Baking Season: Sustainable Essentials

Sustainable baking tips

If you bake a lot, excess food and packaging waste can add up quickly. Keep the following tips in mind for your sustainable holiday bakes.

Jars for everything

Storing flours, sugars, and other baking ingredients in our re_ jars helps you stay organized and helps eliminate waste. Refilling your jars means no disposable packaging is required, while the tight seal prevents moisture and pests from getting in. There’s also a handy label area for marking flours and noting expiration dates.

Storing a sourdough starter? Our re_ jars have straight sides so you can read the rise accurately. Keep your starter in a 32 oz. re_ jar and use a rubber band to mark its starting level. Tighten the lid or keep it loose as needed.

Jars also come in handy for other reasons. Whenever you make a certain recipe you know you’ll have on repeat, make extra and store the mix in the jar for next time so you can avoid having to measure everything out again.

Many flours are less shelf-stable than AP flour and can rot on your shelf if not used quickly

Re_ jars also make for beautiful gifts of homemade mixes like your grandmother’s cornbread mix, holiday cookie mix, cake mix, etc.

Keep spices organized with our 4 oz. re_ jars or our stainless steel spice shakers.

Testing? Use tare weight

At most grocery stores, you have to buy a huge container of whole wheat flour or rye flour. If you’re only making a single recipe that calls for it, those flours can sit on your shelf for years, taking up valuable pantry space.

Many flours are less shelf-stable than AP flour and can rot on your shelf if not used quickly. Buying in tare weight allows you to test a new type of flour or purchase exactly what the recipe calls for, so you can eliminate food waste and free up shelf space.

Don’t double-book your baked goods

When hosting for the holidays or baking up desserts to bring to holiday parties, you want to be sure there’s a balanced spread. A holiday gathering can be disastrous if everyone brings pumpkin pie or Christmas cookies instead of a side, not to mention generating a lot of food waste if there’s far more dessert than people can eat.

Bookmark for your cookie exchanges, cookie decorating parties, and cookies for Santa! 🥛👇 These colors come together using our grade-a matcha, beet root powder, and other natural, waste-free ingredients in the dough and icing. No artificial dyes needed 🚫

Start a sign-up sheet for potlucks and share what you plan to bring on evites so that attendees can plan around each other and fill in the gaps.

Use your freezer

Many of us who love baking frequently don’t have the capacity to eat up entire batches of our baked goods. When friends aren’t happy to take the extra off your hands, or if you’re baking for one, this is where your freezer comes into play.

Freezing food will go a long way toward reducing food waste and saving you money.

Freeze your cookie dough in a log shape so you can slice and bake as needed. You can also freeze baked cookies, muffins, cakes, breads, pizza dough, pizza crusts, waffles, crackers, butters, buttermilk, yeast, and other goods for times when you need something filling and comforting without the trip to the store.

Freezing food will go a long way toward reducing food waste and saving you money.

Switch supplies

Recipes often call for you to line a baking sheet, cover a bowl, or wrap your dough to chill in the fridge. Switch to reusable tins and compostable products like compostable cling wrap, compostable parchment paper, and baking cups in order to save waste when you bake.

Knowing your flours

In California, bread is king. We’ve taken care to source the best milled flours, available for tare weight so you can choose exactly how much you need.

Wherever you reside, it’s useful to know about the merits of different flours for breads and baked goods. Here’s a breakdown of our favorite flours, with options to accommodate your gluten-free friends.

AP flour: all-purpose flour, great for most basic projects as well as baguettes and naturally leavened breads calling for flour with a 11.5% protein range. Ours is a blend of premium high altitude winter wheat with a soft and strong gluten structure.

When we say we’re bringing dessert, this is what we mean. Our holiday-worthy galette is spiced with cardamom and made waste-free using crystallized ginger, apple sauce, and more from the store

If you’re just getting started with baked goods or sourdough, AP is where you want to start.

Whole wheat flour: retains the entire wheat kernel (bran, germ, and endosperm) for higher fiber and nutrient density, and a denser texture. Finely milled with a high protein content of 12.5-13.5%, ours comes from Giusto’s brand and is a versatile whole wheat flour for converting all your favorite recipes to whole wheat.

Bread flour: contains a higher protein content for forming stretchier gluten and a higher rise and chewier crumb. At around 16%, our heritage wheat bread flour has the highest protein concentration of any flour you can find in the U.S.

Rye flour: strong in flavor and low in gluten. Use it with other flours that contain more gluten (like wheat) when making breads that need to rise.

Buckwheat flour: a naturally grain-free and gluten-free flour made from a pseudo-cereal. Buckwheat flour is ideal for health-focused baking with a nutty, earthy flavor. Use it in buckwheat pancakes, waffles, and muffins.

Almond flour: lends a moist texture and rich, buttery flavor to cakes, cookies, muffins, sweet breads, and other desserts. Perfect for gluten-free recipes.

Gluten-free flour: great for gluten-free breads and baked goods. Our Bob’s Red Mill GF flour is made from garbanzo bean flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, whole grain sorghum flour, and fava bean flour, without any added gums.

Prepping your sustainable pantry

Fall is a great time to clean out your pantry, make sure your yeast and baking powders haven’t expired, and pull warm spices to the front for quick use. We already have a full guide to building a sustainable pantry, but here’s what you need to get organized for the busy baking season from fall through the holidays.

Apple everything right now, especially when it’s this maple butter & apple tart by @aleighmichelle 🍏

Baking essentials:

Instead of running to the grocery every time you want to bake, have the essentials on hand so you can bake all season. Here’s a helpful checklist for shopping everything you need completely zero waste at re_ grocery:

• AP flour
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Active dry yeast
• Sugar or coconut sugar
• Brown sugar
• Butter
• Honey
• Pumpkin puree
• Peanut butter
• Spices:
  • Ground ginger
  • Cinnamon and cinnamon sticks
  • Nutmeg
  • Allspice
  • Cardamom
  • Cloves
  • Poppy seeds
  • Vanilla beans
  • Pumpkin spice blend
  • Star anise
  • Turmeric
• Add-ins:
  • Raisins and other dried fruit
  • Peanut butter chips
  • Dark chocolate or semi-sweet chips
  • Walnuts, pecans, or other nuts
  • Pepitas and other seeds
• Cooking wares:
  • Compostable baking cups
  • Aluminum foil
  • Parchment baking paper
  • Compostable cling wrap
  • Spice shaker

This guide should get you started with the tips and essentials for your most organized baking season yet. For more inspiration, check out some of our favorite cozy recipes on the blog, like seedy adventure bread, persimmon candied ginger galette, and shortbread Christmas cookies.