Cookbook Chat: A Good Day To Bake by Benjamina Ebuehi
“Every day could do with a bit more slowing down, a little more stirring, kneading, folding and peering into the oven watching bread puff up like magic.”
“It can be so easy to get lost and caught up in the rhythms of the week, but let the kitchen – however big or small – be a space in which you let loose, slow down and are present. Because every day is a good day to bake.”
I’d hazard a guess that this is probably my most-used cookbook in recent years. I have picked it up time and time again, either to thumb through for inspiration or to bake repeatedly from it. I think I knew it was going to be love when I saw the recipe called ‘just the crumble’; a whole recipe dedicated to just the crumble topping to be served as is or with custard. Girl, you have my heart.
I imagine the minimalist cover is supposed to represent the simplicity of the bakes which is true in terms of the ease in following the instructions & getting good results, and I find the white pages and non-showy photographs calming. But these bakes are anything but simple when it comes to the flavours and imagination behind them.
The six chapters are split by: herbs & teas, stone fruit & berries, vegetables, best of beige, spice cupboard and chocolate. Some of the flavour combinations can seem a bit out there when you first glance at them but one must trust the process; I have never had a bad outcome from any of these bakes. And I’ve made a lot of them.
The first time I delved into this book I made the smoked paprika and halloumi flatbreads, which we ate sat in the garden with a bowl of tomatoes and our five-month-old rolling around in the grass, and these recipes have been my friends ever since.
The cornflake caramel peanut bars were the first time I made a decent caramel and went down very well at a family party. The beautifully simple ‘everyday cake’ which I ate in the park with some strawberries during the summer of my maternity leave when I was so sleep deprived, I felt like I was looking at the world through a hazy lens. The white chocolate & miso cookies I made one early spring morning, the perfectly small raspberry, yoghurt and honey cake and the mint and lemon drizzle cake made to compliment bright summer’s days, the peanut butter cookies made as the nights were drawing in. The vanilla bean cake which I made for my son’s first birthday. The store-cupboard cake which is so easy and also happens to be vegan; perfect for any emergency baking requirements. I have made ‘just the crumble’ more times than I care to admit.
It haunts me that I have still not tried the coconut, white chocolate and cardamon rice pudding and several of the savoury bakes still sit on my to-try list: the spiced lamb sausage rolls, the potato & cauliflower curry pie and the sweet potato, chorizo & spinach turnovers. But there is time.
The introduction (a couple of my favourite quotes above) reflects how I feel about baking; how it soothes me, forces me to slow down, use my hands, be in the moment. Most of my hobbies encourage my imagination to fire on all cylinders but baking is the one that gets me as close to mindfulness as is possible for a brain that never shuts up. If I have plenty of time, nothing calms me as much as closing the kitchen door, pre-heating the oven, putting happy music on and pulling out the scales. This book is the perfect companion in that moment.