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Wild About Wildgrain

Baked-from-frozen croissants from Wildgrain that I scarfed up.

Pure temptation recently arrived on my doorstep.

It was a big ol’ box of carbs.

Inside were: artisan-made sourdough bread, pastries and pasta — all that just needed to be finished baking or cooking before devouring.

Meet Wildgrain, which bills itself as the first membership box that ships bake-from-frozen products to your home each month.

Think of it like a CSA — but for baked goods.

Made by a small team of bakers in Boston, the contents of the box vary each month. You can suspend or stop anytime you wish. But unfortunately, you can’t necessarily request certain items be included in your box or purchase favorites separately.

Baked-from-frozen blueberry biscuits that arrived in the same box.

Nothing takes more than 25 minutes to prepare, though, you will have to let the bread cool for about half an hour after baking.

The box is $89 per month with free shipping included. That may seem like a lot, but consider that my insulated box, outfitted with dry ice, contained: one sourdough rosemary garlic loaf, one plain sourdough loaf, one slow-fermented three-seeded loaf, 12 ounces of fresh fettuccine, 12 ounces of tonnarelli pasta, six blueberry biscuits, and four croissants. The company says that organic ingredients are used as much as possible, too.

As someone who has ample access to many fine local bakeries and fresh-pasta sources, I admit I was a little skeptical about how worthwhile a box like this would be. But one taste had me convinced.

The contents of my box.
The croissants before baking.

Even though my frozen croissants had gotten slightly flattened in transit, they puffed up beautifully with flaky layers that tasted of high-fat butter with a tinge of salt.

The square blueberry biscuits baked up righteously crunchy on the outside and delightfully tender within. They tasted rich, and sweetly of vanilla and real blueberries.

The fettuccine that I boiled, then tossed with homemade lamb ragu.

The pastas needed only 3 to 4 minutes of boiling in a pot of water and your favorite sauce to put dinner on the table in no time flat. Supple and toothsome, the noodles are made with semolina and cage-free eggs.

The breads were the real star. They bake up with an exceptionally crisp crust, one that you’d be hard pressed to get even from your neighborhood bakery unless you picked up one of their loaves immediately after they came out of the oven.

The amazing sourdough loaf with garlic and rosemary.

My favorite of the bunch, the sourdough rosemary garlic loaf, had the sharp yet buttery taste of garlic and a subtle perfume of rosemary. The crumb was chewy-tender with that familiar tang of sourdough. Even a week later, I was still dreaming of this bread.

Wildgrain definitely makes getting your carb fix easy. And let’s face it, a little dangerous, if you know what I mean.