As A Baker, Do You Ever Buy Mass Produced Baked Goods?

[ACSAPA]

I'll admit, I sometimes buy mass produced baked goods like Twinkies, Snowballs, or Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies because they remind me of my childhood and I don't know how to make a Snowball at home anyway.

Do any of you bakers ever buy these mass produced baked goods?

 

[MakeYouABaker]

We usually purchase pre-made croissants, though I've never actually attempted to make them (I could be great at it, for all I know!), and I'm not sure they're mass-produced. I don't really like any mass-produced sweet baked treats, and neither does my husband, but he is obsessed with crescent rolls! His dream is to eat a tube of them a day (and he easily could), but I always feel so funny when I "bake" them, so I tend to not make them that often. That being said, I do every-so-often really crave some mass-produced Pepperidge Farm bread...

 

[ACSAPA]

We usually purchase pre-made croissants, though I've never actually attempted to make them (I could be great at it, for all I know!), and I'm not sure they're mass-produced. I don't really like any mass-produced sweet baked treats, and neither does my husband, but he is obsessed with crescent rolls! His dream is to eat a tube of them a day (and he easily could), but I always feel so funny when I "bake" them, so I tend to not make them that often. That being said, I do every-so-often really crave some mass-produced Pepperidge Farm bread...

The Pepperidge Farm raisin bread is pretty good. I also like the orange Milano cookies and I don't know how to duplicate them at home, so I buy them.

 

[MakeYouABaker]

The Pepperidge Farm raisin bread is pretty good. I also like the orange Milano cookies and I don't know how to duplicate them at home, so I buy them.

I've never tried orange Milano cookies--I didn't even know they existed! My significant other loooves Milanos; his mum is not a baker by any means, so most of the baked goods he grew up loving were mass-produced. That being said, my mum isn't a tremendous baker, either, but I caught the bug early and kept our house stocked in custom baked goods. Now, if only my baking skills translated to cooking...

 

[ACSAPA]

There are orange Milano and mint Milano cookies. Orange and chocolate are actually a great flavor combination, so I like them a lot.
Pepperidge Farm also has some good cookies that look like chess pieces ,which Paula Deen uses in her banana pudding.

 

[MakeYouABaker]

I definitely agree on the chocolate-orange combination. I posted yesterday in decoration about using Grand Marnier in buttercream icing because it lends such a nice, subtle orange flavor which is dynamite atop chocolate cupcakes.

I doubt my SO knows about the mint Milanos; I can't wait to tell him!

I have an absolutely fantastic recipe for banana pudding; I've mentioned the awesomeness of watching people fall in love with your creations, and my banana pudding always produces these great dilated-pupil responses from folks on their first taste. For years I thought it was this special recipe my SO's grandmother came up with, but she told me a few years back that the recipe originated from Eagle Brand milk twenty or so years before I was even born. It's still a winner, though!

 

[Babble64]

I actually can't say that I do buy that kind of thing. I will if they are part of a bigger recipe (Oreos for a chocolate cookie crust, etc.) but not for many other reasons. I think it goes back to feeding three growing boys. It was much cheaper to make cookies, and as a stay-at-home Mom I had the time. Plus, well, I LIKE to bake! I also stop to think about preservatives and the extra packaging involved in the store bought items. For some reason I could never get around that.

 

[Happyflowerlady]

I just love the huge chocolate muffins that you can get at Costco or SAMs club. I do not get them very often, but they are wonderful, so now and then I splurge. They actually have a really great bakery section, and the pies are really good, too.

 

[ACSAPA]

I just love the huge chocolate muffins that you can get at Costco or SAMs club. I do not get them very often, but they are wonderful, so now and then I splurge. They actually have a really great bakery section, and the pies are really good, too.

Do you mean those giant Otis Spunkmeyer muffins? I like those too. They're not as good as homemade, but when I just want a muffin and don't feel like baking, I've bought those giant muffins before.

 

[epliu]

We have quite the impressive selection of mass produced good where I currently live, so I am thanking our lucky stars -Bonne Maman biscuits and cakes and muffins, Mont St. Michel and La Mere Poulard butter cookies, Delacre chocolate wafers, LU biscuits, Prince, Kinder biscuits and chocolates. We just upgraded our junk food selection!

 

[ACSAPA]

We have quite the impressive selection of mass produced good where I currently live, so I am thanking our lucky stars -Bonne Maman biscuits and cakes and muffins, Mont St. Michel and La Mere Poulard butter cookies, Delacre chocolate wafers, LU biscuits, Prince, Kinder biscuits and chocolates. We just upgraded our junk food selection!

Wow, those sound fancy. I like the LU biscuits. Even though I bake, I do enjoy my junk food. That sounds like quite an impressive selection of junk foods.

 

[Happyflowerlady]

Since there is just my husband and myself at our house, we really don't eat much sweets. I do enjoy something like a muffin to go with my morning coffee, but it is usually not worth baking for just the two of us , so when we want something, like a pie, we just grab one at the store.
I have been wishing for a home made cinnamon roll though, so with the cooler weather, I might think about turning on the oven. The ones at the stores are usually like eating sawdust compared with a home made cinnamon roll full of lots of raisins and apple bits.

 

[Soliloquy]

Much as we love to bake at my house, I can't imagine baking every day, or baking more complicated items such as croissants.

I have an absolutely fantastic recipe for banana pudding; I've mentioned the awesomeness of watching people fall in love with your creations, and my banana pudding always produces these great dilated-pupil responses from folks on their first taste.

Please do share that banana pudding recipe, MakeYouABaker! Last year we made some drool-inducing vanilla wafers, and I'd love to try the two recipes together.

 

[Jezebella]

I admit to buying my sandwich bread. I make bread for snacking or to eat with soup, but I'm a little ocd about the way my sandwich bread is cut, and I can't cut it as smoothly and perfectly as they do. Plus they cut it thinner than I do, and it makes for amazing grilled cheese. I always feel a little sheepish buying it though. I also used to like ding dongs before they were taken away.

 

[ACSAPA]

I admit to buying my sandwich bread. I make bread for snacking or to eat with soup, but I'm a little ocd about the way my sandwich bread is cut, and I can't cut it as smoothly and perfectly as they do. Plus they cut it thinner than I do, and it makes for amazing grilled cheese. I always feel a little sheepish buying it though. I also used to like ding dongs before they were taken away.

I still don't know how factories manage to slice bread so perfectly without ripping the bread. Those machines must have razor sharp blades.
I can never cut handmade bread smoothly, even with a serrated bread knife. Pepperidge Farm makes decent sandwich bread.

 

[Tina Nord]

I am guilty of buying the mass produced sweets sometimes. When you have to make 4 lunches every morning it is sometimes just easier to grab the packaged cakes and cookies as opposed to filling four bags full of homebaked cakes and cookies. During the summer months, I do not buy and massed produced product though.

 

[LetThemEatCake]

I can admit it, yes, I sometimes do, although it happens quite rarely!

 

[dymon26]

We buy mass baked items all the time. I love to cook and will cook from scratch most of the time. Since, I'm not a good bread maker and those Little Debbie Oatmeal cakes are so good I just buy from the store. Since we been trying to be more healthy I try to made as much stuff as possible from scratch. We have definitely stopped buying mass produced potato chips. The kids love to help me make chips because they get to customize their flavors.

 

[Annabell]

Of course I do. There's just some things that you can't make as well at home, or at least, things that are just not worth the bother. Obviously part of this is my background of course, so things like bread are just easier to pick up from the store in bulk. Also, twinkies. I mean sure it'd be possible to track down a recipe for making homemade ones, but it's just so much better to buy those godly desserts.

 

[Lorraine]

The only baked item I buy mass produced are muffins. Somehow, the storebought just seem to taste better than mine. I'm working on changing that. I've been trying different recipes. It's definitely cheaper and healthier to make your own.