Bake Crafters Product Review

Disclosure: I was offered products from Bake Crafters to test out but was not financially compensated for this review. The opinions expressed here are completely my own. For reals! They reached out to me to do Bake Crafters product review and run a GIVEAWAY for $25 Visa Gift Cards.

Bake Crafters isn’t your typical retailer, though. They are a manufacturer and distributor of baked goods, sandwiches and breakfast items for K-12 school systems. While they do also sell some items to retail, restaurants and grocery store chains, 85% of their business is schools. Bake Crafters specializes in whole grain products and partner almost exclusively with facilities that are nut-free. They are proud of the growing Wholesome Choice product offering which includes items free from partially hydrogenated oils, artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives while using unbleached flour.

After reading about their company, I gladly accepted, because not only do they strive to feed kids healthier food, their foods are nut-free – a HUGE plus in our house of 2 nut-allergic girls! So my Big & Little guinea pigs and I opted to try out 3 different products: Cuban sandwiches, granola and COOKIES!!!

Cuban Sandwiches

Whole Grain Hawaiian Cuban, Turkey, Ham & Swiss Cheese Sandwiches to be exact. I chose this one because my girls love subs and who doesn’t love a good Cuban sandwich? While I was confident with my choice, I was pretty surprised at how MUCH they liked them. Both Little Sis AND Big Sis gobbled them up both times they tried it.

The first time I made them, I toasted the bread too long. Luckily, that didn’t phase them. Both were quiet while eating (a good sign) and had cleaned their plates before I knew it. The second time, I pushed my luck and sent them into school for lunch, knowing they’d be cold (and possibly soggy) by lunchtime. Once again, their lunch boxes came back without a crumb! Both girls raved about how good they were and then it made me sad that I can’t just buy these in stores. They’re THAT good! PLUS, these sandwiches have a whopping 18g of protein, 3 g of fiber and only 11g of fat per serving. Click here to see the full dietary information on these Cuban sandwiches which REALLY makes me wish I could get my hands on these on a regular basis or that they served these in our schools!

In Little Sis’ lunch & snack (yes, she actually eats all this during school snack & lunch!):

1. Bake Crafters’ Cuban Sandwich
2. Baby carrots
3. Grape Tomatoes
4. Fuji Apple sliced and reassembled per Little Sis’ instructions to keep it from browning (she’s a lover of life hacks and they certainly have made my life easier at times!)
5. Bake Crafters Chocolate Chip Cookie
6. 50-50 Vanilla/Plain yogurt mix with Bake Crafters’ granola on the side
7. gluten-free crackers
8. Hummus
9. Ms. Sam’s Blueberry muffin

Granola

They came in very convenient pre-packaged 1oz servings and are nut-free, non-gmo, vegan as well as gluten-free! Click here for the all the nutrition facts about the granola.

All of the granola we were sent was eaten on top of yogurt. Not very interesting at all, but about 90% of it was consumed by Little Sis, she loved it so much. Big Sis liked it a lot, too, but was just too slow. Neither girls eat granola because it’s hard to find healthy granola that is safe for them to eat. They were both excited to try it when I told them it was made in a nut-free factory.

Little Sis was particularly excited and the first time she tried it, her eyes got bigger and bigger and bigger until she let out a big long “Mmmmmmmmmm!” When she got down to the last packet, she claimed it and said was going to save it to eat at home (not in the car or at school) in a big white bowl of yogurt so she could really enjoy every bite. So sweet and sad at the same time. haha.

For several Mondays in a row, Little Sis and her friend attended a weekly stem class right after school. From there, I drove them straight to their indoor soccer practice, which left them staaaaaaarving, so I packed them a little snack to keep them going through practice and tide them over until dinner. When I asked Little Sis’ friend what SHE thought about the granola, she told me it was really good and she really liked them especially because they didn’t have all that extra stuff in them. lol. I love that they loved it but I loved more that they still loved it even though it’s not high in sugar (only 4g per packet) which is minimal compared to some of the other brands I’ve seen. Did that make any sense at all? 😉 Anyway, here’s the snack they had one week:

In Little Sis and her buddy’s driving to soccer snacks:

1. Yogurt w/ Bake Crafters’ Granola on top
2. Cheez-It Grooves
3. Red seedless grapes
4. Cheese stick

When I had turned back to check on them at the first stop light we hit, they had already gobbled up all the yogurt and granola first!

COOKIES!!

Of course I chose cookies because who in their right mind could pass up cookies!?! They have a ton of varieties and I had the pleasure of trying out their chocolate chip cookie, oatmeal raisin cookie, sugar cookie and carnival cookie (an m&m type cookie) – all whole grain and once again manufactured in a peanut and tree nut-free operation. The girls could not believe their ears when I told them this part and eagerly tested them ALL out. 😉

Our first test batch was at home with chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies. Both were really soft, chewy and tasty and made the perfect sized cookies, but what surprised me was how delicious the oatmeal raisin cookies were. My family is not a lover of oatmeal raisin cookies, mostly because of the raisins, but we all separately remarked at how surprisingly yummy they were. haha!

Since Bake Crafters was so generous to send us SO many cookies to test out, I thought it would be fun to share them with both girls’ friends on their last day of school before tracking out for 3 weeks. FYI: The girls attend year round schools where they are “tracked in” for 9 weeks and “tracked out” for 3, alternating like that all year long. We LOVE it, btw, and will be very sad to leave it when Big Sis heads off to HIGH SCHOOL this fall *gasp*!

Anyway, I sent about 3 dozen cookies in with Big Sis’ middle school crowd along with some post-it notes and a pen for anyone who cared to leave a comment. I wasn’t expecting much, and really, just hoped that I didn’t cause her to get in trouble somehow during lunch. Well, Big Sis reported that it was a literal feeding frenzy and the kids went crazy for free cookies but luckily no one got trampled or in trouble for any raucous behavior (during lunch, that is). She even managed to bring home some comments in all the madness. Good job, Big Sis! 🙂

In case you can’t quite read them, here’s the 411:

• the cookies are soo good. they’re very soft and chewy and best when warm. glad they’re nutfree!! – Sammy (aka Big Sis)
• really good! – Allie
• They are very delightful – marissa
• Sugar It is super chewy and soft. The sweetness flows through my taste buds. Its a delicious cookie!!!! – Ben
• choc chip -> it was really good – Camille
• Sugar – sexy and smart – myan (lol, kids)
• It’s amazing! 10/10 – Breanne
• very delightful – Josh B
• Sugar – sexy as lips – Seth (shaking my head)
• Chocolate Chip Very good consistency and very sweet. It needs more chocolate chips though. -Drew?
• The cookies were really good – Destiny
• C Chip – dandy -R
• Sugar cookie – It was awesome!!!! – unknown

Little Sis’ crew was a little more tame and I was able to bring them to pick up at the end of school. Little Sis eagerly offered her buddies and their parents some cookies and collected some quotes herself:

• I just can’t believe there’s an m&m-like cookie that I can actually eat!!!! It’s everything I thought it would be! – Joey (aka Little Sis)
• My fave was the oatmeal raisin – Rawson
• 6/10 stars because there was no chocolate chips in the cookie – Eli
• 10/10 stars!!!! – Eli (upon receiving a chocolate chip cookie this time, NOT a sugar cookie – lol)
• YES!!!!! – Paige (answering my question of: would you eat another cookie if offered another one?)

Paczkis

I had hard time writing up a review for products you can’t actually purchase yourself (unless you have a loading dock that can receive pallets of products – haha), so I did a little research on their Instagram page and found that they did sell these Paczkis around Mardi Gras/Easter time. These are from Kroger but I also saw some at Lowes Foods. I managed to catch the tail end of the season and snagged a couple of these (apple-filled and Bavarian cream-filled) boxes on clearance.

Clearance?!?! Honestly, I thought they were going to be some stale old donuts that were not going to be worth the calories, but I couldn’t believe my taste buds when I bit into the Bavarian cream-filled one. It was reminiscent of the week-old cronut I had at my parents’ house a few years back: didn’t know why I was biting into it other than it was just sitting there in front of me, but that second realized why – they were incredible! I couldn’t imagine how heavenly a fresh one would be.

Well, these were just as incredible, and even more so because they were filled! My hubby made an immediate connection with the apple variety and even admitted that the Bavarian ones were pretty dang good, too which says a lot because he usually hates all things Bavarian cream. Anyway, keep an eye out for these bad boys the next go-round. You won’t regret it! Or maybe you will because you won’t be able to stop eating them like me! I ate one every day for a solid week!

One last thing: my daughters and I have had the pleasure attending a few camps recently and I noticed that all of them were nut-free to accommodate those kids w/ nut allergies, like mine, for which I am SO grateful. Desserts are still a little tricky, though, especially when you are as fearful and careful as Big Sis. Often times, the desserts, particularly if they are cookies or other baked goods, still have a chance they may contain nuts (ie made one shared equipment or may contain) and it’s a bummer for her and her Little Sis to have to miss out the best part of the meal.

With moments like that in mind, I plan to reach out to some of those places to let them know that safe, wholesome and delicious options exist for nut-allergic kids, thanks to some pretty awesome products from Bake Crafters. Feel free to pass the word along, too! Camps, pre-schools, your children’s grade schools, local grocery stores, various restaurants, etc are all great places to share this information with!

Thanks so much for stopping by and please feel free to make my day by leaving me a comment, joining my blog in the top right corner, following My Epicurean Adventures on Facebook or on Instagram – the more the merrier! 🙂

Christine, aka happyvballgirl 🙂

To check out items used in my posts or some of my favorites, simply click here: “Products I Love“. Purchases made using these links earns me a little extra cash to support my bento habit, which Hubby really appreciates. Haha! So, THANK YOU, should you choose to purchase any of ’em!