for the soul – and aiding one’s mental wellbeing.

Kristen Aiken for The Huffington Post, wrote an article explaining why people baked so much bread during quarantine.

One of the main reasons she lists is that it was to maintain a sense of control.

One of her readers wrote;

“my first thought: I am capable of baking bread therefore I am not powerless. It’s a very therapeutic activity, where your mind and body unite to create something wholesome, and it’s very fulfilling to see the end result.”

Even outside of COVID times, many people have long-preached the meditative and therapeutic qualities bread-making provides.

A blogger for “Eat Well. Do Good” sums it up quite nicely when they say:

“The act of mixing ingredients is soothing. The repetitive action of kneading is meditative and it’s a good stress buster. The reason is because you don’t have to think if you don’t want to – you just do.”

Photo: Doug Walters with his homemade Sourdough

Doug Walters of Stirling is a home-baker who regularly makes his own sourdough bread from scratch using a starter.

When asked what the best part about this process was, he answered:

“My favourite part of the process is folding and forming the bread just before you put it in in the oven.... but taking it out and lathering butter on that first fresh hot piece of bread…nothing beats that.”

“Cooking, or baking is a form of relaxation for me. It takes my mind off things when I get home from work. There is nothing more satisfying than putting your effort into something and getting a great result in return.”

As easy as it is to pick up a loaf of bread from the shops, I think the evidence here clearly shows that perhaps it could do us all a world of good sometimes if we pick up a sack of flour and have a go at making some for ourselves!

Photos by Amelia Walters - be sure to check out her blog, Sustain SA!