Flour & Ingredient Selection – Cookie

Yes! Sorry for the initial confusion.

We’re currently labeling the cookie base using old Blueberry Pecan labels which contain a typo that prevents them from being used for our food bank donations.

Not wanting to add them to the landfill we’re slowly using them to label the cookie base. But it can be confusing if you are making Chocolate/Cherry cookies and it definitely causes one to pause. Rest assured, our energy cookie base is the same regardless of the flavor/variety you wish to bake and donate. It is one size fits all.

Eventually we’ll run out of these old labels and create a brand new one that will remove this confusion. Until then thank you for your patience.

Still have questions? Use the comments below to let us know.

We recommend storing your Energy Cookie Base (Mix) in a cool spot. In your refrigerator or freezer is best.

Why? The Energy Cookie Base mix contains natural almond meal, which is literally freshly ground whole almonds. These are nutritious and relatively high in natural fats; in fact, all the “fat” in our cookie comes from this almond meal. Unfortunately, this makes almond meal more perishable, and it is best to store it and by association our energy cookie base in the refrigerator or freezer.

So, to keep our Energy Cookie as delicious as possible for as long as possible we ask that you store it in your refrigerator or freezer.

Use the discussion below to share your thoughts.

Crystals Happen!

If it’s been a while since you last used your honey, you might find it has separated or crystallized. According to Master Beekeeper and President of the Puget Sound Beekeepers Association, Dawn Beck, this is a naturally occurring property with honey and is a simple result of water pulling away from the sugar solution. This “separation” results in a crystallization of the remaining sugars.

But you don’t need to pitch that jar of honey. Instead, there is an easy way to reconstitute those crystals! This tip from Dawn, “Turn on your oven light, place your jar of honey in the oven, and leave it overnight (no heat required!). By morning, your honey should have returned to its liquid gold state and be ready to use.

Let us know how this works for you? Have another idea, share in the comments below?

Our energy cookie calls for a couple different sugars.

Raw Sugar aka Raw Cane Sugar – Raw sugars are produced directly from the cane juice in a sugar mill close to cane fields. After the juice is extracted and clarified, it undergoes a single-crystallization process. Crystals are then centrifuged to remove most of the cane molasses. Often raw cane sugar is organic. Costco sells this in a 10 lb bag.

What Is Demerara Sugar or Turbinado Sugar?

We use these sugars for the crunch and sparkle! Both are used as garnishing sugars in baking to add crunch to the tops of baked goods, and is also popular for sweetening coffee, tea, and other drinks. 

Demerara sugar is one of several types of sugar that are classified as “raw” sugars, along with turbinado sugar, as well as products described as raw cane sugar, washed sugar, evaporated cane juice, and others. Contrary to popular belief, raw sugars such as demerara do in fact undergo a high degree of refining. What the term “raw” indicates is that it has been crystallized only once, as opposed to twice for granulated white sugar. It’s named for the Dutch and then British colony in what is now Guyana where the sugar was first produced.

You can find Turbinado Sugar at Trader Joe’s and most stores. Demerara tends to be a little harder to find and a little more expensive. Either works beautifully sprinkled on our cookies.

To support our baking efforts, we run a monthly flour fundraiser. This fundraiser gives our volunteer bakers a lovely discount on high-quality professional flours and allows our 501c3 non-profit organization to thrive! Like a sourdough starter, regular “feedings” help to fund our growth and development. Check out our offerings and place your order here. You can also find a link to Order Supplies on your dashboard.

Locally, meaning in the greater Seattle area, we have a delivery service once a month – you can find a list of our drop points here. This takes place roughly the third week of each month. And the dates can be found on our program calendar. In order for our volunteers to have enough time to prepare for each delivery event, we turn the store off three days before we have to pack flour and load the truck. It is a good idea to order your supplies as soon as you know you need them.

We also direct ship some supplies to our baking friends and chapters in Idaho, Oregon, and California.

In all cases, we strive to keep this program accessible and affordable to the best of our ability while ensuring we can support our food banks for years to come.

For our extended outreach to areas like Boise and Hailey, ID, Southern Oregon, and all of California, we offer direct shipping of supplies. There is a limited number of essential supplies that bakers need to be successful. Once ordered, they will be directly shipped.

Items available for order include the following:

Here is some helpful information on our direct shipping practices:

• Your order, once placed, will go out via UPS or USPS.
• Monday is our shipping day
• Once shipped, you can expect to receive your order within 2-4 business days.
• The choice of UPS or USPS for us is a financial one; we’ll ship based on the lowest cost. However, there are instances when you may need a specific carrier. A good example is if you have a PO Box address. Although the option to select is not available at check-out, you can send an email to orders@communityloaves.org after you’ve placed your order, requesting us to use your preferred carrier.  When sending that email it is most helpful if you include your order number

If you live in Western Washington or Northern Oregon, you will pick up your order at your designated hub location. If you are in the Greater Seattle Area, you may also place orders for pick up from Flour Central in Kirkland; we are open every Tuesday from 10m-4pm. We do not direct ship to these areas at this time.

At any time, if you have questions regarding your order or direct shipping, reach out to orders@communityloaves.org

If you want to view your previous Flour Fundraiser orders, it’s very easy to do so! Simply follow the steps below:

Step 1: On your Dashboard, click on Profile

Step 2: Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and you’ll see the Order History Section. Click “View” on the line of the order you’d like to see

Step 4: Voila! There it is.

Have any questions? Please reach out to bakersupport@communityloaves.org.

On your Dashboard, you’ll find a Calendar icon (see below). We list all of our program events on this calendar, from delivery days, to donation days, to food bank tours, and so on.

If you hover over an event on the calendar, you will see a pop-up box with more event info. Clicking on an event will take you to its full information page, with its location, time, and volunteer sign-up link (if applicable) listed.

To support our baking efforts, we run a monthly flour fundraiser. This fundraiser gives our volunteer bakers a lovely discount on high-quality professional flours and allows our 501c3 non-profit organization to thrive! Like a sourdough starter, regular “feedings” help to fund our growth and development. Registered volunteers can easily access our online shop for the purchase of essential supplies for the items we bake and donate to our food bank partners.

But, if you aren’t a registered volunteer, and are concerned about having time to bake with us, you can support the mission of Community Loaves and your baking habit at the same time. Every Tuesday from 10:00 – 4:00 pm, our Flour Store is open for drop-in visits. We’re located at 8730 122nd Ave NE, Kirkland. Here, at Flour Central, you can purchase freshly milled flours from the Skagit at a discount to retail, as well as a few specialty flours typically available to professional bakers only. If you have questions on availability, send us an email at bakersupport@communityloaves.org.

In all cases, we strive to keep this program accessible and affordable to the best of our ability while ensuring we can support our food banks for years to come.

If you are trying to place an order you might receive a pesky credit card notification that suggests your card is invalid. A particularly useless message when you know full well that your card is valid. We believe we have resolved this issue on our end, but if you encounter it, please try the following workaround – the goal is to make your browser forget what it might have previously saved.

If you use a Chrome browser, hold the Ctrl key down and click the reload button, which looks like this:

If you use a Firefox browser, hold the Shift key instead and, again, click the reload button:

Or, on Safari on a MacBook, press these keys at the same time: CMD + OPTION + R

If problems persist, reach out to us at orders@communityloaves.org or bakersupport@communityloaves.org. We have people at the ready to assist.

For ease, efficiency, and to prevent additional confusion, avoid sending these issues to your hub leader. Their role as program coordinator and cheerleader does not include troubleshooting CL baker website issues. It is much swifter when we can communicate directly.