Getting Started – Energy Cookie

Testing suggests that you can mix the cookie dough and delay portioning and baking for up to 72 hours, that’s three days!

Our fearless leader, Katherine Kehrli, likes to whip up a double batch then bake off two or three sheet trays at a time over the subsequent evenings.

You definitely need to let the dough “hydrate” soak up the liquid in an overnight rest period. But, don’t feel like you have to rush right to baking. If your schedule gets interrupted know that you can still make these delicious cookies 24, 48 and even 72 hours later.

After 72 hours, you’ll notice that the dough starts to “seep,” releasing the liquid. That’s not the best for a successful bake. You can try stirring and incorporating that moisture back in, but basically, the grains are saying they’re done. Hydration is over, and the cell structure is releasing some moisture.

The great thing about Community Loaves is that you can literally bake whenever it works for your personal schedule, as long as you have access to a freezer.

However, if you don’t have access to a freezer or freezer bank, then you are a Saturday baker. You’ll want to bake on Saturday, package the items on Sunday (which provides plenty of time for loaves and cookies to cool), and then transport them to your designated hub.

Otherwise, you can bake any day of the week that suits your schedule. You’ll still package these beauties up the next day after they’ve had plenty of time to cool (see our Packaging and Freezing guidelines). Then pop the packaged items into your freezer or get them to a freezer bank. What’s a freezer bank? Learn more here.

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.