Costco Shoppers Have Mixed Feelings About These Artisan Rolls

Costco's bakery offers bonus-sized baked goods that are a perfect fit for your holiday meals and or carbohydrate cravings. These artisan rolls immediately catch your attention at $5.99 for a 12-pack (via Reddit). As one shopper says, "I buy one package every time I visit Costco. It's the best bread I found. My family and friends love this bread," (via Costco). If you're wondering about the "artisan" characteristics, you can liken these rolls to a ciabatta type bread in flavor and texture. Selling this bread roll by the dozen, you'll definitely get a good value of the food for the money and each roll is quite large, with a significant amount of bread per serving.

If you want some ideas for how to enjoy this artisan bread, one Redditor suggests, "I use them for BLTs because when you toast them they curl up a bit and the tomato just sits nicely in there and doesn't smush out like it does with regular bread." Another fan suggests, "Artisan rolls + costco chicken salad +1 campari tomato sliced + salt & pepper = [fire emoji]."

But while the taste and texture of these rolls are great when they're fresh, just about all reviewers had the same complaint about their shelf life.

A lack of preservatives means the shelf life of these rolls is short. Multiple reviewers comment that these rolls begin to get moldy in 2 to 3 days. To increase shelf life, another reviewer tried storing this bread in the fridge with the result that, "They get hard as a brick stale fast, but if you toast them, it doesn't matter." The fact that these rolls will go bad represents some good qualities, however, and this reviewer explains, "They will go bad but for a good reason — they're not full of crap! Look at the ingredients of most commercial baked goods and you'll see why they last so long. I freeze these and reheat them in the microwave — just bought some today."

In fact, this freezer hack seems to be a popular trick for anyone who doesn't have the ability to eat 12 large bread rolls in just a couple of days. Pull out 1-2 rolls at a time and thaw: "They usually defrost in about 30 minutes. Also, use the defrost setting in Microwave .3 pounds Bread. Takes about 1 minute." Other eaters favor toasting these buns directly out of the freezer, and a drizzle of olive oil and some herbs has earned this bread some rave reviews (via The Kitchen).

In short — these artisan rolls from Costco are a hit, but you'll need to keep a few hacks in mind to fully enjoy them before they go bad.