Wolferman's

Wolferman's is a "bakery", generally known for gift baskets and mail-order delivery of baked goods.  Some of their gift packages are also sold at larger department stores like Macy's, and are also distributed through Harry & David's.

They make just about every kind of bread product you can imagine, mostly breakfast items like bagels, scones, muffins, english muffins, tea breads, and coffee cakes, along with all your standard breakfast pastries like croissants, both sweet and savory.  And of course they have desserts, including pies, cheesecakes, cookies, brownies, and more.

All of the above can be made into elaborate towers and whatnot for any occasion, with other gourmet pantry items like jams, teas, and baking mixes thrown in.

I haven't ever ordered myself from Wolferman's, but, my aunt sends my family a box every year, so I've tried many items.

I'm always excited ... but it took a long time to find a product that I thought was good.  Finally, in 2020 ...  I was pleasantly surprised.  Finally, a real, legit, hit.

English Muffins

"Wolferman's® English muffins come in a wonderful variety of flavors and styles. Among our most popular types are our super-thick signature muffins. They are more substantial English muffins than you will find elsewhere. For a delicious and satisfying breakfast or brunch treat or snack, top them with one of our gourmet fruit preserves, indulgent butters, and other fabulous toppings. And our world-famous, super-thick signature English muffins come in a variety of delectable flavors. Each is hand-selected to be uniquely satisfying."

I think the English muffins are Wolferman's signature product, available in an incredible array of flavors, in regular size, mini, and even gluten-free.  They also make more traditional crumpets.

They arrive fresh, but are easily frozen, so my mom often has a stash in her freezer.  They are much larger than standard english muffins.  

Flavors range from fairly standard choices like their 1910 "Original Recipe", cinnamon raisin, sourdough, and multi-grain, to more interesting options like blueberry, cranberry citrus, and even cherry blossom.

I've tried a few over the years, and have always been impressed with how lofty they are and how defined the nooks and crannies are.  Nothing like Thomas english muffins!

Sweet Rolls

For years, my aunt always sent boxes of sweet rolls, like classic cinnamon rolls and decadent nutty sticky buns at Christmas time.  I was always excited, except, well, my mom makes really, really, really good sticky buns, and they are always part of her Christmas baking agenda.  And I always indulge in many, many sticky buns, as she always makes me my own unbaked ones, frozen in small batches, for me to pop in oven whenever I want.

The Wolferman's ones just can't measure up to my mom's versions, made from a King Arthur flour recipe that we had tuned over the years, made fresh nearly every morning I am there.  That said, they do look really impressive so I finally tried them, the first time, opting to bake them up for an event I was attending, when I needed a last minute item to contribute (my mom had entirely snubbed these, not even wanting to try!).  I've had a few other times since, always drawn in by how good they *look*.

I've also tried the Nutty Sticky Buns, but they don't come with icing, and directly compete with my mom's versions, so after taking a few bites, realizing the dough was the same dried out style as the regular ones, I quickly left these for others. But finally, finally I found some I liked ...

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Classic Cinnamon Rolls. 

"Enjoy homemade flavor in a fraction of the time. Handcrafted in our own bakery, we put a thick layer of cinnamon filling between soft dough and get them ready for reheating in the oven. These six rolls come with a generous amount of icing to drizzle on top."

Starting with the classics, which I somehow failed to take a photo of. Doh!

Warmed up, I think they look, and smell, great. I love that you can drizzle the icing on top yourself.

Although they look great, but, the dough isn't ever as good as it looks, and tastes dried out. I do appreciate the plentiful cinnamon goo layers, and the icing is sweet and tasty. And since it comes on the side, I can drizzle just as much as I want on mine, and leave a few un-iced for those who don't like it, thus, getting even more for me.

Maple Cinnamon Rolls. $24.99.

"Add a little sweetness to your morning spread with these scrumptious rolls. Classic cinnamon roll dough is topped with a delicious maple glaze for a soft, gooey treat that is simply irresistible. Simply reheat in your own oven for homemade flavor in a fraction of the time."

This year's selection was a single item: cinnamon rolls.  But not the same lackluster regular cinnamon rolls I've had before from Wolferman's - these were maple glazed.  They came pre-glazed.  I was still skeptical, particularly with the glaze already on, icing cinnamon rolls after baking is more standard ...

The tray contained 6 massive rolls - 1lb, 13oz for just 6 rolls! And yes, the nutrition facts confirmed: each one, 570 calories and 63g sugar!  You could certainly cut them in half if incorporating into a brunch spread.

We didn't do a Christmas brunch this year however (#covid), nor did we do a get together of any kind, so, baking the full tray at once didn't make sense.  Had I wanted to, instructions were simple: remove plastic wrap, cover with aluminum, bake for 10-15 if from fridge, 20-25 from frozen.  

I stashed them in the freezer, not particularly impressed with the visuals either.

Maple Cinnamon Rolls: Unwrapped.

I opted to try one myself one afternoon, a la mode, for dessert.  Once unwrapped, they did look a touch better, although I strategically took a center roll, as it had more icing, the icing wasn't as nicely distributed to the edge rolls well.

I took only half, to give these a try.  Threw into the toaster oven, covered with foil, for ... I dunno, 15 mins?  The rest went back in freezer.

Maple Cinnamon Roll: Cross Section.

Here you can see it, baked.

It was actually really good.  For once, the dough lived up - I did add some water in while baking, tinted with foil to keep moist, but I'm not 100% sure that is necessary.  The dough was sweet, puffy, not dried out, nicely risen.  Not amazing, but good.

Between layers of dough, cinnamon filling, sweet, plenty of it. 

The base cinnamon roll was good, no question.

They came pre-glazed with maple glaze.  This is really what made the rolls.  It was soooo sweet, sooooo sticky, and just really transformed a good cinnamon roll into a wonderful one.  Having them pre-iced was a bit odd, since usually you ice after they bake, and it did melt in quite a bit, and it certainly wasn't well distributed, the edge pieces missing out, but of course I went for a middle one.  It did mostly ooze off, but, I still liked it quite a bit.

I added maple ice cream on top, which was a wonderful pairing.  I really loved the warm moist sweet roll, the sticky glaze, and the complimentary cold ice cream.  I had the second half the next day warmed with vanilla ice cream and some Cool Whip, which also worked fine, the double maple not actually required.

I think without ice cream or whipped cream they would make a fine breakfast/brunch item, although, quite sweet with that glaze.

***+ ... maaaaybe **** actually.  I, um, gladly didn't mention to anyone else how good they were, opting to just bake them off one at a time for myself.

Christmas Tree Cinnamon Rolls. $39.99.

"A tree shape with 10 classic cinnamon rolls, 8 tubes of icing, and sprinkles."

The next year's Wolferman's gift from my aunt was perfect for pulling out at our Christmas morning brunch: cinnamon rolls, but arranged like a tree, and complete with DIY icing AND Christmas sprinkles.  It meant that those that didn't want sweet things early in the morning could have an un-iced roll, and the kids (and kids at heart!) could load their rolls with icing and sprinkles and have fun decorating.  A winning item, all around.

Classic Cinnamon Roll: Iced.

The rolls were ... fine.  They tasted highly processed, and the dough was a bit dry, but the cinnamon flavor was good, and the taste was very "classic" if you know what I mean.  They tasted like a generic cinnamon roll should, and could easily have come from any mall food court.  I kinda liked them more just cold direct from freezer than warmed up, which I know sounds really odd.

The icing, also fine.  Sweet.  It melted on nicely when applied to a hot roll.  I had to laugh at the 10 rolls and 8 tubes of icing, which, although it was plenty, seemed like an odd packaging choice.  

So, overall, nothing extraordinary here, but not bad.  Not really an appropriate breakfast item, but, warmed up with icing and a scoop of vanilla ice cream, I was happy enough to have one for dessert.

***.

Kringle Wreaths

"Watch faces light up at your next brunch when you serve a trio of delectable Kringle wreaths. Based on a traditional Danish holiday treat, each of these pastries features a flavorful, flaky crust and sweet filling. This exclusive delight includes one Kringle pastry filled with velvety vanilla crème that is delightful served cold, one filled with pecan, and one made with tart granny smith apples and a hint of cinnamon, both of which are delicious when warmed. All three are drizzled with icing."

Kringle.  Not an item I was familiar with until a couple years ago when I had the almond marzipan version from Trader Joe's, and loved it.  Kringle is a traditional danish pastry, basically, uh, a large oval ring shaped pastry, made with layers of danish dough, usually filled with something, and iced.  I'm not sure why they aren't more popular, but popularity in the US seems highly regionalized.

Wolferman's makes kringle in a variety of flavors, ranging from fruity raspberry to nutty options like pecan to decadent cream filled.  They have seasonal specialties like a pumpkin creme version with streusel topping and caramel icing, or a holiday cranberry one.  Most come topped with icing, although a few have chocolate fudge topping.

The first time I had these, we received the "Kringle Wreath Trio", with a chocolate glazed cream filed eclair, iced apple cinnamon, and pecan praline versions.  The next time, it was a duo, with a raspberry iced version, and the pecan praline again.

Packaging.

The kringles arrived on cardboard trays, wrapped in plastic wrap, and then wrapped in paper wrapping.  They were not frozen, but the package let us know that we should freeze if we weren't using right away.

Chocolate Eclair Kringle.

The first one we tried was the chocolate eclair, basically a hybrid between an eclair or Boston cream donut with a danish, with chocolate fudge icing and cream filling.  The icing didn't look great, clearly a bit worse for the wear from shipping, but, the icing was chocolatey, about like you'd find on any Boston cream donut.

Chocolate Eclair Kringle: Inside.

Inside we expected to find a generous filling of the promised "velvety vanilla crème", but instead it was more like a thin layer between each fold of pastry dough.  No cream came oozing out, no custard was really found, but, the layers clearly had something else between them keeping them moist.

My mother turned her nose up at it pretty quickly, saying it tasted packaged and fake, but my father and I both found it enjoyable enough, for what it was.  Clearly not fresh flaky pastry, but, the dough wasn't stale nor dry, it was sugary, and satisfying in its own way.

Apple Cinnamon.

Next up we had the apple cinnamon filled one, topped with regular white sweet icing.

Apple Cinnamon: Inside.

The apple filling was nicely spiced and worked well with the danish pastry, as did the icing.  Basically, just a big danish, and not a fancy fresh one, about like what you'd get at pretty much any generic coffee shop, but, that has its place.

Better warm, and certainly more of a breakfast item than dessert.

Raspberry.

The raspberry version was another iced creation.  We had learned by this point to warm the kringle in the oven for best results.

This was my favorite yet.  Again, it doesn't taste homemade, it doesn't taste fresh, it isn't fancy.  But it is satisfying in the same way that Cinnabon is, in the same way that a toaster strudel is.  The pastry is buttery and rich, the glaze sweet, and the filling sweet and fruity.

It was a crowd pleaser, even though my mother again turned her nose up at it (literally).  I think she was offended I was serving it alongside her plethora of fresh baked goods, and even more offended when most people raved about it.  Oops.

I would gladly have this one again, warmed up, alongside a morning coffee, or even as part of a dessert spread.  Sorry mom ...

Pecan.

I know I tried the pecan one too, but alas, I lost my notes :(