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Zingerman's Bakehouse offers over 70 classes on how to bake almost everything.
They host the classes in very beautiful classrooms in this building, near the outdoor
seating area where you can drink coffee and eat pastry from the retail bakery. |
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| In the classroom Len and other students were preparing for the rye bread class, which lasted 4 hours. |
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| A wonderfully well-equipped space for learning to bake! |
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| Nikki, the instructor. |
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Lots of bread and other good things for sale in the bakery, which is
definitely one of the most famous places in Ann Arbor! |
Specialty bakeries that combine traditional ingredients and methods with reasonable innovations have been growing in popularity for the last 25 or 30 years. Zingerman's Bakehouse started in 1992. and was definitely a leader in the trend away from boring soft white bread! Just this week, the Guardian had a long article,
"Flour power: meet the bread heads baking a better loaf" by Wendell Steavenson about current research that may lead to better bread by developing better wheat.
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At the end of class, participants take home their bakes: two loaves of onion rye, two loaves of pumpernickel, and
a flatbread called Vorterkaker, which is a Norwegian 100% rye. |
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| For our dinner: open-faced sandwiches on the three breads. |
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Vorterkaker with cream cheese and cilantro sprigs. Pumpernickel with butter, tomato, and smoked salmon.
Onion rye with butter and hard-boiled egg slices. What great breads! |
Although he's tried quite a few bread recipes and has been making bread frequently, Len found this class enjoyable and a good learning experience. Classes at Zingerman's are very popular and sell out quickly. Some of Len's fellow students had taken classes there before: one had taken over 20 classes! For more information see the class description of "
Rockin' Rye Bread" on Zingerman's website.
This blog post © 2019, maefood dot blogspot dot com.
Cool! Those rye bread loaves look really good.
ReplyDeleteI spy Len there~! That's the woman who taught my cake class. Looks incredibly fun and reminds me of when Rick came home with lots of bread. You ate well that night. I think you always do!
ReplyDeleteWell, I wish I lived in Ann Arbor now! I would definitely sign up for a class at Zingerman's! Looks like a well equipped clean kitchen to learn in. I'm all for rye bread, and pumpernickel, in particular, it's harder by the day to find here in a store or bakery, which there are very few of, thanks to all the grocery stores now with "bakeries." And wish I were your at your dinner table for sampling those three breads!
ReplyDeleteThat looks like fun. Nothing like homemade bread.
ReplyDeleteHow lucky you are to have access to that!
ReplyDeleteWow, that's so cool. Enjoyed seeing the premises and the finished products. Delicious! (And we're both married to Lens.) :) But mine doesn't have the patience to bake bread. . .
ReplyDeleteWhat a great opportunity.
ReplyDeleteI would love to take a baking class. We don't have a store like this in my area, but there might be something else. I think I shall look!
ReplyDeleteI love baking my own bread though I've not tried to make any loaves with these more adventurous grains. It must be wonderful to start with a class in the Bake facility. It looks great and I admit to being envious!
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ReplyDeleteThat looks like a very delightful class and place. And this post should be linked to MondayMurals. ;)
Have a good week, Mae. :)