The communal oven

It's been almost a week since it was eid ul fitr. I must admit that I don't enjoy festivities as much as most other people do, probably due to being overstimulated, as I have autism. I just thrive on the daily routine. But for the sake of the children I really try to do my best. It does take a lot of rest to recover somewhat though, which is probably also why I took a break from blogging. 

That being said, I do love doing the preparations- which is a lot of baking! This year I didn't bake as much as previous years, due to flour shortages. Still, I baked quite a lot. But I have a lot of in laws and love to share with others. Most of the cookies I bake in our oven, which is kind of small. Which is ok, because I just do batches. Cookies don't take that long to bake so it's not really an issue to bake multiple batches in a row.      However, there's one type of cookie which isn't baked in our oven. And if you thought I was talking about a no bake recipe, you were wrong. Because it's being baked in *a* oven, just not our oven. And it's not just us, it's something commonplace here. At the end of ramadan you'll see people walking with these huge baking trays full of what we call bachkoutou (biscuits), bringing them to the local bakery to be baked. Since there are so many people that bring their trays at the same time they'll number the trays as not to exchange them accidentally. Although people make them a bit different in terms of additional ingredients, all bachkoutou usually looks a bit the same. Our bachkoutou was made by my husband with the help of the children, just like they did last year. It's a bit funny how this is really the most simple cookie when it comes to ingredients, yet the most laborious to make. 

To make them you need a meat grinder - which you can also use for making cookies, (as long  as it has a star template). In fact, we haven't ever used our meat grinder to grind meat! This grinder especially is a bit tough to handle if you're not used to it, which is why my husband pitched in. Making bachkoutou is really a family event and for some families who make huge batches this takes multiple days. For us, it was "just" an afternoon- we only made one baking tray, which yielded about two kg of flour. Which is still a lot, in my opinion. 

This brings back a lot of memories for my husband for sure, which is perhaps why he enjoyed this so much. My mother in law would do the same when he and his siblings were younger. At that time, not a lot of people actually had ovens in Tunisia, especially the more impoverished areas of the country. So they made use of the local bakeries to bake their cookies. There were also other types of cookies which are being baked there, such as sablé (sandwich cookies with jam) and ghorayba (made with either sorghum flour or chickpea flour). My mother in law also had a special type of pan which she used when baking a cake. 

My conclusion is that living oven-free isn't that hard when you have solutions like these. But, it kind of is when the society is designed for people who have each and every appliance at home. Which brings me to another point, which is that people often don't have a lot appliances here, but instead borrow them, especially when it's things that don't get used a lot. Now don't get me wrong, I sometimes find this quite annoying - especially if people want to borrow your vacuum cleaner every single week. But I do understand why people don't bother to buy items that they're only using once a year. This includes meat grinders, zouza makers (another type of cookie, which is made in a specialised appliance), and baking trays. 

Borrowing, if done in the right way, helps you to stay away from overconsumption, cluttering up the house and the environment, and spending too much money. It also creates stronger bonds between people, in my opinion. No wonder it is something which was done from generation to generation, with the exception of these modern days. I truly hope that even though countries are getting more modern, the tradition of communal ovens will stay.