BY STEPHANIE E. PONDER
IF YOUR BAKING mojo has fallen flat,
there’s help. The King Arthur Flour
Company, which has been around since
;;;; and produces a variety of flours, also
publishes the magazine Sift. Full of must-bake recipes and tips to help you get back
in the groove, Sift is in its third year of publication, with three annual issues—spring,
fall and holiday—timed to coincide with
cooler baking weather.
Ruth Perkins, Sift’s senior creative
director, who has been working on the
magazine since its inception, says the publication gives King Arthur Flour an opportunity to make use of the wealth of content
on its website, kingarthurflour.com. While
Sift features newly created recipes, it also
mines company archives for great recipes
that might be in need of a new photo. “We
knew we had all this amazing content on
our website that wasn’t always surfacing,”
Perkins tells The Connection from the
company’s offices in Norwich, Vermont.
Each ;;;-page, ad-free issue is filled
with full-color photographs to accompany
recipes, baking tips and profiles. The holiday ;;;; issue includes recipes for foods
such as international cookies, cheesecake,
pull-apart breads and dumplings.
“We really want it to be a nice tactile
piece to hold and to keep,” says Perkins.
“Most, if not all, of these recipes are also
available on our website. But this is a
curated way to view them and appreciate
them and get all of your inspiration from
the magazine.”
More than a source of mouthwatering
temptations, Sift and King Arthur Flour
see themselves as educators. “Whatever
our topic is, be it bread or cookies or pie, we
want to give people more than just the
recipe,” says Perkins. For example, if a rec-
ipe calls for chocolate, the magazine might
highlight which recipes work with differ-
ent chocolate flavors.
SIFT MAGAZINE OFFERS YUMMY HELP, INSPIRATION
Baker’s bestie
LINZER BARS ~
We’ve baked this Austrian classic in bar form,
making it easier to slice, pack up and gift.
“People really get into the education,”
Perkins adds. “Let us figure it out for you
and then give you our insight so your bak-
ing experience is as good as it can be.”
“Everyone here loves to bake, and we
want our customers to have a successful
baking experience,” Perkins explains.
“[We’ll do] whatever we can do through
tips and tricks or troubleshooting to make
sure your baked goods come out as well as
they can and you enjoy the experience and
want to do it again.”
Founded in ;;;;, the company became
;;; percent employee-owned in ;;;;.
It's strongly commited to its employees
and the community. In ;;;; it was named
the National ESOP (Employee Stock Own-
ership Plan) Company of the Year. King
Arthur also gives all of its employees ;;
volunteer hours each year to give back to
their communities.
Beyond the hotline and website, King
Arthur’s emphasis on education is evident
in its two cooking schools—in Norwich,
Vermont, and Burlington, Washington.
The company also makes its way into
classrooms across the country with its
Bake for Good: Kids program. The program, for fourth- through seventh-grade,
sends instructors into schools, where they
teach kids how to bake bread.
“All the children leave with two bags of
flour, a dough scraper, some yeast and a
1 cup almond ;our
1½ cups unbleached all-purpose ;our
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
½ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pats
1 large egg
½ cup raspberry preserves
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 9-inch square
pan and line it with parchment, leaving an overhang
on opposite sides.
Spread the almond ;our on a sheet pan and bake for
6 to 8 minutes, until it just begins to brown. Remove
from the oven and cool.
Combine the toasted almond ;our with the ;our, cinna-
PHOTOGRAPHY: ERICA ALLEN / FOOD S T YLING: LIZ NEILY
PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHN SHERMAN / FOOD STYLING: LIZ NEILY
The holiday 2017 issue of
Sift features chocolate truf;es,
among other tasty treats.
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