Mrs. Hanes' Cookies...

Hand-rolled. Hand-Cut. Hand-Packed.

Another stop along our across the state of North Carolina trek was at Mrs. Hanes’ Moravian Cookies. A poll worker friend shared with me several years ago what a fun thing it was to do the cookie tour at Mrs. Hanes’ just outside of Winston-Salem.

We were deliciously introduced to Mrs. Hanes’ cookies when a dear friend sent us a bright red tin filled with her Lemon Crisp cookies for Christmas this past year. I tend to prefer my cookies chewy instead of crisp but these cookies—oh my! I was an instant convert. Yes, we knew that a stop at Mrs. Hanes’ Cookies needed to be part of our across the state trip.

When I called to schedule a tour I was gently told that we needed at least 10 people for an official tour, but the person I spoke with on the phone was kind and helpful and said, “Just come in. We won’t do an official tour but we will do an unofficial one and I think you will enjoy it.”

She was absolutely right. After a journey down some lovely country back roads, we arrived at Mrs. Hanes’ in Clemmons, North Carolina where we were warmly welcomed by Holly, their retail manager.

Holly gave us a terrific tour, filled with interesting facts—like that they make around 100,000 pounds of cookies each year. These cookies are so thin that there are at least 100 cookies in each pound which means they are hand-rolling, hand-cutting, baking and hand-packing about ten million cookies each year!

Mrs. Hanes’ Cookies is still family owned and operated. They still hand roll and cut all the cookies by hand and the ginger cookie recipe they use is the same one used by Moravians for hundreds of years.

Many family members from a variety of generations are part of the staff and many of the other staff have been with Mrs. Hanes for decades—some for over 35 years. The approximately 45 employees arrive Monday through Friday at 6:30 am and work until 3 pm. You need to arrive at the cookie factory by 2:30 pm to see these cookie artists in action.

The bakery’s roots can be traced back to the mid-1700’s when the Moravians who immigrated to central North Carolina brought the recipe for the very, very thin spiced molasses cookie with them.

The Ginger Crisp cookie is the most traditional cookie and originally was just made as a Christmas cookie. Because the recipe has no eggs in the recipe, the ginger crisp cookies can be kept for two years. That is a rather useless fact really because there is no way these delicious cookies will sit in your pantry for that long.

Mrs. Hanes’ now bakes a variety of other flavors, too, including Sugar Crisp (the second most popular flavor), Lemon Crisp, Black Walnut Crisp, Chocolate Crisp and Butterscotch Crisp. You will get to sample all the flavors when you visit the cookie factory and you will find it very difficult to pick a favorite, though if we had to choose we would probably say the Ginger Crisp. You can buy them in tins or tubes or simple cellophane bags

.

If you can’t go in person, you can order Mrs. Hanes’ Moravian Cookies on-line or by phone but going in person is truly a delight. Just a word to the wise (and the procrastinators): you need to get your order in no later than December 10th if you want your cookies to arrive in time for Christmas. But these cookies are delicious any time of year. They also make heart shaped cookies for Valentine’s Day, lemon chicks and chocolate bunnies for Easter baskets, flowers for spring and wedding bells for June. You can even order custom shapes, like houses or apples, donkeys or elephants, for large orders. HanesCookies.com for on-line orders or give them a call at 1-888-764-1402.

Are there other companies that make Moravian cookies? Yes. But only Mrs. Hanes’ cookies are hand-rolled, hand-cut, hand-packed and oh so very delicious as these!