King Arthur Flour Blog & Bake: Part 6 (And a Giveaway!)

I had so much fun at this year's King Arthur Flour Blog & Bake (see Part 1, Part 2,  Part 3,  Part 4, and Part 5)  This is the final recap post from the Blog & Bake.. I hope that you have enjoyed reading about it.

The final thing that we got to do at King Arthur was to take a tour of the test kitchen and the packaging facility and warehouse.  It was very interesting!

Recipe details blurred to protect the innocent.

Each recipe in the test kitchen goes through many different iterations before it is perfected.  If you eat something that comes out of the test kitchen, you have to take notes.

The test kitchen smelled so good, I couldn't even imagine working there.  I think the aroma alone would cause me to gain weight.

After the test kitchen, we went on to the customer service and Baker's Hotline area.  These are the people you'll talk to if you call to find out why your bread isn't rising...

From there, we went on to the backstock area, where all of the base ingredients are stored.

We also got to peek into the place where they mix all of the components for their mixes together.  The shift was over, so it wasn't very interesting at that time, but it was still cool to see.  Their facility doesn't use any peanut ingredients at all - though other nuts are present.  The mini peanut butter cups that they have are packaged elsewhere.  I thought that was interesting.

Finally, we saw the fine people who pick and package all of the orders that are placed from the catalog and the website. 

Your order starts in one of these blue bins.

And that was pretty much it for the Blog & Bake!  I managed to go home with about 40 lbs of flour from the store, along with a slew of other fun ingredients... for even more pictures, you can check out this album at my facebook page.

One of the best parts of Blog & Bake was meeting all of the other wonderful bloggers.  Those in attendance were:

Regan – The Professional Palate
Julie – Mommie Cooks
Megan – Stetted
Matt – Thyme In Our Kitchen
Carolyn – Whisk. Write. Repeat.
Carrie – Bakeaholic Mama
Lisa – Fork On The Road
Mark – The Manly Housekeeper
Jenny – Nourished Kitchen
Rashmi – Primlani Kitchen
Tara – Smells Like Home
Winnie - Healthy Green Kitchen
Nikki – Art and Lemons 

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Image courtesy King Arthur Flour

Now for the fun part!  King Arthur Flour wants to spread the baking love, and what better way than a giveaway?  One lucky reader will win my favorite, a pain de mie pan!

All you have to do is go to their website and tell me what class you would most like to take in your dreams, or tell me what class I took that you would have liked to sit in on.  One lucky reader, chosen at random, will win the Pain de mie Pan.  That's it.  (You are not entering to win a class, just the pan)

As always, I need a way to contact you.  Anonymous commenters, with no contact information, cannot win.  If I can't contact you, I can't get your information to King Arthur Flour, and you can't get your prize.  Simple as that.

One comment per person, please.  US entries only, please.

I will choose a winner, using Random.org, on Friday, June 15th, at 6 PM ish, EST.

Disclaimer: Although the Blog & Bake was free of charge to me, I was not compensated for sharing all about King Arthur Flour with you.  All opinions are my own.  The prize is donated by King Arthur Flour.