Zingerman's Baking and Cooking Classes in Ann Arbor

These are royally good cookies, and maybe our most popular Jewish baked good at Zingerman’s Bakehouse. To make our Rugelach, we start with a rich cream cheese and butter pastry, fold it up with special fillings, sprinkle it with sugar and bake it to a golden brown. They’re not too sweet, full of flavor, and really great any time of day. In this hands-on class, we’ll teach you how to make three different flavors of Rugelach—Dark Chocolate, Apricot, and Walnut & Currant—and will practice two different ways to shape them, before baking them to a golden brown.

You'll leave the BAKE! class with our recipes, the knowledge to recreate them at home, and all the Rugelach you made in class.

In-Person: We'll end class with a Royally Good Rugelach tasting and you'll also go home with some great coupons.

What our guests have to say about this class:

It's an intimate environment to help you feel comfortable with the material. It is fun and informative in ways I wouldn't have thought! There are suggestions and techniques I've learned here that I definitely want to use ASAP at home. —Natalie K.

The length of the sessions is perfect, and it is such fun to walk away with a box of goodies. I've taken a couple of classes now and I always learn something new. There will be many gifts of rugelach this holiday! —Marlene G.

I bake frequently and the recipes I've learned at BAKE! always receive rave reviews. —Anon.

Remember when you were little and the gym teacher pulled out a compact plastic bundle and magically unfurled it into a huge parachute that the whole class could fit under? Well, you’ll have that experience all over again when we take a grapefruit-sized piece of strudel dough and stretch it out to cover a 24-square-foot table. Then we’ll make sweet and savory fillings to finish it off. This is just about the most fun you can have making food.  

You'll leave BAKE! with our recipes, the knowledge to recreate them at home, the strudel you made in class, and strudel dough to bake later at home. You'll also leave with some great coupons.

What our guests have to say about this class:

My strudel before was a disaster! Now I have confidence I can make it at home. —Chrissy

It was a fun class, taught by excellent instructors. They showed us that making a great strudel is not as hard as I thought. —Mike C.

I came hoping it would help me feel empowered to do more at home and I feel like it has done just that. So thank you so much!!! —Karissa M.

A great class for beginning bakers. Learn the keys to flaky and tender scones, such as how to properly cut the butter into the flour. You’ll make 3 varieties of Bakehouse Buttery Scones—sweet crystallized Ginger, savory Cheddar Herb, and flavorful Orange and Date scones, which are made with freshly milled hard red spring and soft white whole wheat.  Scones are simple to make and really delicious fresh out of your oven at home, so these recipes will surely become some of your favorites to reach for!

You'll leave BAKE! with our recipes, the knowledge to recreate them at home, three dozen scones you made in class, and great coupons.

What our guests have to say about this class:

I will be making scones in my home baking, I didn't realize that they could taste so GOOD! Thank you! —Kristen S.

The amount of scientific knowledge about baking was fascinating. —Joshua A.

I actually thought it was going to be more difficult, but I had no problem following along. And the scones are delicious! Taking this class made me feel much more confident to be able to make these at home and I am a very amateur baker. —Sarah B.

Join us for this hands-on class as we create a world-class tiramisu from scratch! We’ll make every flavorful component and assemble them together to make something truly special. Together we'll make ladyfinger chiffon cake, espresso syrup, and a traditional filling made of mascarpone cheese, whipped cream, and zabaglione ​​​​​— a cooked custard made with a bit of marsala wine. We'll then garnish our finished tiramisu with a generous dusting of cocoa.

You'll get hands-on practice in a few key baking techniques, including whipping egg whites, cooking custard, whipping cream, and folding mixtures. Wait until you taste how magically each flavor component blends together to make one of our favorite Italian sweets.

You'll leave the BAKE! class with our recipes, the knowledge to recreate them at home, and the tiramisu you made in class.

In-Person: We'll end class with a tasting of what we made and you'll go home with some great coupons.

Virtual: You'll need a stand mixer with a whip attachment to make the tiramisu.

What our guests have to say about this class:

It was well-paced and demonstrated new techniques. More difficult desserts don't seem as daunting! —Courtney

Easy to follow along, informative, relaxed environment. I learned some great basics to transfer to other desserts and recipes. —Emily R.

This sophisticated French cake is thin layers of almond sponge cake brushed with espresso simple syrup and layered with rich chocolate ganache and espresso buttercream. For all its elegance and beauty, the Opera cake is surprisingly simple to make (we won’t tell if you don’t!), once you master its individual elements. It’s all about the almond and coffee flavors!

In this hands-on class, we’ll teach you how to make all of the components to this exquisite cake and several valuable baking techniques along the way: almond sponge cake, espresso simple syrup, chocolate ganache, and espresso buttercream. These are wonderful base pastry recipes that can be used in many other applications as well, so they'll be great to add to your repertoire!

You'll leave the BAKE! class with our recipes, the knowledge and techniques to recreate them at home, and the Opera Torte you made in class. 

In-Person: We'll end class with a tasting of what we made and you'll go home with some great coupons.

Virtual: You'll need a stand mixer with paddle and whisk attachments to make the Opera Torte. Also, our almond sponge cake recipe cannot be made without almond paste, an essential ingredient that provides the main structure of the cake. A simple sponge cake, however, can be substituted if you would like to make one ahead of time. We'll be baking the almond sponge cake in a 12- by 18-inch baking sheet and the cake layers will be about 1/4-inch thick.

Would you like a slice of history with your cake? Here’s what we learned about the Opera cake from Janine Marsh at The Good Life France: “The creation of the cake goes back to 1955 when great French pastry chef Cyriaque Gavillon worked at the legendary Dalloyau shop in Paris. Dalloyau have been trading since 1682 and were suppliers to the court of Versailles. It was the perfect match when Cyriaque, a genius with patisserie and an artist who created the most amazing cakes and sugar decorations, and Dalloyau got together.  When inventing the Opera cake he wanted to make something that in taking one bite, would give a taste of the whole cake. He worked on layers and tastes and came up with a wonderfully sophisticated cake. His wife told him it reminded her of the Paris Opera House, Palais Garnier. It was a name that stuck, the Opera cake was born.”