What to Have in Your Baking Pantry to Fight Inflation & Bake In-House

1. Food coloring

I always keep a lot of food coloring on hand. This is mostly used for playdoh, but we do use it in frosting. 

2. Frosting and sprinkles

I always keep the little packets of frosting and sprinkles that come in boxes for cupcakes or cakes or cookies because we'll use them. 

3. Cupcake liners

I always keep cupcake liners, both big and small, on hand. We make a lot of cupcakes and muffins.

4. Semi-sweet chocolate chips

I keep a lot of food in our basement storage, but I go through chocolate chips so quickly, and I don't want to have to run up and down the stairs all the time, especially when I'm in the middle of baking. I’ve got minis and white chocolate too. 

5. Cinnamon

I always have to keep cinnamon on hand. That goes into so many different things. We also add it to pancakes all the time. So always cinnamon. 

6. Salt

Of course, you need salt. I go through a lot of salt. I use this in all the bread that I make, all the dough that I make, pizza dough, yeast, rolls, everything takes salt. 

7. Peanut butter

Peanut butter goes in so many things, especially in the recipes that I find on Pinterest. We use it in cookies. Almost every single cookie recipe that we like calls for peanut butter. 

8. Baking powder

Baking powder, of course, that's something that typically is in my baking essentials box. 

9. Baking soda

I also have baking soda that stays in this box. It's used in a lot of sweet baking.

10. White sugar

Of course, regular white sugar because we go through so much of that. I also always keep an extra bag of sugar downstairs on my storage shelf because we go through it so quickly. 

11. Vanilla extract

I started buying that in bulk at Sam's Club because it's such a good price, but I always keep vanilla on hand. 

12. Baking cocoa

I like to just get mine from Aldi. I don't go through this fast enough to buy it in bulk, so a little one makes the most sense for me. 

13. Crisco

I use this in cookies. I go through most of this during the holidays. I also fry a lot of things in Crisco, like our doughnuts and rye bread and things like that.

14. Raisins

I keep raisins in the house only for oatmeal raisin cookies or cinnamon raisin bread that I make. It's so good. 

15. Quick oats

I always keep quick oats around. There are just so many different things you can do with oatmeal, so I always keep that on hand. 

16. Applesauce

Applesauce, when it's not opened, is shelf stable, usually for about a year or two. Once you open it, it's no longer shelf stable because you need to put it in the fridge. One of our favorite muffins that we make is applesauce muffins. They're so moist because of the apple sauce. 

17. Coconut flakes

We use coconut flakes a lot when we bake. We started making cowboy cookies which we love. 

18. Yeast

I buy this in bulk from Sam's Club. I store my yeast in my fridge after I've opened it. It holds it best that way. My yeast that is not open, I store in the freezer for the same reason. It just helps store it longer. 

19. Nuts

Nuts are something that you do have to be careful with because nuts do go rancid. I don't buy nuts in bulk because I don't go through them fast enough.

20. Self-rising flour

I did start keeping just a little bag of self-rising flour on hand. I make little dinner rolls that call for self-rising flour so I keep it in my baking essentials box.

21. Powdered sugar

This is another thing I buy in bulk from Sam's Club, and then I just store it in Mason jars as needed. We use powdered sugar every time we make cream cheese frosting. 

22. Honey

I did mention honey earlier, and I do keep honey on hand. I get my honey from Aldi. It's pretty cheap, and it works well in my bread recipe. 

23. Brown sugar

I buy this from Sam's club. This is another thing I buy in bulk. It's the best price. We use so much brown sugar, especially around the holidays, we put this in our ham recipes. 

24. Oil

I would highly recommend keeping some sort of oil on hand, whether it be vegetable oil or olive oil. I like gallon containers of vegetable oils because they're a pretty great price. I do use pure olive oil in my bread recipes because that's what I prefer. 

25. All-purpose flour

Then, of course, the last thing, just some all-purpose flour. You need this for almost every baking recipe. I keep 40 pounds of all-purpose flour on hand at all times because of that reason. 

Baking pantry essentials

That’s everything I keep in my pantry so I have all my baking essentials on hand at all times to make as much as I can from scratch. Keeping your baking pantry stocked will help you to make more from scratch which will save you money.

What other items do you keep in your baking pantry? Share your must-have baking essentials in the comments below!