Showing posts with label Classes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Classes. Show all posts
Saturday, October 5, 2013

King Arthur Flour - Live!

2:26 PM | Posted by Stephanie | Edit Post


Thanks to a friend bringing this tour to my attention, I took off work and attended a baking demo with King Arthur Flour yesterday - the people I consider the holy grail of baking.  Ok, with the exception of those famous French baguette & croissant bakers…  KAF does two tours across the States each year, once in the fall and once in the winter.  The demos are totally free, and you just have to show up.  It was two hours of watching one of the bakers, Bonnie, from their Baking Education Center, make an apple pie and a savory bacon & cheddar scone.  (They had another demo later in the day on whole grains and yeast breads, but unfortunately I couldn’t make it to that.)  Bonnie was great, she was funny and knowledgeable, and I picked up lots of great tips/got confirmation on some tricks of the trade I already knew.  So much fun – for the baking obsessed at least.

If you’re not familiar with this company and/or their flours, get familiar.  Not only do they produce great quality flours and tons of other baking products, but they also have a test kitchen where they develop recipes, an education center where they teach classes, a free Nationwide school program teaching kids to make fresh bread, a large retail store and even a cafĂ© so you can sit and enjoy breads and pastries that were baked just that morning.  Sounds like a perfect day trip to me!  Granted they are located in Norwich, Vermont and I’m in DC, but thankfully with my parents living in MA, I think I’ll find myself there sometime in the near future.  However I do fear that I might just apply for a job on the spot and suddenly be moving north… 

Check them out:  www.kingarthurflour.com


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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Bread Class at Hill's Kitchen

12:16 PM | Posted by Stephanie | Edit Post


Last weekend it was cold and blustery (as it seems to be on a regular basis here in DC these days), so it was the perfect day to take a cooking class! I headed on down to Hill's Kitchen (http://www.hillskitchen.com/) for a class on Overnight Breads. Mmmm, warm fresh bread with butter, doesn't that just make you cozy thinking about it?

Since my recent trip to Paris, I've been thinking that I need to make more bread. Have you ever looked at the list of ingredients on a loaf in the store - what is all that stuff?? Bread shouldn't have in it much more than what you can count on one hand, give or take a couple things, depending.....

The class was taught by Jane Griffith, a local baker who has known the owner of Hill's Kitchen since she was a little girl. She had moved out of the area for a while to study with a baker in the Berkshires, but now she's back and making bread for local bakeries. This was only her second class and I have to admit, it was obvious, as the instructions were a little scattered and confusing at times. But it was also obvious that she has a vast amount of knowledge regarding tips and techniques and the chemistry of bread-making. She showed us how to make two kinds of bread - a whole wheat made in a dutch oven and an oatmeal loaf.

She talked about the "revolution" that is starting to erupt in the US - finally we are starting to realize that the old-school artisanal European bread makers have got that shit down, and perhaps its time to emulate what they're doing! My mom is a phenomenal bread maker and has been as long as I can remember. Recently she told me of one of her techniques for making a nice crust on baguettes - open the oven on occasion and spritz some water in with a little spray bottle. Wouldn't you know that the teacher in this class told us that European breads are often so good because they use steam ovens? Way to go mom, you just gained even more credibility! The extra moisture from the steam helps keep the bread moist on the inside and give it that crunchy crust that keeps you coming back for more. God, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.....

Here are a few great resources for bread making if you're willing to give it a shot:

- Beard on Bread by James Beard
- Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson and Eric Wolfinger
- Artisan Breads Every Day by Peter Reinhart
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Sunday, May 2, 2010

Wines of France

8:53 PM | Posted by Stephanie | Edit Post
If you like wine and have never heard of Washington Wine Academy, you should take a look at their website (www.washingtonwineacademy.com). They are a great little company that was founded about 11 years ago.  They offer lots of classes for anyone from the serious wine connoisseur looking for a Certification to the enthusiast that may just want a down and dirty 1-Hour cram session.  

I've participated in a couple Volunteer events for them over the last year or so (including the Washington DC International Food & Wine Festival) and it's always a good time.  You go and help organize or pour wine for a couple hours and as payment you get into the event free of charge - not a bad deal!!

This past Thursday I took one of their 1-Hour Sessions, called the Wines of France, in their new Wine Education center in Crystal City.  How can you learn all about French Wines in an hour?  Well, obviously that's impossible, but I did learn a bit about each of the wine growing regions and what types of grapes are grown in each.  Even though it's a classroom setting, it's pretty informal.  The instructor lectures but questions are welcome at any time and at the end when you tastes the wines (we tasted 6) it turned into more of a back and forth banter with everyone.  The best part was that the class was just over $20 - I've taken MANY classes in the DC area and this is by far the least expensive with no lack of quality or information.

So check them out - they promise a summer full of fun activities...perhaps I'll see you at one of them!
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