By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

Little Loaf Bakeshop is a vegan bakery focused on creating delicious breakfast pastries inspired by seasonal flavors. Their products are available at farmers markets in Lagrangeville, Hyde Park, and Beacon, NY; at a pop-up in Poughkeepsie; and in several cafés and markets in the Hudson Valley area.  Check their website for updates on places, days, and times. Selected items can be preordered for pick-up on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays in Poughkeepsie. Co-owners Rian Finnegan and Colleen Orlando feature local ingredients in their products.

I recently stopped by the Beacon farmers market, hoping that Little Loaf was not yet out of everything. Although some items were no longer available (the market had been open for several hours), I got a Pretzel Croissant. Oh, my goodness! It’s been a long time since I’ve had a croissant, and that was in Paris in my pre-vegan days. Little Loaf’s croissant was as flaky and rich tasting as I remembered croissants being. It had a very light dusting of coarse salt since it was a pretzel croissant which added to the flavor. I also tried a Mushroom Bechamel Danish which was a flaky pastry filled with a savory mixture of Violife vegan parmesan, chives, mushroom béchamel, oyster mushrooms, and sesame seeds. Others in our group had a Chipotle and Cream Cheese Pretzel Croissant (a pretzel croissant filled with vegan cream cheese and chipotle sauce) and a Passionfruit Danish. The pretzel croissant was pleasantly spicy, and the Danish was flavorful. They also had cookies, pretzel buns, brioche buns, and other flavors of croissants and Danishes.

To read more about Little Loaf Bakeshop go to https://www.littleloafbakeshop.com/