A Weekly Baking Day

The last time I shared about a baking day, a reader (I wish I remember who)  shared that she had made baking day a weekly part of her routine. I loved the idea and ever since then, I've had a baking day each week. Some weeks I simply bake bread. Another week I may made granola and three kinds of cookies. But having a deliberate time each week set aside to bake has been a blessing.


I'm not sure why I had not thought of doing it sooner. I like having a specific time each week to do laundry. Whether we've run out of clean socks or not, each Monday and Thursday, I launder ever dirty item in the house. Keeping up with laundry consistently means we always have something clean to wear in the drawers.

Since my goal is to make most of our baked things from scratch, I spend more time baking then most. When I waited to bake until there was no bread for breakfast toast, or no cookies for Ed's lunch - I felt like I spent my life reacting. My time was not utilized in the best way possible.

Benefits of a Baking Day

1. Since establishing a consistent baking day, we are rarely out of baked goods. I do hide them in the freezer and ration so that we don't just eat them more frequently - especially the sweets.
2. I'm less stressed when we have spur of the moment guests since I can always pull out a loaf of bread and cookies to add to a quick meal. 
3. My time baking is maximized since I go from one recipe to the next without stopping to wash the mixing bowls and utensils. 
4. Electricity is saved since multiple things are baked in the oven together.
5. Since the baking day is planned, I can check for needed ingredients and those "oops, I'm out of that ingredient" moments are rarer. 

My usual goal is to bake on Wednesday, or occasionally Thursday. I typically begin on Tuesday to build up my sourdough starter if I plan to bake with sourdough.


In the evening, I lay out all the recipes that I plan/hope to make. I often add an extra recipe just in case the day goes better than planned - though with children, I rarely make it through the whole list before stopping for the day. This is also when I double check that I have the ingredients needed. If I marked down the ingredients I used up last week, I am usually in good shape for another baking day. Sometimes I go ahead and grind my wheat to give a head start in the morning.


In the morning, I typically start my sourdough recipes first, that way they have time to sit and rise while I work on other things. If I don't have too many interruptions, I'm usually washing up dishes by lunch time. Sometimes I let each child help me with one recipe. That way each one gets a chance yet I'm not overwhelmed by too many cooks stirring the pot! I'll have to change the routine when school begins again, but for now, I'm loving a weekly baking day.


The pictures in this post are all from this week's baking day when I made whole wheat sourdough bread, chocolate zucchini bread, chocolate chip zucchini bread, soft pretzels, and sourdough bagels.