Bakery Tour: Hunger Mountain Coop

While not a bakery, per se, ​the Hunger Mountain Coop has a nice deli with homemade muffins, cookies, scones, and bagels, as well as brownies, individual pieces of cake (flourless chocolate, gluten free, cheesecake) and other dessert treats. They also have a coffee and espresso, which is why they qualify for the Bakery Tour. Sometimes we'll head to the coop when we also want to pick up a few groceries or need more of a picnic than just a croissant. But beware the chocolate peanut butter malt balls. They may be hidden in a little basket in the bulk food section, but once you discover them, they magically find their way into your cart every time. There is no escaping them.

On our last visit we tried the chocolate frosted macaroons and a peanut butter cookie. The big girls generously shared with me one.single.crumb of their macaroons, but neither crumb had frosting on it, so I can't say whether it was any good. I should know by now to get my own when it comes to chocolate in this family.

Bakery Tour Kick-off

One of our favorite weekend rituals is to ​load the kids into the car, stop at a bakery/cafe, go for a nice long drive through the countryside while we sip our coffee, and end up someplace for the kids to play and eat a bakery treat. If we time it so that the nice long drive coincides with nap, Dave and I get to talk - with no interruptions (other than the unavoidable "I need to pee! She's touching me! I'm thirsty! Mom, she's putting her feet in Alexandra's face again!") It is an outing we look forward to all week.

We have our favorite bakeries, but we've noticed many others while driving around... so we've decided it would be a very good idea to try them all. A tour of Vermont bakeries. And so I introduce this new series:

​I thought I'd kick off with an outing to our favorite bakery: Birchgrove Baking.

What I love most about Birchgrove is that everything they make is beautiful and they always have a selection that includes the basics (like almond croissants, savory scones, and chocolate chip cookies) as well gourmet pastries and desserts (like banana caramel tart and cherry pistachio orange cookies). You never know exactly what will be there and I love asking what everything is - if for no other reason than to hear about the ingredients and flavors they put together. Also, best lattes in town. 

The kids love the cookies - chocolate chip is the favorite, but this week we were tempted by their sugar cookie.​