Knaus Berry Farm Menu

So, I’m making dough for cinnamon rolls and cookies and brownies and bread all day long. Then I smell the fresh baked goodness fill the air as they are baking … Yes, I break down and eat some almost every day.

Especially when we try a new item.

Over the past couple weeks we were working on a new recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies.

We would make some and I would bring them home for the whole family to critique. We reworked the recipe twice, so we had three different varieties of the cookie, and, of course, I had to bring some home every time.

As we were tasting the product everyone would comment on the cookies having this taste or that taste. It came to our attention that we don’t usually sit and make comments and comparisons about everything else we would eat. That’s when we decided we should compare and critique other foods.

I decided to start with chocolate chip cookies.

We went to the grocery store and picked three name brand cookies (Famous Amos, Keebler, and Nabisco) and the store generic. I reminded everyone what flavor we were trying to pick out: a little vanilla, chocolate chips, and lots of sugar.

Here are my ratings on a scale of 1 to 5. 

Store generic - (0)  Cookie was floury and not very sweet, not many chips and not really good chocolate flavor. Oh, yea, and the cookie was a little over done.

Famous Amos - (.5)  Not a very sweet cookie, the chips were better, but not enough.

Keebler - (1)  A little better cookie and good chips.

Nabisco - (4.5)  You could smell the difference when you opened the bag. Very good cookie and chocolatey chocolate chips.

My two year old daughter wouldn’t finish the generics or the Famous Amos cookies. She liked the Keebler, but asked for seconds and thirds of the Nabisco.

I really didn’t expect that big of a difference in the name brand products.

…And I have to add now that the Knaus cookies we make have them all beat hands down.

We are going to try other things in the days to come. I’ll keep posting the results here.

God bless you all …

Wolf

Commodity prices have been changing so fast and furiously lately that Knaus Berry Farm has had to make some changes as well.  (Did you know that the price of flour has tripled in the last month?!)

Be sure to check out the Bakery Menu for all the latest information…

It’s Official -

The 9-Grain Bread we developed a few weeks ago is a hit, and has been officially added as a permanent menu item.

If you haven’t tried it yet, don’t miss out on this light, sweet bread that even those “I don’t like grainy bread” people in your life will enjoy!

We tried a little experiment in the bakery this morning, and if I do say so myself it was a HUGE success:

9-Grain Bread

There are a few loaves out for sale right now - those that weren’t immediately nabbed by all the employees - so you can come by and try it for yourself.

I’ll keep you posted on whether this becomes a regular menu item.

P.S.  The family and I tried the strawberries today, and they are just as good as they look.  The best strawberries ever, say the wife and kids!

Here’s a real treat for you to try:

Toast your Knaus Berry Farm Dilly Bread, then use it to make a BLT.  It’s a perfect flavor combo!

You can also get great home-grown lettuce and tomatoes at the Farm, so it’s an easy one-stop meal…

I thought it might bear explaining just what you’re getting when you go for the discounted products which may be available when you visit…

1. Cinnamon rolls and pecan rolls that are baked on Monday (for example), and don’t sell on Monday are marked down on Tuesday as “Day Old”.  To my knowledge there is no policy for what happens if they don’t sell then, because it never happens.  (Nice, eh?)
2. Bread products are handled a little differently, since ideally fresh bread should be allowed to stand for a day before eating, anyway.  Bread that is baked on Monday is considered “fresh” on Monday and Tuesday.  If it doesn’t sell on Tuesday it is quick frozen, and goes on the mark-down board as “Frozen” beginning on Wednesday.  Should any frozen bread achieve the rare age of one week, it is disposed of (in a non-wasteful fashion, to be sure).
3. Although brownies are baked fresh on many days, they are also routinely baked ahead and immediately frozen, as they hold up to this in a way that the other products don’t.  These fresh-frozen brownies are then made available for sale with the normal daily bake inventory.