Karen Wright: Baking is therapeutic it isn’t just about cakes

Karen with her Devonshire splits and scones

This week I am going to write about baking. Baking is not just about cakes. For me, baking encompasses anything that is cooked in some sort of oven.

My favourite bakes are always inclined towards the savoury end of the baking scale, who doesn’t like a lovely pie, or a batch of sausage rolls fresh out of the oven? Whatever your fancy you can find something easy to bake and the rewards are not just the obvious ones, which is that you get something delicious to eat. Spending time in the kitchen is very therapeutic for me. I think it is quite impossible to feel gloomy when you are busy creating something from scratch. Baking and cooking take our mind off other concerns and enables you to just relax and enjoy an hour or so of ‘me‘ time.

Last week I hosted an online baking class, and we had a very good time. We were making Devonshire splits, which were the technical challenge on ‘bread’ week this year on the Great British Bake Off. The splits are a bread roll that’s sweetened a little bit and with both butter and milk in the mix. This is called an enriched dough, and with the filling of whipped cream and strawberry jam, they taste fantastic.

Of course, making bread is not a speedy process as it needs time to prove (when the dough puffs up as the yeast works its magic). In a class situation we needed something to be doing while the dough was proving so I decided we could make some scones too. Not only did we make scones, but we made the jam and made a chutney too so we could try a savoury element. We whipped up cream for the sweet and cream cheese for the savoury. What a spread we had, a proper cream tea.

There was a slight ulterior motive with the scones. On 25 and 26 November, I am hosting afternoon events over at the Writers Retreat in Beal. As part of the afternoon (and included in the ticket price) we enjoy a hot and cold lunch which includes scones, I thought it would be a nice touch to make the scones myself, so I wanted to get started on a stash for my freezer! The retreat is a special place, very cosy and the perfect place to relax and have an afternoon away from everyday cares. I went recently as a guest and had the best time. If you are interested in finding out more visit: https://writersretreatuk.co.uk/shop/