8 Best Bakeries in Vermont!
While bakeries in the Green Mountain State vary greatly in approach, location, and facilities there is a pervasive and lasting theme among them all. Menus featuring fresh-baked, house-made items crafted with high-quality, local ingredients by talented artisans is clearly a recipe for success. Oh, and serving rich, delicious coffee doesn’t hurt, either.
King Arthur Baking Company, Norwich, VT
King Arthur Baking Company is well-known as a baking supply go-to, but, if you haven’t been by their mid-state brick-&-mortar outpost since 2012, you have got to check them out. Their $10 million expansion features a state of the art bakery, café, and an adjacent retail store. With an emphasis on fresh, from flour to sausage, King Arthur Baking Company has some of the best chow around.
Mirabelles, Burlington, VT
Alison Lane and Andrew Silva, graduates of the New England Culinary Institute, have both trained around the world, including places like Boston, Dallas, Reims, France, Newport Beach, California, and London, England. Eventually, they returned to the tranquil rolling hills of the Green Mountain State and Vermont’s Queen City to open Mirabelles in 1990. Breakfast includes brioche French toast, homemade biscuits and popovers, and smokehouse maple-cured bacon.
Sticky Fingers Bakery, West Dover, VT
Established 2010, Sticky Fingers Bakery offers fresh, daily-made pastries, ice cream, cookies, bread—like Challah bread or crusty Italian. With a cornucopia of breakfast pastries, all made-from-scratch every morning, you’ll have a hard time choosing just one. On top of that, Sticky Fingers offers a dessert section that will make your jaw drop, featuring delectable cakes and tarts at the base of Mount Snow.
Klinger’s Bread Co., South Burlington, VT
At Klinger’s, they know bread, and their exclusive and unique starter is a closely guarded secret. It reportedly takes up to 18 hours alone just to ferment and 30 hours from starter to crusty bread. The upshot is a chewy crust with powerful flavors, and spicy, biscuit aromas. Moreover, there are never any oils, dairy, additives or preservatives used in the making of their award-winning crusty bread. You can try their bread, pastries, cakes and more at their café, or you can order online and have that crusty goodness shipped right to your door.
Amy’s Bakery Arts Café, Brattleboro, VT
Everything at Amy’s is made from scratch, which, if you haven’t noticed, is kind of a theme with great bakeries. Offering a plethora of European-style pastries, cake, and artisan bread, like sourdough, baguettes, and ciabatta, Amy's has got something for everyone, including fresh salads and sandwiches, as well as vegetarian offerings.
Red Hen Baking Co., Middlesex, VT
Like so many bakeries in the bucolic Green Mountain State, Red Hen believes in pure, uncomplicated ingredients transformed by skilled artisans. Established In 1999 on Vermont Route 100 in the Mad River Valley of Vermont, Red Hen is owned by Randy George, a baker by trade, and Eliza Cain. Originally a fresh bread baking and delivery business out of Duxbury, Red Hen recently moved to the neighboring town of Middlesex and a newly constructed facility with an attached café. Banking on its bread fame, which includes a staggering list that includes the following: Dark rye, seeded baguette, ciabatta, olive bread, pain au levain, and more.
Delicate Decadence, Barre, VT
For over a decade, every morning the smell of fresh bagels, delicate sweets, and steamy, fresh-roasted coffee floods Cottage Street. Quiche, Danish, cheesecake, and macaroons all tempt Barre's early morning risers and, the bakery also makes cakes and desserts made to order. For the savory lover, take-away meals include lasagna, whole roasted chicken, pot roast, meatloaf, eggplant parmesan, roast pork and shepherd's pie, and about 15 other selections.
Otter Creek Bakery, Middlebury, VT
Husband and wife team Ben and Sarah Wood are the purveyors of freshly roasted coffee and sweet and savory smells in this small, quintessential New England town. Toward noon, the scent in the air shifts to baking bread and roasted meats and vegetables. A small-batch, craft bakery, the focus is cakes and pastries with locally sourced ingredients. The kitchen, offering soups, sandwiches, and house-made condiments, dressings, and sauces, sticks to the same mantra: “If you want to know what’s in it just ask—we make it all in house.”
