Mrs. Hanes’ Cookies - hand made - by a person!

I wish the blog had smell-a-vision because you would not believe how good this place smelled!  Today they were baking Ginger cookies and the whole place smelled wonderful!

Mrs. Hanes’ Hand-Made Moravian Cookies is in Clemmons, North Carolina.  Reservations are required for a tour and the costs is $5. 

We had a few minutes before our tour started to look at some of the numerous articles about Mrs. Hanes’ Cookies.

Even Oprah says they are one of her favorite things.  Sales skyrocketed after Oprah mentioned the cookies on her show.

The tour is about an hour, we stopped at 6 different areas and each time we stopped we were given a different cookie flavor to taste.

Ginger cookie.

Our guide, Holly, was very friendly and gave a wonderful tour.  We walked to the back of the factory where the shipping area and the kitchen are located.  One of the ladies had gone back earlier so we could see where and how the cookies are hand packed in the red tins.

Hand wrapping cookies.

The ginger cookie is the best seller and also the cookie that can be stored the longest.  These large tins hold ginger cookies that will be shipped during the Christmas season.

About 100,000 pounds of cookies are made each year.

Mrs. Hanes is a seventh generation of Moravian cookie makers.  Her and her husband live next door to the factory.  Their children run the business now.

They advertise that all dough is hand-rolled by a person.  Each cookie is hand-cut by a person.  Every tin, tube, or bag is hand-packed by a person!

We saw her original cookie sheets.

The Moravians came to America and established a settlement in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  From there they came south to what is now Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  Mrs. Hanes factory is located on Friedberg Church Road.  The road received its name from the Friedberg Moravian Church built in 1779.  Nine generations of the Hanes' family have been members since the beginning.

We saw the shipping room.  This is a very small operation.  Most of their business is November and December.

Shipping boxes for the red tin.

Since they were not using the mixing room, we were able to get a look at the giant mixer.

This smaller mixer is the original mixer and is still used when needed.

Butter, flour, shortening, and spices are measured and ready for the mixing machine.

Each year approximately 65,000 pounds of flour, 40,000 pounds of molasses, 35,000 pounds of sugar and 45 pounds of ginger are used.

Sugar

The dough is refrigerated until ready to roll.

Gold Medal flour in front of large refrigerators.

The factory is now over 30,000 square feet.  Since the first building was erected in 1970, the factory has expanded seven times.

These cookies are very thin and crisp. 

Each cookie is rolled and cut by hand, the same way it was made a century ago. Then flavor is rolled into the cookies.  There are six different flavors:  Ginger, Sugar, Lemon, Chocolate, Butterscotch, and Black Walnut.

There are large windows for watching the process. 

Dough is rolled out by hand. 

Keep rolling till it’s very thin!!

There are 100 cookies in a pound of cookie dough.

Cookie cutters are used.  We saw heart and scallop shaped cookie cutters.

Did I mention that these cookies are thin?

14 pounds of cookies are baked at a time, at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

10 million cookies are baked every year.

This is a great factory tour and highly recommended!  No magnets to buy but we did pick up a few tubes of delicious cookies.

Of course we had to buy one of every flavor!