By Kelly Hines

I love to bake. When I am overwhelmed and out of sorts, there is nothing like spending all day in the kitchen, kneading dough and baking bread. There is something peaceful in the rhythmic movements, and the smell of fresh bread is what I imagine Heaven to smell like.

But who am I kidding? I have three kids, four part time jobs, a husband that works insane hours, and an evening activity nearly every night. I’m doing good if I get something more complex than cereal on the table. Fresh baked bread is just not going to happen. Bakery bread is okay, and the stuff I sometimes get in the refrigerated section of the grocery store is passable. But it’s not what I want to serve my family, and it’s definitely not ‘company bread’. And with Thanksgiving looming, I need company bread!

Then I heard about Wewalka.

Wewalka (pronounced Ve-Vahl-ka, which is just fun to say), is a European maker of refrigerated dough. They’re new to our market, and currently sold in selected Harris Teeter, Ingles, and Lowes Foods stores, with plans for expansion. Wewalka is old school – no artificial colors, no bleached or bromated flour, no hydrogenated oil and no high-fructose corn syrup. Based outside of Vienna, Austria, Wewalka is a family run company with a commitment to sustainable and responsible practices.

Which is all well and good, but how does it taste?

I stopped by the store in between work and the bus stop and grabbed a package of Wewalka Croissant Roll Dough and the Puff Pastry Dough. They also sell a Bistro Style Pizza Dough and a Family Style Pizza Dough, which will be perfect for Friday Night Family Pizza Night! By the time I got everyone home from school and done with homework, I had exactly twenty-seven minutes to get dinner on the table before my oldest had to go to play rehearsal.

So while the ham steaks grilled and the rice simmered, my five year old and I busted out the Croissant Roll Dough. Anyone with little kids knows that bread is life for a five year old, and he was super excited to help. I just unrolled the pre-scored dough (on its own parchment paper!) and snipped it apart. He rolled the triangles up into beautiful little crescents, and I added an egg wash to the top because I was feeling extra fancy. Total prep time? Less than five minutes. Then they went into a 400 degree oven and I spent the next twenty minutes in a kitchen that smelled absolutely divine.

When they came out, I had golden, flaky, incredibly delicious Croissant Rolls. I had every intention of displaying them artfully for a photo, but my family devoured them before I had the chance. Two of the six rolls disappeared off the baking sheet, and my teenager offered to arm wrestle me for the last one. Next time, I’m going to try filling them with ham and cheese for a savory snack. Or with stewed apples for a sweet treat. And company bread? I found it!

So, the Croissant Rolls were great. I have every confidence in Wewalka Bistro Style and Family Style pizza doughs. But every person who loves to bake will tell you that the proof is in the pudding. The pudding in this case being Wewalka’s Authentic Puff Pastry Dough.

Puff pastry dough is notoriously hard to work with. Wewalka Authentic Puff Pastry Dough has 64 thin, delicate layers of flaky pastry. The thought of it was pretty intimidating. But right out of the package, I noticed a huge difference: Wewalka is the only brand of refrigerated puff pastry dough in the U.S. All others are frozen, making them brittle and prone to sticking. Already, I was ahead of the game.

Layer after layer of buttering and filling, the Wewalka Puff Pastry Dough held up beautifully. Not only was I able to work faster than usual, the dough actually felt like dough! Not something full of chemicals, but like something I had actually turned out of my own kitchen if I had mounds of talent and time! The results after baking were gorgeous. Light, flaky, and delicately crispy – it’s no contest. Wewalka Puff Pastry Dough is now my go to dough!

I’m so excited to have found Wewalka right in time for the holidays. I want to give my family the best, but I don’t want to sacrifice our time together to do it. Thanks to Wewalka, I don’t have to. That’s a pretty great gift!

To learn more about Wewalka and their products, visit them online.

Sponsored by Wewalka