{"id":652,"date":"2019-12-11T12:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T18:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/?p=652"},"modified":"2019-08-13T11:34:24","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T16:34:24","slug":"what-holiday-treat-should-you-stress-bake-eat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/2019\/12\/11\/what-holiday-treat-should-you-stress-bake-eat\/","title":{"rendered":"What Holiday Treat Should You Stress Bake\/Eat?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the most stre-e-essful time of the year!<\/em><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it: the Hallmark movies they\u2019ve been showing since Halloween don\u2019t depict the real end-of-the-year hustle no matter who you are, whether you\u2019re a high school senior trying to finish your college applications before the end of the year or a college student with finals beating down the door. Even if you have everything under control, there\u2019s the stress of traveling, family gatherings, shopping, decorating, entertaining, and all those holiday parties you have to attend!<\/p>\n

Luckily, December is prime treat season. Now\u2019s the time to stress-eat or, even better, stress-bake. Stress-baking, especially to share with others, has actual psychological benefits associated with it, according to\u00a0science<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So take an application\/study break, pull out the baking sheets and cookie cutters, and whip up one (or all) of these stress-beating snacks!<\/p>\n

College app stress<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019ve got your Common App filled out and all you need to do is finish those pesky supplemental questions and essays, you\u2019ve earned yourself a decent break\u2014which means you have time to put into baking some delicious gingerbread cookies or sufganiyot.<\/p>\n

Depending on how well you\u2019ve budgeted your time, you can donate more or less time to your cookie-making break. You can use store-bought dough that\u2019s premixed or the kind you just need to add eggs and water to; you can make your own\u00a0dough<\/a>\u00a0but limit your decorating to the bare minimum or not at all; or you can go all out and make the dough and\u00a0frosting<\/a>\u00a0yourself and decorate each cookie with individual detail (if you really need to\u00a0procrastinate\u00a0take a break). What\u2019s great about gingerbread is that you should let the dough rest for a little bit, and watching an oven is no fun, so you can work on your apps during those times. Just don\u2019t forget to set a timer!<\/p>\n

Sufganiyot<\/a>\u00a0are time-consuming but delicious jelly doughnuts for Hannukah. What\u2019s great is that there\u2019s a long inactive period while making these because the dough has to rise. Set a timer for the recommended rising time (maybe add a five-minute buffer just to be sure) and work on your applications intermittently. You can be busy in the kitchen and keep busy at work too! (Here\u2019s a recipe for\u00a0baked sufganiyot<\/a>\u00a0in case you\u2019d like to be slightly healthier this season.)<\/p>\n

Exam stress<\/h2>\n

With exams, you probably just want to step away from everything for a few days, or better yet, just not take them at all. While this seems like a great idea, it\u2019s not really that possible. You\u2019re better off to take a short break to make a quick fudge or some candy.<\/p>\n

A lot of fudges are pretty easy to make and aren\u2019t that time consuming. You have to give them time to cool before eating, but let that be your incentive to study hard or finish your essay in a timely fashion and reward yourself with decadent fudgy goodness. And all you need for a lot of fudge is a microwave, a microwave-safe bowl, and a pan to put it in! You can find some simple fudge recipes\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n

There are also a lot of candy options. Again, these tend to require setting or cooling times, but that allows you to schedule different breaks in your studying. From a holiday twist on classic\u00a0muddy buddies<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0homemade gelt<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0microwave-made candy<\/a>, there are plenty of easy candy recipes floating around.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re super nice and your class is on the smaller side (not a 100+ person lecture of course!), you might consider bringing some to your final for your classmates. Unless there\u2019s none left of course!<\/p>\n

General holiday stress<\/h2>\n

This is for the Golden Students who submitted their college applications early and are cool as a cucumber about exams. This time of year can still be anxiety inducing with all the pressure surrounding the holidays, plus Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD<\/a>) setting in for some people. You might need a little pick-me-up, and making food can be great stress relief. That\u2019s why it\u2019s called\u00a0stress<\/em>-baking! Since you don\u2019t have to worry about being crunched for time, bake something delicious that will force you to focus on it for a while. Try making pie or maybe some truffles.<\/p>\n

When it comes to pie, the prep time is long, but the payoff is big. And there are so many different types of seasonal pies you can make, from an old-fashioned\u00a0pecan<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0apple<\/a>\u00a0pie to something less traditional like\u00a0eggnog<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0cookie<\/a>\u2014warning: the literal\u00a0best<\/em>\u00a0thing you\u2019ll ever eat!\u2014pie. If you\u2019re really bored (and creative), you can get fancy with the crusts.<\/p>\n

Truffles are delicious, addictive, and typically easy to make. However, they are a time commitment. They typically take at least an hour just to chocolate-coat them. But if you\u2019ve ever had truffles, you know they\u2019re worth it. You can find some recipes\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And remember, if you don\u2019t like baking, store-bought works just fine. Enjoy!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the most stre-e-essful time of the year! Let\u2019s face it: the Hallmark movies they\u2019ve been showing since Halloween don\u2019t depict the real end-of-the-year hustle no matter who you are, whether you\u2019re a high school senior trying to finish your college applications before the end of the year or a college student with finals beating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,11,15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-admissions","8":"category-holiday","9":"category-new-student"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/08\/Candids_Snow_Week_19FEB15_00071.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652\/revisions\/654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/graduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}