Wegmans Cookie Tasting
Wegmans is a NY based grocery chain with locations also in MA, NJ, PA, MD, and VA. If you haven't been, Wegmans is a large supermarket with upscale finds as well as the usual daily needs. They usually have in-store cafes with sandwich stations, and hot and cold bars by-the-pound that are very vegan friendly with both ingredient and vegan/vegetarian labels.
I went to an MD location and to my surprise, the fresh baked cookie case had about 20 selections and 3 of those were labelled vegan. Besides Whole Foods, I've never seen vegan cookies fresh baked at a grocery store, and this sort of inclusion is fantastic! The lineup of vegan cookies included molasses, peanut butter, and lemon crinkle. Now, did I want to eat all 3 of the cookies at once? No. But I'm a blog warrior. And plus, I enlisted the help of my veg sister to nom (and judge) these cookies with me.
The molasses cookie was thin and chewy with big sugar crystals coating the outside. It is somewhat like gingerbread without the spice, so it's essentially a sugar cookie with more depth (molasses is a byproduct of sugar, so being in the same family there's lots of similarities). As I was enjoying this, I thought it would taste so good as a sandwich with a layer of icing between 2 of the molasses cookies! Between the chew and flavor, this cookie was by far the best.
The peanut butter cookie is thicker with chunks of real peanut in a peanut butter dough. The cookie is chewy, and I could tell this from breaking off a piece, but unfortunately it was a little dry when we tasted it. The flavor was great though, and the cookie experience would be enhanced by dunking it in some non-dairy milk to get some moisture back.
The lemon crinkle cookie was the only one that had snap when I broke off a piece. It was hard, but also had a light, pillowy interior. I'm not sure if this is the way it's supposed to be or if it had been sitting out too long. We will never know. Interestingly, all the flavor we tasted seemed to be concentrated on the outside of the cookie, where there was also some powdered sugar. The lemon flavor itself takes home the blue ribbon, but loses on texture.
Overall, these grocery store options are nice, but don't quite stack up to bakery quality (which my sister assures me is true of the non-vegan cookies too). But since there isn't a Capital City Bakery on each corner, this is a wonderful quick, and cheap vegan option for yourself to enjoy or send a dozen to your kid's party at school.
I went to an MD location and to my surprise, the fresh baked cookie case had about 20 selections and 3 of those were labelled vegan. Besides Whole Foods, I've never seen vegan cookies fresh baked at a grocery store, and this sort of inclusion is fantastic! The lineup of vegan cookies included molasses, peanut butter, and lemon crinkle. Now, did I want to eat all 3 of the cookies at once? No. But I'm a blog warrior. And plus, I enlisted the help of my veg sister to nom (and judge) these cookies with me.
The molasses cookie was thin and chewy with big sugar crystals coating the outside. It is somewhat like gingerbread without the spice, so it's essentially a sugar cookie with more depth (molasses is a byproduct of sugar, so being in the same family there's lots of similarities). As I was enjoying this, I thought it would taste so good as a sandwich with a layer of icing between 2 of the molasses cookies! Between the chew and flavor, this cookie was by far the best.
The peanut butter cookie is thicker with chunks of real peanut in a peanut butter dough. The cookie is chewy, and I could tell this from breaking off a piece, but unfortunately it was a little dry when we tasted it. The flavor was great though, and the cookie experience would be enhanced by dunking it in some non-dairy milk to get some moisture back.
The lemon crinkle cookie was the only one that had snap when I broke off a piece. It was hard, but also had a light, pillowy interior. I'm not sure if this is the way it's supposed to be or if it had been sitting out too long. We will never know. Interestingly, all the flavor we tasted seemed to be concentrated on the outside of the cookie, where there was also some powdered sugar. The lemon flavor itself takes home the blue ribbon, but loses on texture.
Overall, these grocery store options are nice, but don't quite stack up to bakery quality (which my sister assures me is true of the non-vegan cookies too). But since there isn't a Capital City Bakery on each corner, this is a wonderful quick, and cheap vegan option for yourself to enjoy or send a dozen to your kid's party at school.
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| Molasses, peanut butter, lemon crinkle |
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