> From: Corgisews <corgisew@redsuspenders.com>
> Subject: King Arthur Bread Classes
> Date: Sat, 03 Mar 2001 21:55:36 -0500
> Has anyone attended the current (or past for that matter) group of
> classes offered by King Arthur Flour at different locales around the
> country? ...
> What did you think of them? Are they most useful for newcomers to bread
> baking and/or have things of value and interest to those with more
> experience but still with a lot to learn? Is there time for questions,
> discussion afterward, or do they usher you out after the 2 hour time is
> up? How far ahead should one arrive if one is partially deaf and would
> like to be sure to get a good seat where she can hear well? Are they>
> given by freelancers or by people who normally live in the NH/VT area
> and are directly employed by KA? Do they come with samples for tasting,
> discounts, coupons, offers for local stores, etc for their audience?
I meant to answer this one earlier, I hope I am not too late to be useful.
Some of it may be similar to other replies, but I'll just plow on through my
own recollections.
My mom and I went to two classes (same day) in Pittsburgh last summer,
taught by Michael Jubinsky. The Sweet Dough class was in the early
afternoon, and the Sourdough class was in the evening, in the same room.
Jubinsky travels around the country quite a bit doing this for KA, I don't
know if he's a KA employee per se, but he had his wife with him, plus a KA
person, plus the local Pittsburgh-area wholesale rep was also there.
Jubinsky lives up near KA so it's not like he was local to Pittsburgh.
I thought the classes were both worth attending, just for the chance to see
someone going through the processes, and listening to their descriptions and
tips. Mr. Jubinsky is also an engineer-who-bakes (as I am - he is retired)
so that was a nice little irony. I can't really say that I learned any
earth-shaking new secrets or methods, but even just as reinforcement of
things I was already doing, it was useful. The best "new" thing I learned
was that if you've got a "bucky" dough that doesn't want to roll out (such
as for a pizza crust), you can SMACK the dough on the counter, surprisingly
hard (hold onto one end and just flail it down as hard as you can, so that
the rest of the dough just thwacks onto the counter) and it will "shock" the
gluten and temporarily relax it. Try it, it works! I am a fairly
experienced baker though, so maybe for a newer baker, it would open up more
new ideas about the bread-baking process. At the very least, you get a
first hand look at some good technique, plus they give out a very nice
recipe booklet that I've kept on my counter right next to my KitchenAid,
there are some good recipes in it. Among the tips and recipes in it, it
contains illustrated step-by-step diagrams for both four-strand and
six-strand braids, which is probably worth going to the class for all by
itself! <GG> The book also has a 50c coupon for any bag of KA flour on the
back. You get the same book for all of the classes, it has all the recipes
in it (in effect you get some of the info from the other classes, even if
you aren't attending them or they aren't offered).
At the class you also get a couple of packets of yeast as a freebie (SAF
instant), and they have drawings (you get a numbered ticket when you go in)
for a bunch of door prizes, ranging from dough whisks and aprons to bags of
flour (I didn't win any, alas!). I did get a dough-scraper for answering a
"trivia" question correctly (baking-related, of course). In the sourdough
class, in addition to the SAF yeast, they gave everyone a packet of Lalvain
LA-4 starter, which in the catalog sells for like $6, so that was very nice
of them too. They tell you which grocery stores are sponsoring the class,
which are ones that (duh) carry KA flours, and you get a bit of a pitch
about "if your store doesn't carry us, go talk to the manager" etc. But
they get that over with at the beginning, and it's not like the class is a
big commercial (although most people there would probably already agree that
they prefer using KA flours if they can get them).
They set up an overhead-mirror deal, plus the teacher is miked for sound, so
while the audio didn't seem to be a problem (the speakers were all in the
front though, on poles if I recall correctly), you had to sit along the
center aisle if you were going to be able to see what was going on in the
mirror. Only the first row or two had a good "direct" view of the work
table. The seats toward the outer edges would not have had a good angle for
the mirror at all, and for people way in the back, I doubt they saw much at
all. The room filled up quickly both times, I was there early enough to sit
where I wanted, but you better plan on going a good hour early at least, and
take a book or something. Call the venue ahead of time and ask what the
seating capacity is for the room where the class is to be held. There were
probably 300 or 350 people in the room where we were (it was one of those
ballroom/conference room deals in a suburban hotel), and while there may
have been a few seats empty in the afternoon class, there were none at all
left in the evening one. It looked to me like a lot of people had come
directly from work -- a surprising number of Guys In Suits.
There was time at the end for questions, and I don't recall being rushed out
the door at all, although that may be more dependent on the venue and
whether they need to close up the room or use it for something else. The
only thing that was a "bummer" was that they weren't allowed to give out the
doughs they'd made (lots of people were willing to take them home to bake!),
because of some sort of health regulations. I guess they were just going to
bake them in the hotel's kitchen and let the staff eat them.
So all in all, my mom and I give it Two Thumbs Up :-) . I would have paid
a registration fee to attend something like this, and even in my own case I
drove a hundred miles (each way) to be there. It's really quite a nice deal
for KA to be offering these things for free. I am sure a lot of the people
who attended the classes with me went directly from the hotel to the nearest
Giant Eagle to buy bags of KA flour to go home and bake with!
Eileen Lehner
central PA
3/19 2235est