If being shut at home all day is making you crave more carbs, you aren't the only one. Or, perhaps you are just making use of all the extra time you have on your hands and brushing up on your baking skills.
Well, that surely seems to be the case for Turkey.
Now that more and more Turks are staying home, in line with the government's social distancing measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus, whether to kill time or to just have a go themselves, many households have started baking – more than usual at least.
People have been increasingly preferring to make their own bread since they now have more free time and consider it to be more hygienic.
Independent market research company Ipsos revealed that household consumption of flour in Turkey rose a whopping 98% in March compared to the previous month. Similarly, people bought 80% more yeast in comparison to purchases made in February.
Despite bread sales falling 35% in Istanbul, Erdoğan Çetin, the chairman of the Istanbul Chamber of Bakers, said he wanted to give some advice to citizens who plan to make their own at home.
"Good bread is made from good flour. I recommend they try products such as rye, whole wheat, multigrain and hard wheat flour. We use ready-made yeast as we do industrial production but if they have sourdough, they should try making sourdough bread. Making sourdough, however, is no easy feat; it requires expertise and experience," he said.
Meanwhile, according to Google Trends, searches of terms such as bread, yeast and related items showed a significant rise during the last days of March.
On Instagram, there is clearly a baking craze going on. People are sharing photos of their home-baked goods under related hashtags such as #breadmaking, #quarantinebaking, #baking and #homemade. #Stressbaking also seems to be rising in popularity.
Cakes, sweet biscuits and Turkish classics like poğaça (a savory pastry) and simit (Turkish bagels) seem to be the most popular choices, aside from bread.
