How to Sell More Flour

My son came home from school with four pounds of flour, a bowl scraper and a package of yeast.  Apparently King Arthur Flour has this Life Skills Bread Baking program.

So there was this assembly where the kids learned the process of baking bread.  Then they were given the flour and some yeast so that they could do a baking of bread — one to keep and one to send in to school to be donated to charity.

Now let me make this clear.  I am a King Arthur Flour customer.  I was a King Arthur Flour customer many years before I moved to within 10 miles of their factory.   Its basic grade flour is better bread flour than many basic grades of national brands.

Still, I couldn’t help but think that the real reason they’re doing this is… <drum roll> to create more bread bakers to sell more flour.  I know, DUH!

We are going to do a baking of bread this weekend, and I’ll even use the recipe they gave us.  But I’ll be using my Kitchen Aid and my dough hook rather than kneading by hand as they say to.

My son thought the whole, “Teach people to bake bread” thing was very funny.  He thought all grownups knew how.  I’ve had to explain to him that while my skills do not stack up against a professionally-trained chef, for a layman, I’m a relatively skilled cook, as well as a pretty decent baker.