Costco Cranberry Walnut Bread Review
Author’s Note: Not a paid review. I have no affiliation with Costco. These are my own nutty opinions. Of course.
Raisin bread with an attitude.
Alright, so I finally tried Costco’s Cranberry Walnut Bread, after hearing about it incessantly for a couple years. Here’s what I think:
This is shockingly moist bread. Not quite “figgy pudding” consistency, but ya know. Towards the center, it was just shy of “raw.” If you hate dry bread, you won’t have anything to complain about. Find something else!
It’s also an incredibly dense loaf. The package weight is 2 pounds, and I weighed mine on my kitchen scale at almost exactly that. At the widest point, the round loaf is 8 inches in diameter. So, it’s not huge. Just heavy.
For a yeasted loaf, this is jam-packed with walnuts. I’ve written about Costco walnuts before, in my reviews of the Banana Nut Loaf and the Carrot Bar Cake, and I continue to be impressed by the quality. Walnuts are notorious for going rancid or becoming flaccid in baked items. But Costco’s have (so far!) been remarkably crisp and fresh-tasting. Costco does walnuts extremely well. I salute you, Costco!
The dried cranberries are about what you’d expect — sweet-tangy, and soft-chewy. They appear to be chopped, rather than whole, and there are just enough here to lend satisfying brightness to the bread flavors. It’s like raisin bread, but with an attitude.
Speaking of those bread flavors, this isn’t bland bread. It has a deep, earthy flavor from the whole grain rye flour, malted barley flour, and semolina. Still, the first ingredient is traditional unbleached wheat flour, so it’s not overly heavy or fibrous.
There is added sugar in this bread. It’s not enough to turn it into a dessert, but it’s definitely not a savory bread, either.
(You know what else has a gentle sweetness? These soft dinner rolls from Costco. Read my slightly eccentric review. You know you want to.)
The whole loaf is beautiful. It has a lovely scored triangle on top, and an artisanal vibe. If you’re headed to a dinner party, this bread will impress your host. Mine was crusty, fresh, and fragrant the day I bought it. But, when I got home, I put it in another plastic bag and stored it in the refrigerator, to prolong the lifespan. Costco packages their bakery loaves in paper bags with teeny-tiny air holes — to keep them crusty, I presume. But the bread needs to be transferred to a less-holy bag at home to prevent staleness.
I need something to complain about, so here it is: the slices have an odd gray color that I don’t enjoy. Although this bread is good freshly sliced, I also enjoyed mine crisply pan-toasted with some butter. I personally thought it tasted best sprinkled with a bit of salt, and smeared with salted butter. The bread just needs salt, somehow.
After a week, I still had a lot of leftover bread in my refrigerator, so I cut it into cubes and froze it to make bread pudding later. I think this would also make some interesting herbed stuffing, if you are so inclined. Let me know if you try it.
Ingredients in Costco Cranberry Walnut Bread
Here are the ingredients, from the label:
- Unbleached Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid)
- Water
- Walnuts
- Cranberries
- Sugar
- Whole Rye Grains
- Contains 2% or less of the following: Cultured Rye Flour, Semolina, Cultured Durum Wheat Flour, Salt, Yeast, Sunflower Oil, Dough Conditioners (Ascorbic Acid, Enzymes)
Impressively, this is made with a natural sour culture. But it also has conventional yeast. Sometimes this is referred to as “hybrid sourdough.”
Price and Servings
A 32-ounce loaf costs $8.99, which is pretty pricey for bread. Since there are 16 servings per loaf, each serving costs 56 cents.
This is a “Kirkland Signature” (Costco store-brand) item, and the product # is: 1357244.
Freezing and Re-Heating Instructions
The package has instructions for freezing or re-baking the bread:
- Store bread in freezer in sealed plastic bag
- Remove bread from freezer and thaw.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Bake loaves directly on oven rack for 20 minutes.
Serving the Bread
The label recommends cutting the loaf in half, and then turning each half upside-down and slicing it into 8 pieces. This way, you don’t get ridiculously long slices from the center of the circle.
The problem with this method is that your bread will get stale faster if you slice it all at once. While this would be perfect for a family gathering or dinner party, for lonely single people (like myself), it works better to only slice off as much as you need at a time, for maximum freshness. Well, I think so, anyway. Hmmph!
Dramatic Conclusion
If you love nutty, lightly sweet breads, you should give this a try. It’s moist and flavorful. The loaf has an artisanal vibe. However, it is on the dense side, with a distinct, hearty rye flavor. It tastes best with some salted butter, to bring out the other flavors.
The End.
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