Professional baker's blog
Imagine yourself arriving in a new country. You don’t speak the language; you have left behind everything you know. Immediately upon arrival, you need to find shelter. Then you need to find work, so you can feed yourself and your family and start to meet some of your daily needs. This scene, scarcely imaginable for most us, plays itself out daily and has done so ever since people began coming to North America looking for a better life. Immigrants continue to arrive today in great numbers, bringing with them highly refined skills. The baking industry in the United States especially reflects this, with immigrants contributing greatly to the regional “flavor” of baking wherever they settle. More »
In a recent article for Baking Buyer, I covered, at a fairly high level, the fermentation process, which, at its most basic, is yeast converting a food source (simple sugars) into energy (for the yeast) and giving off as by-products CO2 gas, alcohol, and acid. This process is the same whether you are fermenting cabbage for sauerkraut, barley malt for beer, or wheat flour for bread. More »
King Arthur Flour and technical baking consultant Michael Eggebrecht were well received by a group of more than 35 bakers who attended Michael’s recent class “Craft Baking: A Professional Approach” for the Upper Midwest Bakery Association. More »
Recently in our bakery customer requests for more whole grain breads gained enough critical mass to move us toward a restructured bread menu. Our transition process began with brainstorming: what are potential products, what could the new schedule be, what could be taken “off-menu” to accommodate the new items in order to maintain current production volumes, what efficiency opportunities could the new items bring? And then, on to the design process for the new products. More »
If you have ever looked at Certificate of Analysis (COA) for a particular lot of flour delivered to your bakery, no doubt you would have seen values for protein, moisture and ash. In addition to these, you might also have noticed “falling number.” In this short article this term will be demystified and you will come to understand why it is critical to the success of your baking. More »
Welcome to King Arthur Flour's online community for professional bakers! We’re excited to host this meeting place for professional bakers from around the world, and to offer another way for you, our customers, to connect with King Arthur’s team of baking experts. More »
