GF and Vegan Sweets, Boston & Worcester Public Markets

Regional Dining Discussions Boston, New England
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Wandering at my local small farmer’s market this afternoon in Tewksbury, my eye was caught by a sandwich board of sweet treats at one stall. Even though I’m not vegan, nor do I have any food allergies, the Salted Caramel Brownie was visually appealing, and it’s a local business, AND I wanted an easy dessert for tonight.

I had it with some Gifford’s vanilla ice cream (obvi not vegan), and I was very VERY pleased with it.

Ingredients were: Rice, tapioca, potato, sorghum flour, sugar, cocoa, canola oil, baking powder and cornstarch.

I heated it slightly in the microwave, and put some ice cream alongside. The brownie was very lightly crackly for the crust, but ooey-gooey chocolatey throughout. This would easily be something I would serve to non-GF or allergy-specific friends, it was that good!

Their sweets are “Completely Free of: Gluten, Eggs, Dairy, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Fish, Shellfish, Soy, and Sesame”.

They have permanent locations at the Boston and Worcester Public Markets, and have online order pickups at various farmers markets posted on their website. They are now a shop vs. just a bakery, and have lots of savory items listed on the online menu. If I lived closer to the city, I’d definitely try more of their offerings.

https://www.jenniferleesshoppe.com/

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Thanks for review. Interesting that they put fish and shellfish as part of a sweet. Can you taste them? Or only trace amount, too low for you to taste?

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The list says they are FREE OF fish, shellfish and other common allergens.

Glad to hear it was yummy!

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Ah. Thanks. I read it too quickly.

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I can see how perturbing the idea of fish and shellfish in a sweet thing would be. :slight_smile:

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I thought they were trying to put hint of umami by shaving small amount of shellfish and fish into the sweet. Sort of a organic way to add MSG. Kind of like a lot of Japanese snack and even sweet add hint of seaweed. Sorry, I was just being an idiot.

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We can blame it on the late-ish hour you read and posted.

Or maybe you’d had a few drinks and the words are too tiny to read on your phone. :wink:

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I wish I can blame these. However, I wasn’t drinking last night and I was reading off a computer screen. I think somehow I was thinking this is a hippy+yuppie bakery. Then instead of closely reading the sweet is FREE of fish, shellfish, soy and sesame… my mind just “fill in the blank” that they are adding some Asian fusion things.

Maybe someone should do the opposite as them and add all these “Gluten, Eggs, Dairy, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Fish, Shellfish, Soy, and Sesame” to make a sweet. Instead it will be FREE of “Rice, tapioca, potato, sorghum flour, sugar, cocoa, canola oil, baking powder and cornstarch.” :sweat_smile:

Friday. Just being silly

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Anyway, not to detract the real discussion. One of the things people miss the most in these GF and vegan bakery is the lack of gluten texture from the flour. So what did you think? Did you think somehow this bakery is able to overcome this and add other ingredients to provide the same texture as gluten. Or do you think they simply aim for a different kind of pasty and unapologetically going in a different direction. Thanks.

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Well, I love fudgy brownies vs cakey brownies (although if offered the latter, I’m sure as hell not gonna turn it down! :grin:).

In this case, I didnt see a need for the regular wheat flour. However they’ve combined the ingredients they’ve used, i didn’t think anything different from a full-on “regular” fudgy brownie. It gave me the chocolatey ooey-gooey flavor I want, having to swipe off the fudginess from the back of my teeth with my tongue.

While it worked for me, YMMV.

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