Food Storage Do-Over Week 10: Baking Ingredients

We are excited to be starting week 10 of our Food Storage Do-Over 2015! If you didn’t catch last week’s post which talked about legumes and meats you can see it here.

Remember this is a 17 week process that we will be going through together. If you want to join in with the group on Facebook click here. If you’d like to receive email notifications of each week’s do-over assignment you can join our mailing list here. Or you can always post in the blog comments with your progress as well! It is so much more fun and motivating doing it as a group so find a way to connect!

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In BabyStep 7: Baking Ingredients we discuss storing baking ingredients. These are the ingredients that will allow you to make complete recipes using the grains and legumes you have been accumulating.

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If you are brand new to food storage, take a look at our article “What Can You Do With YOUR Food Storage” to see what additional items you can make by adding specific baking ingredients to your storage.

This week your assignment is to purchase foods from the last four basic food groups and learn more about how to use them.

Fats and Oils

Your main source of fat will be oils. Store the oil that your family uses as rotation will be important. If you can’t rotate through fast enough you may need to throw some away and replenish when it expires
Other sources of fats can come from things like peanut butter, mayonnaise, and salad dressings. Think about your meal plans from your three month supply, you may already have some of these in your storage.

Sugars

The bulk of recommended sugar storage is in white sugar. If you don’t normally eat white sugar in your diet you can substitute with other sweeteners such as maple syrup, agave, etc.
Other sugars you can store are brown sugar, powdered sugar, drink mixes, syrup, honey, corn syrup, molasses, etc. Again, what you choose to store will depend on what your family will be able to use and rotate based on your own recipes.

Powdered Milk/Other Dairy

Powdered milk is critical to food storage as it can be life-sustaining if that is ALL you have to eat. It is especially important if you have babies or young children.
Other powders can be helpful to bring variety to your meals such as powdered eggs, sour cream, peanut butter, cream cheese, butter, etc. Buy a few of these in small amounts and see if they work in your recipes and then store accordingly.

Miscellaneous Baking Items

The regular baking items shouldn’t be forgotten. Store plenty of yeast, salt, baking powder, baking soda, etc. Consider that when you are living off of your food storage you will be baking a lot of foods from scratch, so you will need more of these on hand than you would normally have.
We recommend storing in multiple smaller containers so that when you open them to rotate you don’t have them lose their effectiveness if you don’t get through them fast enough.

Don’t forget to come over and share your progress in our Food Storage Do-Over Facebook Group!

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If you already have some of these baking ingredients stored and feel somewhat comfortable with them step outside your comfort zone and try something new:

Review your inventory list from week 7 and replenish any items from the fats, milk, sugars, and miscellaneous sections that you don’t have your full supply of.

Try using some of your powder substitutes that you may not have experimented with already.

Print recipes you use often if you only have them on the computer.

Try using powdered milk to make either buttermilk, evaporated milk or sweetened condensed milk. Here are some tips for making those substitutions:

Buttermilk: Mix up one cup of powdered milk. Add 1 T. lemon juice or vinegar to the milk. Stir it in and wait for 5 minutes. Use in any recipe that calls for buttermilk!

Sweetened Condensed Milk: Add the following ingredients to your blender. 1/2 cup of hot water, 1 c. of powdered milk powder, 1 c. of sugar, 1 T. of butter. Blend very well.

Evaporated Milk: Mix 1 1/2 c. water with 1/2 c. + 1 T. powdered milk powder. Whisk together thoroughly. Add to any recipe calling for evaporated milk!

Don’t forget to come over and share your progress in our Food Storage Do-Over Facebook Group!

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Powdered Substitutions

We recommend at least buying a small can of each of the “powders” and experiment with them in your regular recipes. Stock up on the ones that you like and find alternative recipes if you don’t care for them (i.e. sour cream powder may not suit you so you’ll need recipes that don’t use sour cream). Here are some powders you may want to consider buying:

Instant or Regular Powdered Milk
Powdered Whole Eggs, Scrambled Eggs, egg yolks, or egg whites
Butter, Shortening, or Margarine Powder
Peanut Butter Powder
Sour Cream Powder
Cream Cheese Powder
Honey Crystals

Where to Buy Baking Ingredients

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Here are some resources both from us and all over the web that can help you if you want more depth on any areas or are looking for even more ideas of items to include in your plans. It’s always a good idea to look at multiple approaches and decide what will work best for you! And don’t forget to check out the discussions on our facebook group to catch anything we are missing or see what others are doing!