The 3 most popular bread recipes of 2020




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If anything, the lockdown gave rise to and sustained the social media phenomenon of home baking.

If you key in the catchphrases “banana bread” or “sourdough” into any of your social media account searches, the results will amaze you. Millions of people were sharing their tips and tricks on how to perfect your bread during the earlier months of the year.

Chef Bontle Molefe said most people had the time to try all the things they have always wanted to try, and had the opportunity to learn new things and involve the whole family.

Pumla Brooke-Thomae said it was a good idea for many of us to try out new habits during the Covid-19 outbreak for two main reasons.

First, new habits could be used as a coping mechanism, and second, new habits could help prevent negative thoughts and panic and work as therapy, which is much-needed during this outbreak.

We look at some of the breads that were popular during the lockdown.

Sourdough

There is something magical about sourdough, the glorious loaf that magically rises from water, flour and salt.

In an interview with cookbook author and baking aficionado Grace Stevens, she said sourdough bread became popular during the lockdown, in part because we had the time to connect with our food, and because we needed more of a challenge than banana bread.

Sourdough, she said, was the champion of bread and was used for delightful rolls, delicious doughnuts, and divine pizzas.

Here’s our favourite sourdough recipe.

No-knead bread

Thomae said that no-knead bread was perfect for beginners. She said they were a great way of experimenting with baking as they took out the hard work of kneading.

“The beauty of no-knead bread is that they are a matter of throwing all the ingredients, wet and dry, into one bowl then waiting for the dough to proof until doubled in size and baking right after that, with minimum mess.”

Here’s our favourite no-knead bread recipe.

Banana bread

Banana bread became the unofficial baked good of the coronavirus pandemic. Everyone, it seems, was making it. I often asked myself whether some of us were even self-isolating if we did not make banana bread.

But it’s no surprise because it had all the psychological ingredients for lockdown success. Made of very ripe bananas, sugar, butter, eggs, flour, vanilla and a raising agent, banana bread is quick to make. It uses baking soda rather than yeast to help the bread rise as it cooks. Once the batter is mixed together, it is ready to bake.

Here’s our favourite banana bread recipe.