8 Surprising Things the Grocery Store Bakery Can Do for You

Your grocery store bakery section is always a fun place to visit. They often have the best samples — looking at you, fresh donut holes — and it can be a good way to bridge that middle ground between baking your own goodies and buying packaged products. It is also the place to hit when you do not have time to cook from scratch for your turn at classroom treats or team snacks, and it's a great place to fill in for entertaining spreads, from artisanal breads to basic birthday cakes.

But your grocery store bakery has some other tricks up its sleeves, if you know what to ask for.

1. Get a cake customized.

Sure, you can order a cake ahead, but even those pre-made sheet cakes in the case can be instantly customized for you. Just ask for them to add a message, more roses, or other decorations while you wait. Consider these cakes a blank canvas, and the bakers and decorators artists for your ideas.

2. Buy raw dough.

You can usually purchase a variety of prepared doughs from the in-store bakery, from pizza dough to French bread, whole-wheat loaves, even cookies. If you want something particular, call ahead, or just take a flyer on whatever they might have freshly prepared in the moment. Then you can take it home to bake yourself and get all the home-baked aroma without any of the mess.

3. Have your bread sliced.

Yes, all those lovely whole loaves are tempting, but if they just look like a recipe for cut fingers to you, or you need even slices, don't hesitate to ask them to slice the loaf for you onsite. Sometimes, they can even customize the slice size. For example, if you want to make things like bagel chips, they may have more than one slicing machine they can use for specific cuts.

4. Order take-and-bake pizzas.

If your store sells fresh pizzas by the slice or by the pie, they will often let you buy a raw one to bake at home, and you can usually ask for custom toppings within reason.

5. Request a weekend-only item mid-week, or a seasonal item year-round.

You know how your grocery bakery has those amazing apple fritters or cherry cheese coffeecake just on Saturdays and Sundays? If you call ahead, they will make them for you on a Wednesday, allowing you to get your fix without battling weekend crowds.

Ditto if you are missing a seasonal treat like pumpkin pie or peppermint cupcakes in the middle of March. Usually, with enough notice, any item they sell can be produced for you any time. You just need to place the order ahead.

6. Get frozen baked goods.

A lot of the offerings at your local grocery store bakery, especially things like cookies and some sweet breads, come to the stores in frozen form, either already baked or raw. That means they can sell them to you still frozen for you to either thaw and eat or bake from frozen as needed. Ask your bakery what frozen items they might have, and if you can purchase still frozen. That way you can bake off those cookies you crave one or two at a time as needed, instead of buying by the dozen.

7. Ask for stale or day-old bread.

If you like to make homemade bread crumbs, croutons, crostini, French toast, bread pudding or stuffing, stale bread is your friend. So ask the bakery if they either have stale bread in back or day-old bread at a discount, since the price will often be half the price of fresh loaves, and will save you the step of letting it stale at your house.

8. Buy frosting, fillings, or pastry.

Do you love the cream cheese frosting on the bakery carrot muffins, or that cherry filling in the danishes? Wish you could slather the frosting on your homemade red velvet cupcakes instead, or use the cherries for handpies? Ask the bakery if they can sell you their frostings or fillings in a deli container!

Do they have a great flaky pie crust? Ask if you can buy either a premade crust or round of pastry dough. Was the freezer section of the store out of puff pastry? Ask the bakery section if they have some to sell you. Your semi-homemade baking can really go up a notch if you know what shortcuts to purchase.

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