Dunking Adventures: Biscotti Baking and Shibori Dyeing
Where else can you dunk both biscotti and fabric in one experience? (Although not into the same liquid, of course.) And leave with something delicious and something beautiful?
In this two-hour, hands-on experience, you’ll:
bake and taste either Chocolate Oaxacan Spice Biscotti with Almonds or Lemon Pistachio White Chocolate Biscotti (using a few secret tricks that make them spectacular)
create gorgeous indigo blue patterns on either two heavy-weight tea towels or four fabric napkins via the shibori fold/dye method (a little like tie dye, but quicker, easier and no experience needed)
Bonus! You can even bring a 100% cotton shirt of your own from home and transform that as well
Group size: 4 attendees, max.
Cost: $100 per person. A $50 deposit holds your spot. Deposits are non-refundable but class IS reschedulable, providing it’s longer than 2 days out. The balance is due the day before class, via Venmo, if that works for you. Each person must book individually.
Schedule: If you would like to take the workshop with a small group you put together, but can’t make any of the scheduled times, please let me know and I’ll see if I can accommodate.
Class Flow
We start in the kitchen for Biscotti Time
You arrive at my North Park home kitchen and we get right to work mixing up the biscotti dough. Everyone gets a job. We talk techniques, tips and tricks. Into the oven go the biscotti logs for their first bake, and outdoors to the studio we go for Shibori dyeing time.
Shibori-Dyed Tea Towels or Cloth Napkins
Shibori is an ancient Japanese method of shaping and binding fabric before dyeing to create unique pieces. Each person gets 2 heavy-weight tea towels or 4 cloth napkins to design. You’ll choose from a few simple folding techniques, then dunk away in a vat of indigo dye. All it takes is 30 seconds per piece in the bucket. The magic happens as the fabric absorbs the dye, creating organic patterns and subtle variations. You pull out your piece and watch it turn from green to blue as it oxidizes. Magic!
(If you like, you can also bring one cotton shirt from home and dye that as well, for a fun wearable.)
Next, we head back to the kitchen to send our dyed creations through a 15-minute wash cycle. We ALSO pull our biscotti logs out of the oven, let them cool a bit, then slice them and send them back in for a second bake. As the biscotti are doing round two, we take our fabric pieces out to the yard to dry in the breeze.
15 minutes later, we pull our biscotti out of the oven and dunk them into whatever drink you like - from milk or coffee to something stronger. :)
All in all, it’s a creative, delicious, social experience. You’ll only be slightly flour-dusted. And possibly speckled with blue. (DO wear old clothes.) You’ll go home with beautiful pieces you’ve dyed, plus a couple of unusual biscotti recipes, and MAYBEEEEE even a couple of actual biscotti - if we haven’t devoured them all.
Ready to go for it? Click the “Book” button below to see available times and sign up.