Every month at Centennial, we've been having our culinary experts show you how to make delicious baked confections, like what you learn to make in our baking programs. This month's video shows you how to make Chocolate Chip Cookies, perfect for raising your spirits in a month that's chilly, rainy, and somehow still snowy.
We tend to think of the things we bake as an indulgence, something that's sweet and tasty, but bad for you. Well, that isn't true. There are many different ways baking itself can be beneficial for you, including:
1. It's good for your mental health
Cookies, cake, brownies, and other sweet confections are some of the most well-known comfort foods in existence, and can help with many a bad mood. But there's arguably more health benefits to be found in the act of baking than just eating the results. A BBC story, for example, reported on a winner from the Great British Bake-Off saying that baking helped with his depression. It gave him a constructive outlet for his energy, and put him in a place where he felt like he was in control. It's not the only example of baking for mental health, a popular topic around the web. For example, Huffington Post gives you specific tips on how you can bake therapeutically. Similarly, Bustle points out that baking is a social activity, and baked goods are meant for sharing, meaning it's a gateway to meeting and interacting with others.
2. And yes, your physical health
Of course, it's possible to just bake things that are better for you physically as well. You can make dishes that are low fat, low sugar, even gluten-free. For example, here are more tips from BBC on how to make your cakes, pastries and bread healthier. Generally speaking, too, food is healthier for you when you make it yourself, because you can control exactly what goes in it, without the use of chemicals and preservatives.
3. It can be good for your wallet, too
It's not just your physical and mental health that can be improved. Your financial health can also see a boost from baking. According to Vitality, it can help you with your career by giving you an outlet to improve your problem solving and management skills. After all, the timing and amount of ingredients has to be just right. If you're talented enough at baking, and love it enough to make it into your career, you can do more than just work in a bakery. You can become an entrepreneur, starting your own baking business. Forbes has a story about a woman in the UK who went from making hand-made pies, to a successful business. The story offers tips on how to do it, but the message is clear: If you love baking enough to do it for a job, a bit of brains and capital can have you creating and running your own business. Centennial College can help with that, too, thanks to its Baking and Pastry Arts Management program teaching you the business side of baking, along with the baking itself.
By Anthony Geremia