r/Frugal • u/doublestitch • 1d ago
š Food Does anyone else batch-bake before the hot weather sets in?
Down here in California the hot weather comes early. The forecast expects a high of 90 F/32 C next week. We've been taking advantage of the last days of cool weather to do plenty of baking.
Many baked goods stay good when they're frozen for as long as 3 months.
Our list of DIY this week for the freezer has included:
- Homemade pizza
- Croutes (the toasted bread that goes into French onion soup)
- Carrot bread
- Banana muffins
- Oatmeal cookies
- Lemon cookies
- Chocolate chip cookies
- Ginger snaps
- Pumpkin pie
- Soft pretzels
- Garlic knots
- Mini chicken pot pies
Also, although this isn't quite baking, we've batch cooked buckwheat pancakes for savory crĆŖpes and frozen a stack. A minute in the microwave, a few minutes of cooking a filling on the stove, and those become quick inexpensive meals.
A lot of this is batch baking more than one recipe at a time. We prep several pie crusts at once, we make several cookie doughs and refrigerate them--taking them out and baking assembly line style. With the way the economy is looking, we don't want to overspend on groceries we could make at home--so we're putting out deep freezer to good use.
So does anyone else do this? We've been looking at the weather report and thinking we'd better get ready while the mild weather is still with us.
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u/sbinjax 1d ago
When I lived in Florida I had a "summer kitchen" outside. It was actually a table outside close to an exterior outlet. I would plug in the air fryer/toaster oven or set up the crock pot and cook outside. Anything to keep the heat out of the house.
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u/pumpkin_spice_enema 20h ago
Have similar by the grill. It's wonderful to keep the house cool, kitchen clean and smelly food like bacon and fish outside.
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u/ComprehensiveBid4520 1d ago
I bake about three times a week. I live in a desert state, so I usually bake super early in the morning while it's still moderately cool. My last batch of sourdough happened at 2 am. This week, I made pb cookies, tortillas, cranberry bread, banana bread, and hamburger buns, all to keep in the freezer. I'm also doing some cookie dough balls.
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u/RockMo-DZine 1d ago
Not so much batch baking, but here in Austin, the grid can't seem to handle the colder winters or hotter summers and we now see frequent power outages when things get extreme or when we get a severe storm in the mix. Consequently, it makes sense to batch cook & freeze meats and soups ahead of anticipated weather events.
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u/Fantastic_Lady225 1d ago
I cook large roasts and turkeys over the winter, and freeze the cooked meat to use during the summer.
In the warmer months I never run the oven. I either use the Instant Pot outside or I'll thaw cooked meat and have it for salads or in quick pasta sauces.
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u/Intelligent-Fruit174 1d ago
Until now I've only been freezing dough balls in large quantities but you're giving me lots of ideas.
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u/kwanatha 1d ago
Honestly I would just use the smoker at higher temps there is not that much smoke. Also I have used the bbq it has three burners I just donāt turn on the burner directly under the pan. I had to when my oven broke and the only thing I missed was the broiler
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u/cashewkowl 1d ago
My oven died around this time of year once and we didnāt replace it until October/November. I had a large toaster oven that I used in the summer anyways as it didnāt heat up the kitchen as much, but I couldnāt roast a turkey in it.
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u/webenji 1d ago
What's the problem with cooking/baking when it's hot outside? Is it to make sure you don't introduce additional heat into the house? or is it because electricity prices are higher during that time (or you're more likely to be in a higher tier)? or something else I'm missing?
I'm also in a high-heat region where it routinely gets up to and above 100F in summers and have never thought about reducing my cooking/baking, although I naturally gravitate towards less hot meals like soups and purees/mashed when it's hot (by preference). I wonder if it actually make a significance difference (for example, during the winter I leave the oven door open after using it to use the oven's heat to "help" warming up the house and, although I mentally feel good doing it, I think it has little to no effect on my house heating/costs).
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u/doublestitch 1d ago
We live in an area where the utilities publish flex alerts in hot weather. Those are requests for voluntary energy use reduction. When there isn't enough consumer response to flex alerts, then rolling blackouts follow.
The billing rates also give financial incentives for minimizing energy use during late afternoon and early evening.
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u/mao369 1d ago
I'm not really doing it because of the weather, but because of the price of eggs. I bought one carton of eggs a couple of days ago and did a batch of muffins and a double batch of pancakes yesterday. Trying to use up the eggs before they go old - and, yes, supposedly eggs last a long time but there's not exactly a good way to *see* that they're getting old until it's too late. I think another batch of muffins is getting made this afternoon - one thing about a one person household, I don't exactly need as many things to be in the freezer as a family. (But I also don't need to have lots of cookies and other desserts available to me, either! LOL)
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u/doublestitch 1d ago
Yes, we switched from lemon bars to lemon cookies after comparing the difference in eggs.
If it's any help, we have a recipe for making breakfast pancakes from scratch that doesn't use any egg at all.
Egg-free pancakes for two:
1/2 cup self-rising flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
"enough" milk, about 1/2 cup
1 tablespoon butter, for frying
Mix the dry ingredients, then pour in milk and stir until it reaches pancake batter consistency. Melt butter over a cast iron griddle and cook like normal pancakes. The baking powder in the flour gives these pancakes the usual fluffiness. People haven't tasted the difference unless I tell them there's no egg in these.
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u/Muffinmom15 1d ago
We do a lot of meal prep and freezing as well, but we just donāt consume as many baked goods when itās warm out. We try not to use the oven at all once it gets warm and do most of our cooking on the blackstone or traeger.
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u/Grammey2 1d ago
We also batch cook when itās cold to keep the house warmer.