Zingerman's Snackboard Gift Baskets

All of our Zingerman’s Bakehouse pastries and coffee cakes are baked with full-flavored ingredients, but without preservatives. The good news is we’ve done the hard work of tasting and testing to ensure that they can be enjoyed for weeks to come.

If enjoying soon, keep them at room temperature.

Each baked good will have an “eat or freeze by” sticker that is about two weeks from when the package ships out. If enjoying the treats within a week or so of delivery, they can be kept at room temperature in the packaging they arrived in or in a plastic bag. Avoid the refrigerator, it can ruin the texture.

If enjoying later, keep them in the freezer.

For longer term storage, all of our baked goods freeze well for up to three months. They can be stored in the freezer in their original packaging or, if they’ve been opened, double wrapped in plastic bags. 

After the freezer, it is best to allow frozen pastries and coffee cakes to defrost slowly at room temperature in the packaging. That’s all–though with some pastries like scones, a little warm up in an oven will make them extra delicious. 

What’s the shelf life on cheese?

• Hard, aged cheeses stay good for a long time. Many days for sure. Sometimes weeks. Bigger hunks of cheese last longer. If it looks and smelled as expected, it’s likely still great.

• What if it’s got a little mold on it? A little mold is no problem. It’s a good sign, it means the cheese is alive. Scrape it off with a knife. But if there’s a lot of mold and it’s turning dark and funky it’s time to say goodbye.

• Soft cheeses and cheese spreads (like pimento and liptauer) are best eaten within a week or two of receiving them.

How do we ship artisan cheese year-round across the country?

In warmer months (early April to mid September), we ship cheese with two business day service plus warm weather care. We employ an ice pack and insulation defensive strategy to protect against warm delivery trucks and warm warehouses and ensure your shipment arrives in great shape.

The rest of the year (late September to the end of March), the shipping method will either be flat rate service (1-4 business days) for our durable hard, aged cheeses or two business day service for our more perishable soft cheeses and cheese spreads.

Hard cheeses have been carefully selected to withstand a longer transit time. Don’t worry if it arrives a bit warm or a bit cold – cheese is durable.

How should the cheese be stored once it arrives?

• Store cheese in the fridge, ideally in the spot closest to 50 degrees. That will likely be the door of your refrigerator or in a drawer where the temperature is consistent but not too cold.

• We wrap hand-cut wedges of cheese in a cheese bag before shipment, and you can continue to keep the cheese in that cheese bag. The next best option would be parchment or wax paper.

• After you open the cheese for a nibble, any remainders can be put back into the bag and closed with a simple roll or fold. 

• Do not freeze your cheese! Cheese is a living thing. Freezing will stop the natural processes that keep cheese so tasty. 

How should the cheese be served?

Regardless of the kind of cheese, it’s best to take it out of the fridge about 20 to 30 minutes before serving it. Cheese tastes better at room temperature. It makes a world of difference: the aromas expand, becoming more complex; more of the fat spreads on your tongue, which makes the flavor more intense. When cheese is warm you’ll eat less of it and enjoy it more.

Virginia Diner Peanuts are unmatched in flavor for a couple reasons. One, they start with great peanuts. And two, they fry them.

Arriving in Great Peanut Country.

You enter Wakefield, Virginia on Highway 460E. It’s a four-lane road where the vistas alternate between crowded trees, kudzu covered abandoned houses, high fields of corn, low fields of peanuts. When you pass the fields the air is warm. When you hit a stand of trees the temperature changes, you hit a patch of cool, dark air. A few roadside shops do business in heavy machinery. The only other vehicles seem to be trucks hauling lumber. There are some old motels. There are billboards advertising a festival called “Pigs, peanuts and pines.” You are in peanut country and you’re about to arrive at Virginia Diner.

Virginia Diner buys super large extra whole Virginia peanuts, the top 2% of the crop.

They’re different than America’s most common nut, the runner, which is smaller, rounder, shaped more like a pea than the long, lozenge-shaped Virginia nut. (Planters uses runners, as does Snickers and most peanut butter manufacturers.) Their size and density contribute to the terrific crunch.

Virginia Diner peanuts are fried.

Growing up in Michigan I knew of peanuts two ways: roasted in the shell or out of the shell. Virginia Diner, however, has always fried them. The diner originally made them in small batches in their french fryers right on the kitchen line. When they got too much business they built a small fry facility out back. They didn’t automate, they just bought more french fryers. (This makes me wonder why more restaurants don’t offer freshly fried peanuts?)

You won’t be able to see any evidence of frying in your nut. The shelled peanuts look clean and blond in the tin. So what’s the difference between a fried peanut and a roasted peanut? To me the main difference is texture. To some extent you can think of the difference between potatoes French fried and roasted. French fries are crispier, with a textural pop. Fried peanuts have that same crispy, satisfying crunch. And unlike French fries, fried peanuts keep their texture in the tin. Weeks after opening—a length of time I can honestly say I’ve only experienced once, and by sheer force of will—they still have a zip to them that roasted nuts lack.

Virginia Diner blanches their peanuts before frying.

It’s a step few peanut fryers take. It adds time and expense, but it also stops the peanut from absorbing much oil in the fryer. Eat a handful of Virginia Diner peanuts and your hands are remarkably oil-free. They don’t leave any grease in your mouth. As anyone who’s fried food at home knows it’s a bit of a technical feat to fry to the correct texture with no greasiness.