Bare Bones Baking

Less than a month. That’s how long I made it without baking.

Six months isn’t that long, I told myself. I can go six months without baking. There’s virtually no room in my new (temporary) kitchen:

especially compared to what I’ve had since 1985:

Off into storage went all my baking gear: pans, mixer, food processor. I did bring my ingredients with me: 

 

There they are on the top two shelves. The bottom shelf contains my cleaning supplies, and the shelf above that is my linen closet. (Here’s what is currently labelled “linen closet” on the apartment’s floor plan:)

But on a cold winter morning complete with icy rain, I found myself craving something baked. Not just to eat, but to make: measuring, stirring, pouring…and of course licking out the bowl. But what to make? I perused my latest non-ccokbook cookbook, Ratio, for inspiration. Pancakes? No griddle. Coffee cake? No pans (and way too treacherous to venture out and purchase any disposable version, which had been my backup plan.) Biscuits? No rolling pin, no board. (Sure, there are granite countertops, but there’s no way to clean up the stuff that would fall down next to the stove and the fridge.) Muffins? No tins. But wait! My new favorite cookbook mentions that they can also be baked in a loaf pan. Substituting in brown sugar and adding cinnamon and cloves yields:

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Muffin Loaf

And voila, a lovely breakfast for a cold winter morning: