Twenty Years of Terrific Teaching at BAKE!
A wonderful upcoming class on crafting French baguettes
One of the things I enjoy most about my job is watching people who know only a small part of the ZCoB ecosystem grow exceptionally delighted as they discover segments of our work about which they had, up until two minutes earlier, no idea.
Sometimes they come across Miss Kim and can’t get over how good Ji Hye’s cooking of traditional Korean recipes is. Other times it’s finding out we do amazing Food Tours to places like France, Korea, and Ireland! Or they bump into the business books—one guest last week from halfway across the country read about us in Dan Coyle’s terrific new book, Flourish; intrigued, he ordered a copy of Building a Great Business … and then, even more intrigued, he ordered some baked goods from Mail Order. Then he came to town for a football game and, of course, visited a bunch of the businesses while he was here. He took a stack of signed business books home with him, and is now interested in tapping ZingTrain’s teachings to help his already healthy organization. For a food-loving businessperson, stumbling on the ZCoB like that is quite a happy surprise. In essence, I realize this guest unconsciously followed the Erwitt Method as well. So many layers of learning and discovery, so much to love.
Perhaps best of all, though, on the discovery list is seeing how happy people are to find out that we have our very own baking school. If you don’t already know it, it’s called BAKE!, and it’s just 50 feet up the walk from the Bakeshop. Anyone who bakes; anyone who likes sweets or loves to eat artisan bread; anyone who’s looking for a fun, food-focused activity—when they hear about BAKE!, they’re like kids getting a chance to spend a day with Charlie at the Chocolate Factory, or big baseball fans attending Tigers Fantasy Camp. Then they actually go to BAKE!—almost everyone I talk to loves the classes they took. They’re thrilled to head home afterward with both a new appreciation of the work the Bakehouse bakers do every day and a backseat full of freshly made, amazingly aromatic baked goods. The bottom line? PEOPLE LOVE BAKE!
This year marks the 20th anniversary of BAKE!, and, as with nearly everything here in the ZCoB, it began with a vision—written 20 years ago, in the summer of 2006. Here’s an excerpt:
BAKE! is Ann Arbor’s community center for the appreciation of making, eating, and understanding baking as a life skill and craft. The environment at BAKE! is teeming with the excitement and energy of newfound learning. Children, teens, adults, families, and co-workers come together here to share the joy of learning to bake bread and sweet stuff. We all leave feeling a desire to share in the making and eating of great food.
Sure enough, what the BAKE! team wrote out two decades ago has come to delicious fruition. Check out the many dozens of classes we offer at bakewithzing.com.
One of our most beloved upcoming classes is Fabulous French Baguettes. Amy Emberling, longtime co-managing partner at the Bakehouse, was singing its praises to me just the other day:
The French baguette class highlights learning important basic techniques, and, for people who want to learn to bake, we do a great job of teaching foundational methods. (If you want to learn foundational techniques for pastries, check out the classes on Cinn-ful Cinnamon Rolls, Baking Pies a Plenty, and Coffee Cake Craft 2.0.)
And this comes from the class description:
In this class, we’ll teach you to make our traditional French baguette recipe—starting with a flavorful poolish (bakers call it a pre-ferment, it’s like a starter) and mixing up our bread dough. We’ll then go over the techniques of hand rolling and shaping the dough into baguettes, which we’ll proof and then bake to a crispy golden brown. Imagine serving breakfast to out-of-town guests and bringing out a perfect baguette that they swear must have been airlifted from Paris.
You’ll leave the BAKE! class with our French baguette recipe, the knowledge to recreate it at home, and the baked French baguettes you made in class as well as the dough you will make.
Like I said, customers love these classes! Here are a few recent compliments that came in:
It was the best class ever. What fun we had, and so full of knowledge.
The classes are organized, professional yet beginner friendly, the instructors are super knowledgeable, the atmosphere is welcoming, and the food is delicious.
So much fun! My baguettes turned out incredible—and I have increased my confidence.
Learned so much. The layout of the class was very educational. PLUS the staff is just so lovely and nice! Just made for an outstanding overall experience.
I asked Amy what people who’ve never been to BAKE! should know about the classes. Here’s her (pretty darned compelling) list:
Very hands-on! Whether in person or virtual, roll up your sleeves and dig in. This will help you learn the recipes.
Designed for home bakers of different skill levels! From those of you who have never touched a measuring spoon in your life to those who feel pretty accomplished and want to learn more.
Informative! Each class includes a discussion of ingredients and a time to taste in order to understand the value of using flavorful ingredients and using traditional methods in your baking and cooking. As we say at Zingerman’s, “You really can taste the difference!”
A comfortable way to learn! Whether in our classroom or your kitchen, classes are limited in size and include at least two instructors. You’ll get one-on-one instruction and all of your questions answered.
Guaranteed to fill your belly! Not only will you be tasting what we create during the class; you will create a generous amount of delicious baked goods to share with friends and family.
Fun! Of course!
Bonus: For in-person classes, we do all the measuring and cleaning up so you don’t have to!
Sign up soon before Baguettes sells out!
