Review: Jewel Baking Class

So if you are planning on going to the Jewel Baking Class and you want to be surprised about what it's all about...then don't read further! (Consider that your spoiler alert!) :)

My sweet sister drove quite a ways so she could attend the baking class with me tonight so I was hoping it would be fun. Quite honestly, anything we do together we tend to make fun, so I wasn't too worried. Right when we got there, we were given a "goody bag" and bottled water and/or coffee. Inside the goody bags were the following:

Coupons for: Red Star Yeast, Crisco Olive Oil, Splenda, Fisher (nuts) and Smuckers.
Samples for: Smuckers Sugar Free Preserves, Splenda coffee flavoring and McCormick Crusting Blends.
Magnets for: Jif, Pillsbury and Crisco (with a brownie recipe!)
Misc: a Pillsbury pen and a Nestle lid cover.
Recipes: Eagle Brand, Crisco, Smuckers and the 7 recipes they discussed and sampled. Yes, sampled!

They rolled right into discussing 7 different recipes and followed each recipe with a sample of each. By the fourth sample, my sister and I were both on a "sugar high."

They told us how to make Pecan Sticky Buns, Almond-Raisin Biscotti, Crispy Peanut Butterscotch Fudge Squares, Strawberry Fudge Truffles, Eagle Brand Premium Dessert Kits of Decadent Fudge, Raspberry-Filled Brownie Delights and White Chocolate Fudge Cake. Aren't your sweet buds hungry now? :)

Here's my overall take on the class. First of all, for FREE it was great! I didn't feel like we were in some advertising class for any of the brands, though they were mentioned. The goody bags were very nicely put together and quite generous, I thought. The samples were very well made and distributed. My only negative to the night was that you couldn't hear too well, which is important to a recipe discussion. I do not put blame on the presenters but to the dynamics of the store. The ceilings were so high that it seemed to absorb their voices, even though they were using a microphone. At times, they were also competing with store announcements or music. I wish they had a separate room for the class but, let's face it. It's at a grocery store and it's FREE!

So if you are debating whether or not to attend, I hope this helps you decide one way or another. I wish I had a link of the participating Jewels, but I haven't been able to track one down. All I can say is call your local store and see if they are or if they know of one nearby that is having one. They are still offering them for the next two Thursdays at different locations.

All in all, my sister and I had a great outing. Maybe we got a little too much sugar put into our systems but, every now and then, you have to do that! And to top it off, I won one of their raffles! At the end of the class, they had about 5 raffles of some nice gifts. Mine turned out to be a Red Star dough mat/cutting board. I know I'll be using it when I roll out some dough recipes.

Hope you get to get out and enjoy a class, too!