It’s pumpkin everything season at local bakeries
Image courtesty of Samantha Novelly
Even those living a gluten-free lifestyle can enjoy these cream-cheese-filled pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies from Deliciously Different Bakery in Washington. Samantha Novelly opened the GF bakery in May of this year.
Image courtesy of Samantha Novelly
Samantha Novelly knows several kids affected by gluten sensitivities and allergies, so Deliciously Different offers DIY GF cookie kits for easy at-home fall fun.
Image courtesy of Samantha Novelly
Deliciously Different Bakery elevates art with a Paint Your Own Cookie Cake. Customers can paint their cookie cake and tag the bakery in social media posts before indulging in the giant, gluten-free dessert.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
The pumpkin spice cake pops have been a big seller this season at Emma’s Bakery in Uniontown.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Mummy brownies and spooky sugar cookies are just a few of the seasonal sweets Emma’s Bakery can’t keep on the shelves. All baked goods are made in-house daily at the shop, located in Uniontown.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
The scent of freshly baked cookies and pumpkin everything greets you in the parking lot of Honey Bee Bakery in Monongahela. Marilyn Stanner began selling baked goods from her home and expanded into her current space three years ago.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Marilyn Stanner boxes pumpkin maple and candy corn cookies, seasonal donuts and a large pumpkin gob for a customer on a recent weekday morning. Stanner, who has a degree in culinary arts, baking and pastry, serves homemade goods baked fresh daily in Honey Bee Bakery’s small kitchen.
It’s that time of year when leaves change from green to the colors of sunset, a crisp chill hangs in the air and the cases of local bakeries are filled with pumpkin everything.
“We’re out of them already,” said Brandy Ecklor, who works at Emma’s Bakery along South Mount Vernon Avenue in Uniontown, referring to pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, which sold out before 10 a.m. on a recent weekday.
“When we have it, our pumpkin bread’s our best seller,” she said, adding customers have been asking for seasonal baked goods for months.
Owned by Jason Stillwagon, Emma’s Bakery is named after his daughter and painted her favorite color: purple. Cases are stocked with traditional sweets like biscotti and seasonal favorites, like those pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin bread and pumpkin spice cake pops.
The baked goods and assorted breads are made in-house daily.
The same rings true at Honey Bee Bakery in Monongahela, where Marilyn Stanner and her daughter, Montana, are busy, buzzing in and out of the small kitchen where Marilyn bakes everything you see and smell.
“Donuts go quick,” she said, noting she made her first batch of seasonal donuts (apple cider cake and pumpkin cake with maple icing) last week. “And pies. Pies are another biggie. I make the littler pies and a lot of my customers … they want the littler ones.”
Mini pumpkin pies and large, gooey pumpkin gobs are among customers’ favorite seasonal treats. Honeybee Bakery also offers a variety of pumpkin cookies – pumpkin maple cookies, pumpkin snickerdoodles; is your mouth watering yet? – and this year is baking up candy corn cookies, too.
Bethel Bakery in Canonsburg has its own take on the polarizing Halloween candy, candy corn: the bakery’s pumpkin spice torte draws decoration inspiration from the sticky-sweet treat.
Doug Krency said, “There’s no one thing that sells best” at Krency’s original location along Jefferson Avenue in Washington. The bakery’s cases are filled with cakes decorated for autumn, fall-colored thumbprint cookies and ghoulish cupcakes.
Cream cheese filling oozes from the middle of freshly baked pumpkin rolls, and customers will soon start placing orders for homemade pumpkin pie, said Krency.
He said pumpkin pie comes with the traditional Thanksgiving dinner the bakery – a staple of Washington – offers annually on the holiday, noting Krency’s is already taking custom Turkey Day orders now for those who can’t wait until November to gobble up the meal.
Those with gluten sensitivities won’t experience food envy this pumpkin season: Samantha Novelly’s Deliciously Different Bakery, 885 Henderson Ave., Washington, which opened in May, is serving up seasonal gluten-free goodies including, yes, pumpkin pie.
“My fiance’s mom and my best friend are celiac. We noticed it was hard to find good, quality baked goods in our area,” said Novelly. “There are also so many kids in the community that have gluten or even other intolerances, and it is very important for me to make their lives as inclusive as possible.”
Novelly noted many menu items can be made dairy-free or vegan.
Along with cream cheese-stuffed pumpkin snickerdoodles, pumpkin loaf bread and pumpkin cinnamon rolls, Deliciously Different offers the best-selling pumpkin roll cake and DIY cookie kits.
“I really try to make good gluten-free items that everyone can enjoy, not just something that is tolerable for gluten-free people,” she said.
Whether you’re GF or full-on-gluten, local bakeries have something pumpkin for everyone through the end of autumn.