More and more families are finding comfort in the kitchen right now, their implements of choice including bread pans, rolling pins and cookie cutters.
Which brings us to Easter, the perfect time to heat up the oven. Even if you’ve never baked before or don’t have all the ingredients you need, it’s easy to put out a plate full of treats.
From Scratch
Baking from scratch isn’t as time consuming as most people think. All you need are ingredients, a mixer (electric or the kid-stirring variety) and an oven. A favorite Easter recipe the world over is traditional hot cross buns. Need a colorful centerpiece? Try this traditional Italian bread recipe. No yeast at the store? No problem. A sourdough starter requires just two ingredients — flour and water.
Sugar cookies are easy because once they are mixed, the dough has to sit in the refrigerator before you cut out the shapes. You can even double the batch and freeze half to easily keep the cookie fun going after Easter is over.
Some stores are reporting shortages of flour and eggs. Luckily, there are a number of recipes out there that don’t use them. Try this flourless chocolate cake for an elegant dessert. Use this list to find a workaround for baked goods that require cracking a few eggs.
Semi-homemade
If the idea of scratch baking seems like too much work, don’t feel guilty. You can use a combination of store-bought and fresh ingredients to create baked goods that taste like you spent hours in the kitchen.
Sandra Lee, Food Network’s queen of semi-homemade recipes, has an entire cookbook dedicated to desserts — many of which you can find on the Food Network website. Why not get the kids to help you bake up this Easter Bunny cake? You just need boxed cake mix, canned frosting and candy for decorations. Mix sugar cookie mix with cream cheese for these delightfully easy Lemon Spritz Squares. With just frozen fruit and baking mix, you can throw together this elegant cobbler to finish off your Easter meal.
Completely Off the Shelf
Is it okay to just open a box of cake mix or throw some packaged refrigerated or frozen dough in the oven? Absolutely. Buy refrigerated dough and let your kids form portions of it into animal shapes before baking. Buy sugar cookies and let the kids frost and decorate them while you work.
There’s no right or wrong way to bake this Easter. What counts is the love you put into it.
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