Tag: 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!

Learn to BAKE!

A beautiful and delicious bread to brighten your day

One of my all-time favorite Bakehouse breads will be available this coming weekend, May 3 and 4, at the Bakeshop and Deli! Feel free to order ahead to be sure to get yours. I’ll be picking up a couple for our house! James Beard once said: “Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.” This baguette from the Bakehouse supports his statement in a big way! Tear off a chunk and eat it, either as is, or spread with a bunch of that Vermont Creamery Cultured butter we’re carrying at the Bakehouse, Deli, and Roadhouse. Even the thought of it is making my morning, and giving me a good reason to be eager to get to the weekend! Baking with chestnut flour is wholly uncommon in the 21st century, but it’s got a long history in Italy, France, and central Europe where chestnuts were used for all sorts of cooking. Chestnut flour was what people who couldn’t afford the more costly wheat would work with. It was popular in Liguria, the region of the Riviera, where Rocco and Katherine Disderide, the Italian immigrant couple who built the Deli’s building in 1902 came from. In that sense, I feel like the Bakehouse’s Chestnut Baguettes have come full circle. To make the baguettes, we work with local chestnut flour from the folks at Treeborn, about half an hour or so west of here in Jackson. We blend that with freshly milled Michigan hard red spring wheat. No commercial yeast is used—just the flour, filtered water, and sea salt—to give us this naturally leavened baguette. The loaves are truly the color of chestnuts. The flavor is nutty, full, subtly sweet, with a long, lovely finish. I love it with the Creamery’s goat cheeses (the City Goats have been particularly great lately)! It’s wonderful, too, with the Creamery’s Manchester cheese. Toast and top with olive oil and fresh Bellwether ricotta. The toasting brings out the natural sugars in the grain in a wonderful way. Unfortunately, chestnuts in the U.S. fell prey to a massive blight in the early years of the 20th century and were almost totally eradicated. Lucky for us, Michigan has been the center of the American chestnut revival over the last decade or so. The good news is that our state is currently the country’s leading producer of chestnuts. Maybe when the ZCoB hits its 100th anniversary in 2082, local license plates around these parts will say “The Chestnut State.” And, maybe, this beautiful baguette will become one of the state’s signature dishes—something travelers regularly take back with them to demonstrate what is possible when good people do good work in the world!

Pre-order for pick up at the Deli

P.S. If you want to make the baguettes at home, the recipe is in the Zingerman’s Bakehouse book on page 228. To keep up with the buzz on all of the latest happenings in the Zingerman’s Community, follow us on social media: @zingermanscommunity on Instagram and Facebook, and @zingermans on X (formerly Twitter).

A beautiful and delicious bread to brighten your day on August 18 & 19

One of my all-time favorite Bakehouse breads will be available this coming weekend! You can buy a Chestnut Baguette (or two) on August 18 and 19 at the Bakeshop and Deli. Feel free to order ahead to be sure there’s a loaf waiting for you. I’ll be picking up a couple for our house! James Beard once said: “Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.” The Chestnut Baguettes from the Bakehouse backs up James Beard’s statement in a big way! Baking with chestnut flour is wholly uncommon in the U.S. in the 21st century, but it’s got a long history in Italy, France, and central Europe where chestnuts were used for almost all sorts of cooking. Chestnut flour was often what people who couldn’t afford the more costly wheat would work with. In Ukraine, chestnuts are considered a symbol of prosperity, fertility, and also longevity. (The story there, which dates to the 19th century, is yet another example of Russian imposition and acting with anything but grace, followed by creative Ukrainian resistance.) In the Lunigiana region of Tuscany, wheat was grown on the valley floor, so the only flour readily found in the mountain areas was ground from locally grown chestnuts. The region has long been known as “The Land of the Moon and the Bread Tree”—the latter is a reference to the chestnut. The typical Casola Marocca bread of the area is now enshrined in the Slow Food Presidium. Chestnut flour-based breads were also popular in Liguria (the Italian Riviera), where Rocco and Katherine Disderide, the Italian immigrant couple who built the Deli’s building in 1902 had come from. In that sense, I feel like the Bakehouse’s Chestnut Baguettes have come full circle. Unfortunately, chestnuts in the U.S. fell prey to a massive blight in the early years of the 20th century and were almost totally eradicated. Michigan, I’m happy to say, has been the center of the American chestnut revival over the last decade or so. To make the baguettes, we work with local chestnut flour from the folks at Treeborn, about half an hour or so west of here in Jackson. We blend that with freshly milled Michigan hard red spring wheat. No commercial yeast is used—just the flour, filtered water, and sea salt—which means that the baguettes are naturally leavened. The finished loaves are lovely, the color, in fact, of chestnuts. The flavor is nutty, full, subtly sweet, with a long, lovely finish that pairs well with an endless list. The baguettes are great with the Creamery’s fresh goat cheese or Manchester cheese. Toast a slice and top with olive oil and fresh Bellwether ricotta and some chestnut honey. If you toast slices on the grill to pick up a bit of woodsmoke, that’s wonderful too. Or just tear off a chunk and eat it as is! Treeborn is located in the Rogers Reserve, land that was donated to Michigan State University by Ernie and Mabel Rogers in 1990. Determined to right what had gone so wrong in the American ecosystem, the Rogers gifted the land for the express purpose of supporting the revival of the American chestnut. Treeborn today has the only commercial chestnut peeling line in the Western Hemisphere, technology that makes this work possible. As of the 2012 U.S. Census of Agriculture, Michigan is the country’s leading producer of chestnuts. Maybe when the ZCoB hits its 100th anniversary in 2082, local license plates will say “The Chestnut State.” And this beautiful baguette will be one of the state’s signature dishes, something travelers regularly take back with them to demonstrate what is possible when good people do good work in the world!

Pre-order for pick up at the Deli

P.S. If you want to make the baguettes at home, the recipe is in the Zingerman’s Bakehouse book on page 228.

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Baking can be challenging—even for professionals. Our BAKE! class instructors, who’ve helped countless bakers improve their skills with our hands-on baking classes over the years, were brave enough to share their baking mishaps with us. You’re not alone!

Read Carefully and Double Check
“I was trying a new recipe for a syrup based amish pie. Something went REALLY wrong! I think I added a leavener that was not supposed to be in there. When I put the pie in the oven, the filling started bubbling like lava and then foamed up and poured all over the bottom of my oven. It started a fire and the house was filled with smoke. It took me months to get my oven clean!” – Arie

Stay Focused
“I messed up many recipes as a young teenager because I loved to talk on the phone and bake at the same time! Yes, it’s a bad idea. It made me the master of leaving things out, putting ingredients in twice and sometimes only doubling half the ingredients in a recipe. Disaster! These days I rush too much…and then things are not disasters but aren’t quite perfect and the process isn’t so fun.” -Amy

Know Your Tools
“I broke a mercury thermometer in the sugar syrup for making Italian buttercream, before I had ANY IDEA what I was doing!” -Sara

Use Great Ingredients and Taste Before You Bake
“The night before Thanksgiving years ago, I was making a pumpkin pie. I made a crust from scratch and was very proud of it. I had to use an off brand pumpkin puree because the store was out of the good stuff. I had it all mixed up and poured it in the shell. Then I tasted the filling and found it DISGUSTING! I tried pouring it out of the shell, but made a mess. I was so mad I just tossed the whole thing, went to the store, and ended up buying a pre-made pie shell and filling.” -Nikki

It Takes Practice
“I once tried to make Cardinal Slice but I didn’t know what I was doing. My meringue wasn’t stiff enough, my ladyfingers were extremely sloppy as I did not know how to pipe them. The whole thing was a mess!” -Sue

“A labor of love.” That’s how Robyn Eckhardt, describes the process of producing her new cookbook Istanbul and Beyond. A journalist by trade, Robyn and her husband, photographer David Hagerman (who took the gorgeous photos for the book), traveled throughout Turkey for 16 months in search of the country’s best food—along the way they met plenty of generous locals who invited them into their kitchens to share meals and recipes.

Istanbul and Beyond, as the name suggests, covers more than just the food found in Instanbul, Turkey’s cultural capital. At her recent demo classes at BAKE! (the hands-on teaching bakery at Zingerman’s Bakehouse), Robyn explained that she and David wanted to go “beyond” Istanbul in very specific ways. For one, they wanted to challenge preconceived notions that Turkish food is just one thing, instead linking the country’s diverse cuisines to their respective regions. It was also their desire to take their readers beyond the parts of Turkey that are most commonly visited by foreign tourists and Turks, alike.

The book, and Robyn’s demo, spanned from the Black Sea to the Syria-adjacent Hatay region to Hakkari, which borders Iran and Iran. Each area has it’s own culinary traditions, reliant on topography and what is able to be grown and produced locally. Near the Black Sea, for instance, the climate is similar to that of the American Pacific Northwest with its cool, damp climate and lush greenery. Fish is the main protein here, but cows also flourish thanks to large grazing pastures, making dairy a big part of the diet. Corn is also a popular staple, and dishes like Cheese Fondue with Corn Flour are popular in the eastern Black Sea Region.

Fields of hazelnuts grow in the Giresun, a Black Sea city known as Turkey’s “hazelnut capital”, and Kadayif Cake is a result of the abundance. “Almost every pastry chef in Giresun has a version of this cake, and they serve it with dense Turkish ice cream,” says Robyn.  The dessert is a mixture fine pastry threads called kadayif, skinned hazelnuts, milk,  butter. It’s drenched in a simple syrup while still hot, resulting in a moist, not-too-sweet treat.

While cows are plentiful in the north, the southeastern Hakkari has jagged hills and mountainsides perfect for goats and sheep. There’s also not a lot of farming land available, so foraging for greens and the plethora of herbs that pop up in spring is necessary. Robyn represented the cuisine of this region with Meatballs with Pumpkin & Spice Butter—the meatballs, which are lighter than you might expect, are made with ground lamb, rice, minced onion, and a bit of ground dried chiles and dried purple basil. Tomato paste gives the broth depth, and the sweet mildness of the pumpkin cools down the slight spiciness of from chile. This dish was a favorite.

The most common bread in the east and southeast is pide, a thick, chewy bread that’s shaped into circles and ovals or longer, thinner shapes. Bakers add their own flourishes to the bread, decorating it by pressing on it with their fingertips and topping it with sesame or poppy seeds. It’s used for dipping and served with meze.

Perhaps the most surprising of the dishes was the delicious Sun-Dried Tomato and Pomegranate Salad from the Hatay province. Visually stunning, the salad starts with a layer of sun-dried tomatoes, which are topped with pomegranate, red bell pepper, fresh mint and salty white cheese, like Bulgarian feta or ricotta salata. The dressing is a pomegranate molasses that’s poured on right before serving. Robyn says she got the recipe from a friend, who serves it as a Hatay-style breakfast, but she thinks the vibrant red and green might make a nice Christmas dish.

Want to add more great recipes like this to your repertoire? Take a BAKE! class! Check out the full schedule here. And don’t miss another great guest chef—sign up for the BAKE! email class announcements.

We teach hundreds of classes every year at BAKE!, but there’s no denying it: it’s really exciting when a big-time chef comes around. Our latest culinary star visitor was Barbara Lynch, the Boston-based chef who owns Barbara Lynch Gruppo, an eight-restaurant empire. She’s also a James Beard Award winner and the only American woman to hold the title of Grand Chef Relais & Chateau. She’s got a full plate.

While introducing Barbara at her recent BAKE! cooking demo (she also cooked a special fish dinner at the Roadhouse!), Bakehouse managing partner Amy Emberling remarked, “You must have more energy than I can possibly imagine!” The chef’s response was a simple, “Yeah.”

Barbara’s no-nonsense attitude—and great memory—is part of what made her class so fantastic. As she demoed some of her signature dishes, she regaled us with some seriously cool stories (some of which appear in her new memoir Out of Line), including meeting Julia Child while playing hooky in high school and then later crank calling the beloved chef (it wasn’t intentional—she just got too scared when Child answered). The two eventually connected in a meaningful way once Barbara started cooking professionally. She even got to eat chocolate cake with her idol, a memory she really treasures.

One of the most fascinating things we learned during the class, which started with delicious bite-sized Tomato Tarte Tatin, was that Barbara, who is renowned worldwide, is a actually self-trained chef. “I read a lot of cookbooks,” she told us, citing Alain Ducass as an early influence. “I have no college, no business background.” She does admit to having a thriving bookie business for a while, though.

Her Poulet au Pain was the most memorable dish of the day. Quite simple a whole chicken wrapped and baked in bread dough. Fresh rosemary livens up the flavor. Michelle Carter, the Executive Chef of Barbara Lynch Gruppo, sliced into the golden brown bread to reveal juicy chicken and a fragrant mirepoix, a sauteed medley of carrots, onions and celery. While demonstrating her process, Barbara broke off a piece of the dough to allow us to see that it, in fact, was a bread dough rather than a difficult pastry dough. She encouraged any intimidated would-be home cooks that overworking the dough isn’t an issue.

Barbara finished the class with her Creamy Vanilla Bread Pudding, which is a Lynch family favorite as well as a signature dish at her restaurant No 9 Park. Barbara advised us to double the vanilla in this and all recipes and admitted that she doesn’t particularly enjoy baking. “I hate the feel of sugar on my hands,” she told us.

When one audience member marveled at how delicious and seemingly simple the recipe was, Barbara summed up her take on home cooking. “I want to take the mystery out of cooking because it shouldn’t be hard,” she said, explaining that she does her best to simplify the process for the everyday kitchen. “Why would you want to cook like a chef at home?”

Sounds fun, right? Want to take a class at BAKE? Check out the schedule! Want to meet other great chefs like Barbara? Sign up for the BAKE! enews to keep up with special appearances.