Source Bakery - by Amy Allen
I am drawn to cafes where you can sip coffee and enjoy a fresh breakfast sandwich, or perhaps indulge in a chocolate chip cookie or pastry made with love. Source Bakery in Gloucester, MA, is one of these places.
For you Gloucester long timers, you will recognize the location that’s just off the main street. It used to be Alchemy, a much-loved dining spot that had something for everybody. And now that spot is home to Source Bakery, a bakery café with tasty treats.
My husband and I sampled many treats from Source Bakery, and that’s when I decided they needed to appear in this forum. My favorite treat was the apple hand pie. This was in spring before the current batch of seasonal fruit versions. Hand pies are mini pies that fit in your hand and that you can eat on the go, if you are so inclined. Their origins are from Cornish pasties. An excellent invention, don’t you think?
When offered a choice of pie, I’ll choose apple every single time, and Source Bakery’s hand pie is even better because the entire crust is light, flaky, and tender. The rich filling is intensely apple, leading me to recall fall apple picking at Autumn Hills Orchard.
The hand pies are all about what’s in season, so now they are delicious containers for strawberries and rhubarb. Other fillings have included cranberry white chocolate, and savory versions with asparagus and onion cream cheese, a chicken “pot pie” version, and one with Guinness for St. Patrick’s Day.
Source Bakery got its start selling pastries at farmer’s markets around the North Shore about four years ago. Their hand pies were best sellers.
My husband’s favorite was the chocolate chip cookie. No surprise.
The cookie had a generous chocolate-to-dough ratio and a nice sprinkle of flaky sea salt. It could become a contender for our favorite chocolate chip cookie but more research is needed, obviously.
In addition to the pastries, they serve coffee from Little Wolf Coffee Roasters (Ipswich, MA), and excellent loaves made by their friends at Bonny Breads.
Here’s my recent chat with Julie White, the owner. Julie is quick to credit head baker Ashley Barnett, who is integral to the operations at Source Bakery and responsible for so much of the deliciousness.
We use as much locally sourced ingredients as possible, so everything is fresh and seasonal.
Just this week, we got our first batch of strawberries! We've been working with rhubarb for the last couple of weeks. Nothing beats strawberry rhubarb as a combo. Next will be blueberries, then raspberries.
The breakfast sandwich. It’s on our buttermilk biscuit. We make it with scrambled egg, sharp Cabot Cheddar cheese, and arugula.
The cookie is crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside, so you get the best of both worlds. We use Callebaut dark chocolate, which is soooo good. The flaky Maldon sea salt on top takes it to the next level.
It has to taste like apple cider. We make ours with an apple cider reduction, which concentrates that apple flavor.
We were approved for a grant from Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation. For every donation made, they are doubling it. You can read about the campaign here. If people can't donate, I encourage them to spread the word about the campaign.
Our goal is to raise $18,700 so that we can buy an espresso machine, a double deck oven, a dough sheeter—so that we can make croissants, and a flat top griddle. With the new equipment, we can offer more breakfast and lunch options including sandwiches, soups, salads, and also prepared foods. We’ve heard from many people in the community that they want more lunch options in Gloucester.
Yes! We’ve started making grilled cheese sandwiches and a garlic ricotta toast topped with roasted veggies, pumpkin seeds, and olive oil.
The coffee cake. I eat a slice everyday! It's a sour cream coffee cake with a cinnamon walnut swirl in the middle and a crunchy walnut cinnamon topping.
Natasha Pickowicz. She combines baking and activism and makes beautiful cakes and pastries.
I have a really big Irish Catholic family. Growing up, we would gather at my grandmother's house, and she would make spaghetti and meatballs.
Source Bakery, 3 Duncan St. Gloucester, MA
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