Baking at home a new Turkish delight
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ISTANBUL — Melek Aydin is winning a loyal online following with her tips on bread-making beamed out from her apartment in central Istanbul.
“I appreciate your attention to preparing the sourdough, kneading the dough, and waiting for it to be yeasted,” Aydin told her followers in one session broadcast live on her Instagram account. “You did a pretty good job.”
Now, it’s time for each of them to put their loaves into the ovens as they keep pace with her instructions.
Aydin has been increasingly busy with her online posts that explain the intricacies of making bread at home, as many Turks have stopped going out to buy the staple amid the concerns over COVID-19.
“To be able to answer all the queries, I am posting videos on my Instagram account, showing the details of the process, and I am regularly broadcasting live,” Aydin said.
She has found that after people learn how to make a loaf of regular bread, many prefer to try out alternatives, such as whole-grain or multigrain varieties.
“The fast-food habits in society have begun taking us toward obesity and other aspects of an unhealthy society,” she said. “But I think we have now entered into a period of awareness in that sense, as people start to cook at home.”
According to a report from technology giant Google, the number of internet searches related to homemade bread in Turkey increased by 500 percent in April.
Gizem Gulmek Sapan, a 29-yearold newly married Istanbul resident, is among those who have learned to make several types of bread by following the videos and tips of some professionals online.
Her interest in making bread started when the outbreak became widespread in the country nearly two months ago. Since then, her family have stopped going to bakeries due to their concerns over hygiene.
“The worst part of cooking bread at home is that we eat a lot,” she said, noting that flour consumption in her household has increased significantly. “I am buying at least three packets of flour per week.”
Sales of bread in Istanbul plunged by at least 35 percent in March due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as residents turned to their own kitchens, Erdogan Cetin, president of the Istanbul Bakery Chamber, recently told reporters.
However, Cetin said it’s hard for people at home to capture the same quality and taste of the bread made in stone ovens in bakeries.
“But the health of our citizens comes first for us,” Cetin was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu agency. “This process will end in 15 days or a month, and after that, everything will be back to normal.”