Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Baking Lessons at King Arthur Flour









My company, how2heroes, recently took a food field trip to Vermont to film some incredible how-to baking and cooking videos with the wonderful folks at King Arthur Flour. Baking Genius Susan Reid baked up a storm with the greatest of ease: Chocolate Coffee Cake (epic and live later today!), Grilled Asiago Rounds with Zucchini Caponata and Whole Grain Brownies. While we were shooting, we realized she had a couple great baking tricks up her sleeve so we also filmed 2 simple techniques videos: Cleaning & Seasoning the Grill and Pulling a Window Pane (watch to see what this is about!). Now that's a full day. Susan broke everything down with detailed instruction and great humor so we felt we could easily recreate her recipes which is a good sign that you will be able to as well.

The King Arthur test kitchen is a baker's dream. There are at least 6 ovens and many beautiful spacious work spaces with plenty of room for rolling out dough (aren't you always running out of space on your counter?!). The employee kitchen is right next door to the test kitchen so the lucky people who work there are constantly treated to test kitchen treats. I can see their job descriptions: "benefits include healthcare, vacation and all the baked goods you can eat." Not too shabby.

And for those of you interested in taking classes, King Arthur offers several for those who bake for fun as well as professionals. What a nice trip - travel up to Vermont, take some baking classes and eat the fruits of your labor.

Their store just down the street from the test kitchen is a baker's paradise. They carry all their different types of flour. Who knew there were so many kinds?! I bought the White Whole Wheat Flour for the Whole Grain Brownies as well as a few Danish dough whisks that Susan uses in the brownie and coffee cake videos on our site. It's the coolest thing. Just had to have it.

I thank Susan Reid and the wonderful, lucky people who work at King Arthur Flour for taking the time to teach us (and you) some amazing cooking skills we can all learn and take with us on our future baking adventures.