Barb Alpern

Biography

Barb began baking when she was assigned the job of baker at her co-op house in college. Whole wheat challah and granola were her specialties. This led to two years at Wildflour Bakery, a wholegrain collective bakery that existed in Ann Arbor, Michigan back in the day. Four sons and a master’s degree in creative writing distracted her from her baking career for a time, but she continued to work on perfecting her whole wheat challah, while her sons formed their own bread with blobs of challah dough accented with sprinkles, raisins, and chocolate chips. In 2002 she returned to baking, this time at Zingerman’s Bakehouse in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she spent 8 ½ years honing her artisan bakin...