I occasionally wonder if the obesity epidemic isn’t exacerbated by kitchen appliances. This thought generally accompanies either pastry making or the beating of egg whites. As I’ve mentioned before, I use an old-fashioned pastry knife to cut butter into my pastry dough, instead of a food processor. I use one of my other favourite kitchen tools, my egg beater, to whip egg whites or cream. Both activities usually involve a break to take off my sweater or roll up my sleeves. They’re a surefire way to warm up on a cool day.

All our labour-saving devices are great, but I wonder if we weren’t better off having to put more effort into our treats. Back in the day, when you had to grow the wheat, harvest it, grind it; milk the cow, make the butter; and mix everything together by hand, I expect the caloric output involved in making a cake was about equal to the intake of eating it.

Now, we can just drive our cars to the grocery store and buy as many treats as we’d like. I would easily fall into this trap, as I have a terrible sweet tooth. But many years ago, I decided that I would bring no treats into the house, unless I made them myself. And I make sure I have to work for those treats by using my hand-powered tools instead of electric appliances.

Does it help? Who knows. It can’t hurt, though, and it makes every cookie, cake, and bar special, because I had to work for it.