Aesthetic Snack-Hour Ideas

Something about making the little tasks in my daily routine aesthetically pleasing puts me in an amazing mood. Even sitting in my University room, having a coffee and a snack whilst studying. Both making a delicious recipe and owning some really nice cups and plates can add to this aesthetic. You can practically hear the soothing indie/folk music in the background and the rain on the window. I am no food blogger; I do not generally come up with my own recipes. What I do is either look on google or pinterest for a recipe to try. For this week, I tried a recipe by Bigger Bolder Baking. The website is full of excellent recipes to try for many aesthetically-pleasing dishes. I specifically searched for Rolled Oat Cookies because they tend to contain less gluten, which frequently upsets my stomach. The full instructions can be found here. But, first, I will outline the things I did to add to the aesthetic of this so-called ‘snack hour’, both in the process of baking as well as eating! 

Making An Aesthetic & Spiritual Atmosphere

The first requirement is certainly to start with a tidy kitchen. It's very easy to be put into a depressed state by untidy surroundings. Simply making your environment look aesthetically pleasing can do a lot to boost your mood. Secondly, I would recommend playing music while you bake. The images of my result definitely give me Roslyn vibes by Bon Iver and St Vincent, as well as any calming indie music. To add to this calming mood, you could even light some candles, especially if they give off calming scents. Once you have finished baking, you should then set up another aesthetically-pleasing space to enjoy the finished product; I took my cookies to my tidy bedroom which was nicely decorated. I got cosy with a blanket and paired the cookies with a hot drink. In this case, it was coffee; yes, like everyone else, I am addicted! I also added some fairy lights to further add to the mood, and, of course, used some aesthetically-pleasing and photogenic plates and cups. Mine are from the Fox & Ivy range in Tesco. The last thing I did was spray my calming room spray. All this makes baking and relaxing with the finished product somewhat calming, spiritual, uplifting and aesthetically-pleasing.

 

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recipe summary

The ingredients that Gemma lists on her recipe include: 1/2 a cup of butter, sugar, brown sugar; 1 teaspoon of vanilla and cinnamon; 1 egg’ ¾ cup plain flour; ½ teaspoon of salt and baking soda; 1 ½ cups of rolled oats. I omitted the raisins because I didn't have any on hand. As a summary of Gemma’s post, first you combine the dry ingredients. Then combine the butter and sugar. Next, add the vanilla extract, then finally, add the dry ingredients to the bowl, folding them in and not over-mixing. Small teaspoon sized balls are then placed onto a baking tray and cooked for up to 10 minutes at 190 Celsius. Overall, my cookies turned out a lot flatter than hers, but that wasn't a problem at all. Mine were also chewier instead of gooey, but that is something I enjoy. I would advise putting very small balls onto the baking sheet because the cookies got very large, meaning I had to cut them up into squares. The smell really added to the aesthetic in a weird sense, especially the notes of cinnamon. I enjoyed them listening to my music and doing some work, pairing it with a cup of coffee. It definitely amounted to a Pinterest-worthy aesthetic scene!

 

CALMING PLAYLIST

AESTHETIC SNACK IDEAS