I waited for a full report on how the bread went over and she said, “It’s just delicious like my mothers, but the crust is a little hard.” To be fair to the bread, she was 81 years old. Most foods were a little hard to my Grandma. Irish Brown Soda Bread to me, is more than just bread, it’s a connection to my family spanning hundreds of years.

John Patrick Coyne, my Great Great Great Grandfather, owned the family coal mine in Galway, Ireland. The post-Great Famine world in Galway was one tainted with sadness, and there was much civil unrest in the country. If you’re not familiar with the Great Famine, it was when a fungus killed off Ireland’s most prominent crop, potatoes. The Great Famine left the island with one million dead, and sent another million people fleeing the starving country. This left the island’s politics, population, and culture forever altered. This tragedy also helped shape the future of bread in the region. Bread became a staple in homes lucky enough to have food across the country. A hearty bread like Soda Bread that was relatively easy to make and had few ingredients was a favorite!

John left behind his life in Ireland from the aftermath of the Great Famine, to come with a wave of Irish immigrants through Ellis Island in the 1890s. Like many Irish immigrants, he came to America looking for opportunity, and a better future for himself and his future family.  He went on to work as a bricklayer, served in World War I, moved to Ohio, and eventually married an Irish woman, Bridget Gajen. Together they had 8 children, including my Great Grandma Constance Margaret Coyne aka my family’s famous Irish Brown Soda breadmaker!

The Coynes- 1928

My Grandma was the military wife and mother of 5 that lived across 3 countries in her life. Unfortunately, she was not a big baker, she was more about meals of convenience for her busy family. So sadly I did not learn how to make the family soda bread. Though having never tasted my families version of soda bread, I can still picture the Coyne family in their cozy home in Ohio, sitting around the table enjoying a warm slice of fresh soda bread and hearing about John and Bridget’s lives in the old country. I can see Bridget teaching my Great Grandma Connie how to make the bread that would feed her future children, and allow them to feel a connection to the long history of their family. Because something as simple as a slice of soda bread with its complex texture, wonderful crumbly interior, and warm colored brown crust, could take my Great Great Great Grandparents back to the rolling green hills, and whitewashed stone houses of Galway. It allowed them to remember their lives before they came to America. That connection to their history, and mine, is something powerful and truly wonderful, and I think it’s something to be celebrated!

Knowing where I came from, and feeling a connection to my history through food is a vital thread that will keep me connected to my family always. It’s important for me to remember the sacrifice my Great Great Great Grandparents made leaving their home for the future of their family, that’s roots eventually spread far across the country and end up leading to me. I am left with the important job of carrying on their memories and keeping the connection to our history going by sharing their story and their connection to the humble Irish Brown Soda Bread. So this St. Patrick’s day I’ll remember my family, and be thankful for this unique connection I have to the past through a simple slice of warm Irish Brown Soda Bread.

Zingerman’s Bakehouse Irish Brown Soda Bread (pictured) is baked fresh daily March 1st-17th each year. Don’t miss your chance to try it. We’ve fine-tuned this recipe for years and really created something special. The key is the whole meal flour (what we call whole wheat here in the states) and stone-milled Irish oats we import from Ireland. It also has some local Guernsey Farms Dairy buttermilk, baking soda, and sea salt. It’s a whole grain bread with astounding flavor and satisfying texture. Try a slice with some Irish Kerrygold butter or fresh cream cheese and smoked salmon. Bread fans look forward to it all year!

Written & Photographed by Kelly Zelna, Zingerman’s Bakehouse

The post Bread Connecting Generations appeared first on bake blog.

With roots in baking, it’s no surprise that Ellie was on her way to becoming a well-rounded baking queen. “I learned the mix shift right after I started, its a really labor intensive and it’s a very detail oriented job. I got a good feel for how the doughs develop. I transitioned back to the bench last year, and then started baking at the ovens. So mixing would be my specialty for now and I’m working on the baking bread aspect. I also love doing cakes, I was a cake decorator at in a previous job and I actually did my brother and my niece’s weddings which was pretty cool! Outside of work cake decorating is probably my favorite thing to do.”

A self-described “late-bloomer,” Ellie started her path to Zingerman’s later than she would have liked. Regardless of how long it took her to get here, we’re so glad this is where she ended up! “I’ve worked here since April of 2015, so it will be three years in a couple months! I love it here and I love baking. My mom was a from-scratch baker, she was a homemaker and she made everything from scratch. I’ve always loved food but I was a little bit of a late bloomer when it came to actually making it a career. I had just graduated from the two-year program at Washtenaw Community College before I got hired in here. So it was sort of a change of life kind of transition for me which was really cool.”

Through her classes from Washtenaw Community College Ellie got a sneak peek into the bakehouse experience, which helped shaped her decision to work here.“ We came here to the Bakehouse on a tour for one of my classes. We sampled the rye bread. I used to hate rye bread, but I tried ours here and it was amazing! So they really turned me on to it and after that, I thought, alright, when I graduate this is where I want to work, so it was a really awesome experience. What made me want to work here was seeing the great food being made and tasting the food. I knew that we were doing something right when I tasted a bread I usually hate and I loved it.”

With experience in many areas I thought it would be hard for Ellie to answer what she loves best about working here, she surprisingly answered pretty much right away, and very enthusiastically as well! “ What I love best about working here now is really getting in there and baking at the big ovens! That’s the best. It’s hard work and I take a lot of pride in what I do. I really like to be able to go from the bench and shaping to actually taking the bread to the oven, baking it and seeing it come out, and really getting to apply my skills. I really love that.”

While she started her career later than she would have liked, she has no regrets, and encourages others to do what they love just like she did. “Follow your dreams! I used to work retail for a big box store and sort of jobs like that took up the majority of my 20’s and I didn’t really make the decision to start to do anything with food till I was 28. That’s when I started school. It’s never too late to do what you want to do. It doesn’t matter how old you are, if you want to do it and you have the opportunity just go for it. I have no regrets and I work for a really great company so it turned out really awesome.” The Bakehouse is very lucky to have this passionate and driven woman working with us!

Getting To Know Ellie

Do you have a favorite family recipe?

“Chocolate chip cookies are quintessentially my Mom. It’s so funny the recipes from the 1968 Betty Crocker cookbook but I’ve been able to play around with it to make it my own. After learning a lot about baking I’ve been able to tweak it and make them SUPER good.”

Favorite thing to bake?

“My favorite bread to bake at work is the French Baguette, I also really like eating French Baguettes. I could eat them every day. I love the smell after it comes out of the oven, it’s almost like a toasty cereal smell, its sooo good.”

Favorite thing to eat?

“My favorite thing to eat at the Bakehouse is the apricot hamantaschen. They are amazing. And then rugelach is also really awesome and pretty much any pastry that I can shove in my face is really great!”

What have you learned working here?

“I’ve learned a lot about teamwork. Usually, I can be a go it alone type person, but it’s really great to be a part of a team that is well developed, reliable, and everyone is on the same page.

Then everything I learned about making bread- how time sensitive it is, how to know if it’s proofed enough to put it in the oven, whether the mix has the right amount of water.”

Tell me about your work with Great Food Group

“The great food group is a Zingerman’s staff workgroup that promotes the bottom line of great food. We do tastings at every meeting of new foods that are developed. We also organize events for when food producers visit us or we visit them. We just went to Bon Bon Bon in Detroit, it was a really awesome experience. We got to do a little class there, and we got a tour of their production facility in Hamtramck. I loved it, it was so fun! Really it’s about making sure everyone is excited about the new food we’re making and selling in the zcob, and making sure the stuff that we make and sell stays great.”

What’s next for you?

“The next thing I’m going to learn is the rye bake which is really one of the biggest ones. I would like to be a supervisor in bread someday. If the opportunity were to come up where I could transition into different departments that would be really cool! Baking pastries, making cakes, I would love to do any of those things.”
 

You’ll be a master of everything!

“YEAH!”

By Kelly Zelna, Bakehouse

The post Baking is in her blood appeared first on bake blog.

I have the solution for you: Zingerman’s Bakehouse Townie Brownies! If you haven’t tried one, allow me to convince you to.

I would describe the experience of savoring the fluffy, smooth, deliciousness of eating a Townie Brownie as biting down on a soft pillow of chocolatey goodness to find the pleasant surprise of substantial, flavorful chocolate bits at the bottom of the brownie. This brownie is the full-bodied chocolate experience you’ve been looking for!

These wondrous chocolate delights suffer from none of the common gluten-free mistakes. The power of the Townie Brownie, like many Zingerman’s food, lies in the quality of the ingredients. This feat of culinary perfection is made with a combination of amaranth and quinoa flour, chosen after a process of trial and error, specifically to give it the smooth, grit-free consistency.

To solve the mystery of the missing moisture in many gluten-free foods is a 4-point attack plan of egg whites, butter, sugar, and the choice of using chocolate and melted chocolate over cocoa powder, which can contribute to a lack of moisture. Now we’ve come to the star of the Townie Brownie, the chocolate! The highlight of this chocolate marvel is a generous amount of chunky squares of Callebaut chocolate.

Now what gives the structure of the Townie Brownie that perfect chocolatey flavor is melted Valrhona Satilia Noire 62% dark chocolate mixed into the batter.

For me, I especially enjoy a Townie Brownie on a day I’m not feeling 100%. Chocolate and chocolatey treats take me back to memories of spending summers at my Grandparents’ mountain house in North Carolina. Like most Grandparents, mine spoiled my brother, cousins and I at every opportunity on those summer trips. From Gummy’s (we call our Grandma Gummy), cookies, cinnamon rolls, and brownies, to a simple bar of chocolate she always provided us with a variety of sweets! After a long day of getting lost hiking due to Gumpa’s (our name for Grandpa) disastrous sense of direction, Gummy would reward all of us with our own full sized chocolate bar, which as a child was the coolest thing ever, since we all were used to having to share our candy with siblings. We all were a little in awe of this simple bar of chocolate thinking, “This chocolate is just for me and I can eat it ALL if I want to!” The Townie Brownie is much more deliciously complex than the simplicity of a bar of chocolate, but it still reminds me of those hot summer days riding home in the back of Gumpa’s truck, enjoying a simple square of chocolate.

The recipe for Townie Brownies can be found on page 190 of the Bakehouse cookbook! And lucky for you the amaranth and quinoa flour, as well as the Barry Callebaut chocolate chunks, can be found in our Bakeshop!

Written & Photographed by Kelly Zelna, Zingerman’s Bakehouse

The post Talk of the Town-ie appeared first on bake blog.

When I left I did some accounting work, and other office work, and I really missed the physical aspect of the job, and I missed making things, and the joy of baking. When you do accounting it’s fine, and I still really love numbers but nobody is really excited that you crunched that number. But when you bake something and specifically pastries, it’s a treat, and they really like it and it brings them joy and then that brought me more joy. So that’s when I decided I wanted to go back into baking, so I sought out Zingerman’s, because we had such a great reputation in baking. I had been to Zingerman’s Deli and I enjoyed their food, so I started pursuing a job here.”

Knowing Zingerman’s reputation, Nina knew that this was the place she wanted to be, “Once I got here I knew it was the right fit. I enjoyed the culture and that I was recognized for my work. I was able to move up. I’ve never thought about leaving, I’ve never considered, “oh maybe there’s a better bakery for me.” Once I was here I knew it was the right spot. It kind of encompassed sort of everything I was looking for in a job.”

Let me explain Nina’s role here is now. As Nina puts it she “Manages projects rather than people” which is very different from her former role as pastry kitchen manager. She works as part of our administration team working out things like large-scale policy changes, our staff training passports, and making sure that all our departments have some opportunities to have a little fun while we’re at work. Which we all appreciate! The most exciting part of her job for Nina, probably for any Zingerman’s food lover, is her work on product development! When we choose to make a new pastry, Nina works with Amy and Frank (bakehouse owners) and the pastry team to develop. This takes many iterations and Nina does the legwork on the recipe until we get it just where we want it. This past year she worked on many new items, but only a couple were good enough to make the cut: chocolate babka (available now), tahini banana bread and tahini croissants (both coming in January 2018).  Nina worked on two new desserts for Zingerman’s Delicatessen’s 2017 Paella Parties, and is working on some top secret desserts for Miss Kim, the Zingerman’s Korean restaurant.

One of Nina’s favorite opportunities here was a once-in-a-lifetime trip where she got to eat her way across Hungary in preparation for creating new Hungarian foods at the Bakehouse. “One of the most fun parts of working here for me was when I went to Hungary. There were 8 of us and it was the perfect working vacation, our itinerary was planned out by our meals! We would have breakfast and then go to pastry shops, and then we would have lunch and then some more pastries or go to coffeehouses. It was just the weirdest thing to never be hungry, we’d show up to dinner and none of us were hungry and none of us really wanted to eat again but we would order all of this stuff to try. The Hungarian food that came out of our trips there is really great and something to be proud of. Not many places in the US are making them. It is something really special and unique. It was really special to be a part of that trip, and the experiences we shared together were a lot of fun!”

During my talk with Nina I asked her a really tough question for a Zingerman’s 15-year veteran, “What are you most proud of from your time working here?” After some time going over all the positions and opportunities she’s had she was able to narrow it down for me. “In all of my time here I’m most proud of the work I did in the pastry kitchen. I’m really proud of the pastry kitchen and what it’s become, how great we are at making so many different things. To make a coffeecake versus making a croissant are night and day different processes and we do them both every day 363 days a year really really well. We do some pretty intense quantities sometimes too. We have all worked together to make something great.”

Nina also has an essay included in our Zingerman’s Bakehouse Cookbook! “I’m thrilled about an article I wrote that’s in the new book. I’m super proud of Frank and Amy for that huge accomplishment and I think that it’s really special for anyone that’s ever worked here to have this book out there, because I do feel like it encompasses what it feels like to work here. I’m really happy to have a part of my views of the bakehouse in there.” Her piece in the book is all about the daily tastings that our bakers, decorators, and cooks are trained to do every day. Be sure to check out Nina’s contribution to the book (Pg. 50)!

Part of Nina’s tasting talents comes from her love for her favorite Bakehouse chocolate treats in a variety of forms. “Like many people that work here my favorite foods here are not finished foods, so they’re a version of it, or that food in the raw form. So my hands down favorite thing to eat is the brownie batter, it tastes like brownie ice cream and it’s delicious!” Eating raw batter is enjoyable to Nina but it also has a function. “I will say that the few times that I have remedied something missing from the batter has come from the many times I have tasted the batter raw. I can tell it’s off and we’re able to fix it and not lose a batch!” Can you imagine getting to taste all of our brownie batters as part of your job?! It sound’s amazing to me and I work here!

I’m not an Ann Arbor native, actually, I’m not even close to a native. I’m from Central Florida. I grew up hearing about Ann Arbor over the years from my best friend’s Dad who went to University of Michigan. Over the years he mentioned the most amazing sandwich shop ever, which you guessed it, was Zingerman’s Deli. That was my only knowledge of Zingerman’s. Fast forward to my move to Michigan and getting a job here at the Bakehouse, it shouldn’t still surprise me the way that every Zingerman’s employee talks about their jobs, and their love of Zingerman’s culture, but it still does. There’s something really special about this group of food-loving people, and Nina is no exception!

She had nothing but great things to say about Zingerman’s, her time here, and of course, the always inspiring Frank and Amy (Bakehouse co-owners). “ What I like most about working here is the people, I love the food, I love Ann Arbor, I love the dynamic of Zingerman’s in that we’re a community of businesses that support each other. But honestly what keeps me coming back are the people that work at the Bakehouse. I’ve always admired Frank and Amy, and how they manage the business, and how they manage people. It’s never been a cold business, it’s never been only about the food or only the profits, it’s been about the people that work here, and developing great relationships with people. I love all the people that work here, there are tons of people that have worked here as long or longer than I have an having these work relationships that really feel like friendships that have endured for over 10 years. With the people that come and go it’s really exciting to see that as well, lots of people come in with enthusiasm, or come in without knowing how to bake at all, or they take a job over the summer in high school and then they develop a passion for baking and it’s really exciting. Helping people develop their skills, or their ability to plan a day or organize numbers, or whatever it is, the people are what make the job really great.”

More getting to know Nina:

Where are you from?

“I was born and raised in River Rouge, which is downriver, then I moved to Pinkney which is about 35 minutes away from ann arbor, it’s a really small rural town. When I was in high school if we went somewhere it was to Ann Arbor, so I spent a lot of time here and I sort of call it my second home for many years. Now I prefer Dexter, because it’s a little less busy ever since I had kids, besides from working here we only come here for the great food Ann Arbor has to offer. I have a dog she’s a golden doodle and she is equally as energetic as my children are, so that’s exciting. We enjoy camping, I like to spend as much time as possible at the beach because my kids love water”

What do you do when you’re not at work?

So when I’m not at work I’m with my family. I have two children. I like to spend a lot of time with them, we like to go places and do fun things, I like to be involved with their school and the community as well. I’m either spending time with my immediate family or my extended family, all of my brothers but one live in the area, my parents and my inlaws live like 20 minutes from my house, I’m very family oriented. My youngest daughter, just started kindergarten so I’m sort of entering a new stage where I have more time than I did previously.

By Kelly Zelna, Zingerman’s Bakehouse

The post There’s No Better Bakery For Me appeared first on bake blog.

In September Nikki will be celebrating her 6 year anniversary working at BAKE! Unlike many others who work at BAKE!, she didn’t start out at the Bakehouse and as she put it “started from scratch” learning the Zingerman’s culture. Nikki always knew she wanted to teach, and started off going to school for elementary education. However, she had a passion that equaled her love of teaching: cooking and baking. She loved teaching and baking so much that she hoped one day she could somehow combine her two passions. Spoiler Alert: she did, and we are the better for it!

“Ever since middle or high school I knew I wanted to teach something, but I really loved cooking and baking as a kid as well. Then I was slowly going to school, for elementary education and paying as I went. I was living in Arizona, and my boyfriend at the time suggested culinary school, because I was always cooking and baking and watching the “Food Network”. So I checked it out and saw I could have school done in a year, so I decided to go for it. I worked at a pizza place in high school and that was my only culinary experience before going to culinary school so I was starting out fresh. I worked at some different restaurants and universities as a pastry chef. I really liked when I got to train staff members. After a few years, I knew I really wanted to teach baking. So I went on to combine my two passions.”

Growing up in Ann Arbor, Nikki was no stranger to Zingerman’s. “So I’ve always known about Zingerman’s since I grew up here. My first job was for food delivery by phone and we delivered from the deli, and we ordered food from there every once in a while. One day I was looking at job postings for baking and cooking instructors and I saw the posting at Zingerman’s Bakehouse for BAKE!  I didn’t even know that BAKE! existed so when I saw Zingerman’s Bakehouse Baking Instructor I got super excited! After I saw the posting I applied like an hour later. After I went online and saw all the classes and topics I was so excited, to work at a place like Zingerman’s and to teach baking would be amazing! Pretty much my dream job. What really made me want to work here was the reputation that Zingerman’s has. We’re really well known around the world and we use really high-quality ingredients. After getting to observe a class I just thought it was really well run and to work at a place that already had a really great reputation would be good.”

When I asked Nikki about her teaching style her answer was as earnest and sincere as she is, “I wonder if students think I’m being fake or if they know I’m this excited about what I’m teaching and making. I kind of go crazy in cookies and brownies and I almost wonder if I’m kind of obnoxious but I really just love making that stuff! So I would say that my teaching style is being as enthusiastic as possible, especially when it’s some of my favorite items, and getting students really excited. And trying to think of new ways to explain something, because I’m so used to doing some things in the professional description but I try and think of it in a way that the students can relate more. I think my teaching style is being as excited as possible to get the students excited. Teaching by enthusiasm. If that’s a style.”

Nikki has a special love for the decorating classes, and her passion and talent for decorating REALLY shows. “I’m probably more the decorator here at BAKE!, although we all teach all the classes. So I do like to teach the bread classes but I would say out of everything I really love the decorating classes. So whether it’s fondant or buttercream or cookies, I just really love decorating.” Watching Nikki create beautiful, realistic flowers with a piping bag in the BAKE! class I took, Tips with Tips: Basic Cake Decorating is how I imagine it would be to watch Van Gogh paint his famous Fifteen Sunflowers. An onlooker wouldn’t be able to see the vision that’s crystal clear inside the artist’s head, but once they get to work, creating effortless flowers and embellishments, their vision becomes clear to you and you’re left awestruck by the simple, graceful strokes of the paintbrush, or in this case piping bag. Nikki simply is an artist, she creates beautiful temporary works of art, whether it be through cake decorating or bread making. And isn’t it kind of wonderful that we get to take part in her temporary art? It’s more than the Zingerman’s motto of tasting the difference, it’s seeing the difference, and appreciating the craft and beauty in someone’s work. If you take a class with Nikki you’ll catch her enthusiasm and passion for baking, and get to fully appreciate a true artist at work.

Q & A with Nikki

Favorite class to teach?

“It’s really hard to pick one favorite class. I think for fun I like Creative Cookies, because it’s decorating cookies with fondant and icing. It’s just a blast. And any class where we teach pie dough. I think is the most satisfying as an instructor because a lot of people are intimidated by rolling out pie dough. I love when people leave class saying pie dough doesn’t scare me anymore!”

Favorite thing to bake at home?

“My favorite thing to bake is cheesecakes, but I don’t make them often, unless I’m going to someone’s house. I can’t have all that cheesecake at home! The most impressive one I’ve ever done, and it’s such a pain,  is a triple chocolate. You divide it into three, you melt milk chocolate in one, white chocolate in one, and dark chocolate in one and then carefully layer them. You don’t want it in swirls so when you cut it you can see those distinct layers. It’s a pain and you go through so many dishes! But it’s so so pretty! And delicious.”

Favorite Bakehouse food to eat?

“Picking a favorite thing to eat here is so difficult. Country scones and apricot rugelach.”

What you’ve learned at BAKE!?

“I’ve definitely learned teamwork, from working in a small team, it has challenges.
Also, I’ve learned about using better ingredients here. I’ve worked at some places that use box mixes, like when I was working at a university and I had 30 cents a student to spend on making food so here I’ve definitely learned about using better quality ingredients. Learning the Zingerman’s way of life, it took some getting used to, and then it kind of spoils you and now I’m scared to ever leave! Because no other place will be like this. I think teamwork, and having this kind of culture is really amazing.”

Hobbies:

“Besides watching Princess Bride? I love other movies. I love TV shows, probably a little too much. I’m also really good at getting knots out. My main hobby is hanging out with my son.”

By Kelly Zelna, Bakehouse

The post “Teaching By Enthusiasm” appeared first on bake blog.

Although Arie attended Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island to earn a baking and pastry arts degree, he always knew he would come back home to Michigan. He knew he wanted to work for Zingerman’s (lucky us!), so after living on the east coast for just over 4 years Arie’s road to Zingerman’s came through a recommendation from a Chef instructor, Mitch Stamm, who was actually a former pastry manager at the Bakehouse. When I asked Arie how he feels about Zingerman’s now after working here for 4 years, he had nothing but great things to say. “At Zingerman’s I love the community. Everybody is so happy to give, share knowledge, and help you learn. It’s a very supportive place to work. Here at BAKE! I love all the students. I love learning new techniques and sharing new recipes, I love learning myself, but also getting to pass it on to students is really cool. It makes my day when they’re excited about what they’ve learned.”

Arie’s love for baking can be traced back to his childhood when he started baking around 4 years old. “It’s actually one of those things… I don’t really know, it’s just all I’ve ever wanted to do. I started baking when I was 3 or 4 years old with my Mom and Grandma, and I always loved it. The first gift I ever remember getting for Christmas was a set of purple measuring cups. I still have them. Baking has always been my passion.”

Arie is also passionate about continuing to learn, which makes teaching BAKE! classes a perfect fit for him. “I saw a really cool opportunity to learn, you learn a lot when you’re teaching, and then as I met more and more students, I realized how great an opportunity it was, what a unique space this was, and how much I could develop my knowledge here. I’ve learned a lot, not only through baking but through teaching, and interacting with people as well.”

I have only had a few experiences with Arie because I’m a new member of the Bakehouse team, which has been a really great experience so far but at the same time it’s a little intimidating! There’s so much to learn and remember. I had the pleasure of taking a BAKE! class as part of my training, Tips with Tips: Basic Cake Decorating. In class, I discovered I am absolutely terrible at cake decorating. The woman next to me was dazzling the class with her ribbons and shell work, and I was somehow managing to clog the piping bags (a problem no one else was having) and making very sad, droopy shells with my icing.  Arie was assisting in my class and made me feel better about my noticeable lack of icing skills, similar to how he handled a student having a difficult time with her pie crust. “I had one student who I was teaching to make pies. Rolling pie dough can be really tricky, and you can get frustrated with the little cracks. I had a woman that was almost in tears she was so frustrated, I managed to kind of get her feeling a little better about things, and get her in the groove and I gave her some tips on how to fix the cracks in her dough and all that. She actually emailed me about a month later and said I inspired a new family pie tradition. She was so impressed with herself at the end of class with the simple tricks I showed her that she makes pies every week now and she’s teaching her family to make pies now. It was good to hear the techniques we’re teaching are getting people in the kitchen at home.” I think BAKE! Is very lucky to have such a passionate and dedicated teacher who loves his job, and will be a lifelong learner.

Getting to know Arie, the lightning round:

Favorite class to teach at BAKE!:

   “Soft Pretzels or Scrumptious Scones and Buttery Biscuits.”

Favorite thing to eat at the Bakehouse:

   “Indian Strudel is my absolute favorite, no doubt about it.”

Style of teaching:

   “It’s very informal. I don’t just speak to the students, I like to have them come up front to my table and touch the dough. I’m just low key and mellow, throw a couple jokes in there and get everybody loosened up a bit.

His expertise:

   “I’ve done a fair amount of bread baking in my career, and a lot of savory items like pizza, knish, and empanadas, all at a couple different bakeries and some hotels. I go into the science of baking as well, get really in-depth with ingredients and explore what they’re doing.”

Advice for students:

   “Buy a scale! It’s more accurate and actually easier to weigh ingredients than using volume measures.”

Interesting facts about Arie:

   “I love motorcycles, along with baking the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do is ride motorcycles. Now I’m working on learning how to do maintenance on them.

Over my lifetime I have played 7 or 8 different musical instruments, I’m a very musical person. Violin, guitar, bass guitar, mandolin, a little clarinet, trumpet here and there and few others.

I used to play hockey, and I grew up going to Red Wings games. I’m a huge hockey fan! Baking, motorcycles and hockey are my big passions.”

By Kelly Zelna, Zingerman’s Bakehouse

The post “It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.” appeared first on bake blog.