IBIE 2025 – The Baking Expo™️

This hands-on course explores the production of six levain breads. Learn all about the use of preferments in bread formulation and production, as well as its rich development of flavor.  

BREAD PRODUCTION: 

• Ancient Wheat Sourdough Bread  
• Beer Bread 
• Tourte Auvergnate  
• Wheat Germ Sourdough Baguette  
• Milk Levain Brioche  
• Walnut Porridge Sourdough 

Nearly every culture has a flatbread as a staple, highlighting regional offerings and rounding out meals. Join Melina Kelson, Education & Events Manager for the Bread Bakers Guild of America, for a culinary trip around the world. We will explore a range of yeasted and unyeasted flatbreads such as tortillas made with heirloom corn masa; we will compare malawach—a Yemenite Jewish laminated dough, against aloo paratha—an Indian laminated bread, and learn the difference between pide and pita, tender Armenian lavash and Zaatar Manakeesh. Products subject to change.

THIS COURSE WILL COVER:

• The impacts of conduction on flatbreads  
• How steam preserves texture of flatbreads  
• The impact and evolution of simple lamination techniques  

A growing demand from consumers for local foods and an interest in sustainable supply chains has bakeries taking note and working to source local grains for their breads and baked goods whenever they can.  Join the Artisan Grain Collaborative for a panel discussion on how farmers and millers are working to meet that demand and to build a regenerative grainshed in the Midwest and how bakers are incorporating these products into their menus.  We will hear from a midwestern small grains farmer, a local miller and an area bakery about their involvement in the local grain economy, and how these products are building sustainability, and great flavor, into our baked goods. 

The Artisan Grain Collaborative is a network of farmers, millers, maltsters, bakers, chefs, food manufacturers, brewers, distillers, researchers, and advocates working together to promote a regenerative grainshed in the Midwest. 

Confirmed panelists include Janie’s Mill in Ashkum, IL.  Stay tuned for more information!

This course provides Bakers, R&D personnel, and other food industry professionals with an in-depth understanding of the science behind sourdough and the intricacies of sourdough flavors. 

 This course covers the fundamentals of fermentation, the biodiversity and microbiology of sourdough and how they impact flavor in a finished bread product. 

 COURSE OBJECTIVES: 

• Understand the basic composition of sourdough 
• Develop foundational knowledge of the theory and science behind sourdough fermentation 
• Apply practical knowledge of flavor profile enhancement using sourdough 

Join the Good Jobs Institute for an introductory session on how to improve your business performance and employee experience simultaneously by combining an investment in people with operational choices that raise the productivity, contribution and motivation of employees. 
We will explore four operational choices – focus and simplify; standardize and empower; cross-train; and operate with slack – that have been proven to lower employee turnover and increase profitability. You will come away from this session with an understanding of why good jobs make good business sense, and learn about the types of changes that other leaders have made to build a good jobs system.  
GJI’s interactive education session will include case studies and research on the Good Jobs Strategy framework and group discussions to address pain-points at your business.

THIS COURSE WILL COVER:

• Business Case for Good Jobs: Discussion of the financial and competitive costs of employee turnover in bakeries.
• The Good Jobs Strategy: Explanation of the framework of operational choices and investments in people that increase employee contribution, motivation, and productivity, and drive value for bakeries. Participants will brainstorm applications of these concepts to their own context. 
• Where companies Start: Case study examples from others who have transformed their businesses using the GJS.