Inspirational Baking

Everyone loves a house filled with delicious, mouthwatering, delightful smells. From cakes to brownies, cookies to breads, there are dozens of baked goodies that do just that!  But did you know that we could prevent food waste and create new dishes by using leftover food or ingredients while baking?

The key is knowing how to change a recipe.

Learning how to change a recipe takes time and patience but is well worth the effort.  Changing all the ingredients may not always create great results, but changing only one item each time will help discover better matches faster while saving an incredible amount of food.

Some recipes can handle additions and change better. For instance, when baking bread, there are only a few main ingredients needed: water, flour, yeast, salt and sugar. So we can change any one of these main ingredients, such as using a different flour type or leaving sugar out entirely and still create delicious breads.

Plus, due to its texture, bread also goes well with both sweet and savoury ingredients. This makes it a great choice to use up any leftover bits and scraps. From raisins to figs to nuts and walnuts, the most common choice tend to be dried fruits and nuts.

Click here for an easy but delicious raisin and walnut bread recipe. You can switch the raisins and walnuts with any other dried fruit, nut or ingredient that needs to be used.

You can even make one of those famous Mediterranean foccacios with fresh ingredients or create your version using this recipe for something more savoury.

Speaking of Mediterranean and carbs, let’s take a look at pizza, another oven deliciousness that comes to mind.

Despite both being dough-based, pizza and bread’s differences lay in how they’re made.  But when it comes to food waste and reusing ingredients, making pizza out of leftover bread can be a delicious and inspired foodie challenge.

First, place parchment paper in a baking sheet and line slices of baguette or regular bread (corners cut) on the tray, face down. Repeat the process and place more bread until the sheet is entirely covered.

Next, pour your preferred pizza sauce to cover the bread and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes to create delicious, leftover saving pizza crusts.

After they’re baked, top with other main ingredients or leftovers before baking for a final time.

But what if we wanted to use an entirely different ingredient to make the pizza dough?

Bread is a more traditional alternative to regular pizza dough. Yet taking it further is entirely possible. Vegetables such as cauliflower and broccoli are delicious and healthy alternatives for making a pizza crust.

First, clean and separate the cauliflower into florets. Then after a few minutes of microwave cooking, transfer to cheesecloth to cool so you can squeeze the juices out of it. After squeezing out the juice, mix it with spices and cheese to form a pizza dough consistency. You can also try broccoli or zucchinis as an alternative base for pizza doughs. Click here for all the details of this inspiring recipe!

We can’t talk about baking and not mention a stay-at-home favourite: banana bread. More on the sweet side then savoury, banana bread is more like a cake in its texture and taste.  Banana, by its nature, darkens and sweetens as it ripens. This makes it a prime ingredient for cakes and pancakes. Try our leftover banana bread recipe, and with each slice that you’ll enjoy with your tea, you’ll be helping the fight against food waste. Here’s the recipe for Banana Bread!

Dessert recipes such as brownies and cakes are great options for making use of leftover ingredients quickly. They’re flexible enough to accommodate any leftover you may want to use. Another option is to use bread to make cake dough. First, use a mixer to grind dry, stale bread loaves until it turns into flour. Now you can use it to substitute the flour in any of your favourite cake recipes. Click here for a delicious chocolate cake recipe made from leftover bread flour.

The options are endless in the kitchen, especially when one has a capable oven. Join us in the fight against food waste and discover endless flavours while creating a better future for all. If we know the ingredients we use well, we can use our leftovers better and reduce food waste.

Click here to read more inspiring articles!