I’ve had the opportunity to take a couple of King Arthur Baking School’s classes in Norwich, Vermont. The classes are interactive, educational, and best of all – you go home with a few pastries or baked goods!
In February of this past year, my mom and I took the “Raise the Bar” class with King Arthur Baking Company in Norwich, Vermont.
Previously, we took their rustic pie course. Another phenomenal class!
I’ve made my fair share of bar cookies, but the in-person instruction helped to refine some techniques and allowed me the chance to ask questions.
For those who can handle their own in a kitchen (maybe with the help of a good cookbook and Google), why spend the money on a basic baking class, you ask? Read on to see why I think King Arthur Baking School classes are so great.
What is King Arthur Baking Company?
If you’ve ever used flour, you’re probably already familiar with King Arthur. Over the years, I have developed a greater appreciation for King Arthur Baking Company not just as my flour distributor, but as a resource for baking tips and recipes.
If you haven’t visited their website in a while (or ever), I strongly recommend checking out their baking tips and collections of recipes. The tips are geared toward the home baker, ranging in skillset and difficulty.
Their recipes are easy to follow, and typically use easy-to-find ingredients (the hard-to-find ingredients can be purchased right from King Arthur’s website!).
About King Arthur Baking Company School
King Arthur has a phenomenal baking school, with classes online and in person in Skakit Valley, Washington, and Norwich Vermont. In the last class I took, one of my classmates mentioned she had done the virtual classes before and loved them (next on my list!).
The school offers a variety of classes for bakers of all levels. There are a plethora of classes for the home baker, covering topics from bread making to cake decorating.
Classes fill up quickly, so if you’re interested make sure to snap your seat!
What does a class cost?
The cost of the in-person classes (which has increased slightly due to inflation) covers all materials, ingredients, recipes used, and instruction. The last time I took the class, I realized that the recipes aren’t published on their website. I thought this was neat, because it made it feel a bit more personalized and like we had some secret insight.
Most basic 3-hour classes start at $100 per person (as of March 2023). They have professional level classes, and also home baker multi-day classes that are more pricey.
What Happens in a King Arthur Baking Co. Class?
- Seating: First, you select your seat. Seats are in pairs, and so if you’re a “single” you might get your own bench or be with a partner.
- Recipes: Next, you’ll get a pamphlet with the recipes. Take a spin through them to see what you’ll be making!
- Ingredients: Most of the ingredients you need will be right at your station. You simply have to measure them out. Some ingredients, like butter, are pre-measured. Other ingredients (like melted coconut) might be shared amongst the class and portioned when needed.
- Instruction: The instructor will go over the recipes with you, and tell you how the class will approach each recipe. There are typically 2-3 recipes you’ll be making.
- Demonstration: The instructor will demonstrate each component of the recipe. You can see what they are doing on the overhead screen. They break up the recipe into components, and so it’s easy to follow along and take notes.
- Action! You and your partner will make the recipes component after the instructor demonstrates it. Some recipes require shared use of the stand mixer and dividing doughs, etc. However, each partner will end up with their own individual baked good to take home.
- Baking: The class helper will transfer your baked goods to the oven (labeled with names).
- Cleaning: The class helper ALSO helps to clean up the messes as they go along. keep your area neat, but they will whisk away ingredients you don’t need and bring new ingredients to your station.
- Sampling: Once the recipes are all finished, the instructor will slice up samples of the recipe they demonstrated for the class to try. This is awesome because you get a preview of your baked good!
- Boxing: At the end, they will help you box up your baked goods in cardboard containers (depending on the class) that are easy to transport.
Six Reasons I love King Arthur’s Baking School Classes:
1. They’re a great thing to do with a partner – Whether it’s your significant other, best friend, or mom. This is an interactive, low-stress, fun activity that takes up a morning. You’ll have the rest of the day to explore Vermont!
2. Classes force you to break out of your comfort zone with recipes and techniques. Want to learn to make croissants? What about pretzels? Bagels? These classes aren’t just cookies and cakes.
3. You can test out different equipment that you might not have at home. If you’re on the fence with buying a French rolling pin, pastry cutter, or even a stand-mixer, now’s your chance to try it out in-person. Even better, most of the goods used in class can be purchased in their store on campus.
4. You get to use top-of-the-line ingredients. As you would imaging, the ingredients used in class are super high quality. The vanilla extract used in class, for example, goes for a whopping $36.95 for a little six ounce bottle!! Is it worth it? You can decide for yourself after using it in a recipe.
5. The staff preps your station, cleans up as you go, and takes care of the actual baking. This makes for an incredibly pleasant, streamlined process that’s not hectic in the least (despite 16 bakers being in one room!). They put everyone’s baked goods in the oven and monitor the doneness for you.
6. The classes are hands-on, and you get a variety of baked goods to bring home. Some baking classes I’ve seen are demonstration-only. King Arthur’s classes are entirely hands on. You’ll even enjoy a sample at the end of the class so you won’t have to cut into your finished product (unless you can’t wait!).
Raise the Bar Baking Class – February 2023
The class my mom and I took in February was a bar-cookie class called Raise the Bar.
Here are my four favorite things about this class:
- We got to make three very different and unique bar recipes. Before the class, I thought we’d be making something like brownies (which I’d totally be happy with). To my excitement, we made three bars that are sure to please any taste bud: Jam Streusel Bars, Coconut Lime Bars, and Chocolate-Coated Toffee Bars.
- Each bar used slightly different ingredients and techniques. We made dough by hand using a pastry cutter and with the stand mixer. We used butter for some, and coconut oil for another. We used a variety of mix-ins, including walnuts, pecans, and toasted coconut. The recipes used similar techniques, but varied slightly so you picked up something new each time.
- The over-head demonstration helped teach us visual cues of when the dough was at the right consistency. Recipes are great, but they have this overhead camera that lets you peak right into the instructor’s bowl so you could watch as she prepared the dough.
- It broke me out of my comfort zone. I’m not typically much of a fruity, lime, or coconut person. I’m not saying the class *changed me,* but it reminded me that sometimes we need to branch out in order to keep the passion for baking. It’s easy to get bored and feel repetitive in recipes. I forgot how much I loved a raspberry streusel bar!
Was There Anything I Didn’t Like?
A review wouldn’t be a review without at least acknowledging some downsides to the class.
My only complaint is that I wish the class was longer. I’ll be totally honest, I got a bit distracted a couple of times and got “behind” and then felt like I was being rushed.
I know they keep their classes around 3 hours in length so they can do a 9am-12pm class, and then an afternoon class from 1pm-4pm. Ideally, the class would be 3.5 hours.
Recipes from King Arthur’s Raise the Bar Class
See the three related posts I did for the bar recipes from King Arthur. I’ve shared the recipes so you can enjoy making these at home! My favorite is probably the toffee bar, but the jam bars are a close second!
- Raspberry Jam Streusel Bars
- Coconut Lime Bars
- Turtle Bars (aka Chocolate-Coated Toffee Bars)
I’ve shared the recipes MOSTLY as-is, with slight modifications in the directions and ingredients. I’ve tried to share tips and tricks we learned in the class so you can make an amazing creation!
Final Verdict on King Arthur Baking School:
King Arthur Baking School classes are SO worth it. They are a wonderful activity to do with a friend or family member, and even experienced bakers will learn something.
Best of all, you can grab lunch at the cafe afterward and hit the store for all your baking needs!
