When I go to the supermarket, there are quite a few different brands of flour to choose from. How do you know which one is the best? Flour is flour is flour… right?
Well, there is a reason why I always stick with one specific brand of flour, King Arthur. For starters, they offer various flours to choose from, depending on your purpose and what you are baking. They even offer an organic variety! I had the opportunity to try out their white whole wheat flour which is nutritionally equivalent to traditional whole wheat flour but lighter in color and flavor. I use this most for my homemade pizza dough. I prefer this to regular whole wheat flour because it does not create a stiff dough the way whole wheat flour does, plus it adds fiber, vitamins and minerals!
Another reason I love King Arthur is because of their initiatives to give back to the community. Before my blogging days, I was a Family and Consumer Sciences teacher. In short, I taught students life skills. When I found out that King Arthur had a FREE Life Skills Bread Baking Program I knew I had to find a way to bring this program to my middle schoolers! I called up and found out what the details were, and this is how it works: students are taught how to make bread with a thorough demonstration from a representative of King Arthur. After a demo, students are given whole grain flour, yeast, and baking tools to take home with them. The students bake two loaves of bread, one to enjoy themselves and the other to donate to the community.
The local pantry had some stipulations about foods that were being donated and touched by the students, so we decided to bake the breads in the classroom (I had ovens) and sell them within the school, then donate the proceeds to the local pantry. King Arthur worked with us through the entire process, and before I knew it, over 200 pounds of flour (did I mention this was FREE) was being delivered to the school! Due to weather conditions, we actually had to refuse the delivery and the day King Arthur was suppose to show up we had over 12 inches of snow – so the program had to be delayed. I never got to actually follow through with this experience because here I am – no longer a teacher and now a blogger 🙂 Now, I’m sure if the weather was nicer to us, we would have all had an amazing story to share about this wonderful program!
King Arthur also has a bakers catalog that my husband tries to hide from me. I LOVE fun kitchen utensils and I just cannot get enough! From premade cookie and bread mixes to kitchen gadgets, this catalog is a bundle full of fun. I’m looking to get my mother in law the yogurt maker for the upcoming holidays because she enjoys making her own yogurt, while I enjoy making my own bread – so a bread machine would be great (hint hint hubby!)
You can connect with King Arthur on Facebook and Twitter, plus sign up for their e-newsletter (bottom right of page).
Thanks so much for sharing about our products and our Life Skills program – my favorite thing we do! – with your readers! I hope they’ll contact us about getting their schools involved!