Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting Helen Sanders, the genius behind the Little Bay Baking Company. Helen has been GF for almost 30 years! Her husband and two children are, too. Helen started Little Bay in her home, and it's been such a hit that she had to expand. She gave me a tour of their new, larger location in Dover, NH. I learned a lot about all the thinking that needs to go into producing allergen-friendly products. I have to say that I have a new appreciation for folks in this line of work...Little Bay Baking Company is a dedicated gluten and nut free facility. The directions for how to make the products are all dairy free. The ingredients used in each mix are listed on the website.
Meeting Helen was an extra special treat for me, as I have always been a HUGE fan of the pumpkin bread mix - I have made it for my family for the past 3 Thanksgivings and Christmases - always to rave reviews, even from non-GF folks. The GF crew would have to have an elaborate plan of hiding this and our other goodies from those hungry non-GFs!
The bread is moist and sweet with all those typical spices you want in a pumpkin bread. The smell of it baking is intoxicating! I've got to stop describing it because this is one of the things I'm going to truly miss this holiday season, since I can't do sugar anymore...
Little Bay also produces a waffle/donut hole mix (does not contain sugar, which means I will need to try it), corn bread mix (also no sugar), sponge cake mix, ginger bread cookie mix, cookie bar mix, yellow cake mix, and an all purpose breakfast mix. Helen likes to hand her mixes and recipe ideas over to people who don't cook and bake much to make sure they are easy. This great way of testing has produced lots of easy recipe ideas on the website for various things you can do with each mix.
Little Bay is now a distributor for Expandex, which, if you've looked for it, you know it's hard to find. Helen is also starting to offer pre-packaged, already baked items. In my opinion, Helen has definitely made her goal of giving GF, DF, peanut and tree nut free folks baked goodies that "taste like you remember."
So your mouth is watering and you need to find these products? Check out the store locator. If you are not in the northeast, mark my words, Little Bay Baking Company products will be on shelves across the country in no time! But, you can order via the website. Right now, they are running a special for free shipping over $30.
Oh! We also had lunch at the 99, which now offers a GF menu. On the website, they've got a handy matrix with allergen info. The one in Dover says that they have a dedicated fryer just for the fries, which was a very special treat!
One more thing, my wonderful husband and I are off to Montreal for a long weekend, so you won't be hearing from me for a few days...
We absolutely LOVE all of the mixes from Little Bay...and we love Helen. She is an awesome lady and is someone who truly understands what we go through. Her mixes make the yummiest foods, and they are so interchangeable, you can create almost anything from any of them. Our favorites are the Cookie Bar mix and the All-Purpose mix. We usually have pancakes once a week, and because the all purpose mix has teff and coconut flour in it...I can feel great about my kids finishing off TWO batches of them!! :)
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