Now Bring Us Some Figgy Pudding

The holidays bring out the best in everything, be it twinkling lights and decorations, the warm laughter of family and friends or the magnificent spread on our buffets and dining room tables. For many, the crowning achievement of holiday fare are sweet treats and the time-honored array of cookies, cakes and pies of all descriptions.

AY talked to five notable Central Arkansas bakers about how they mastered the fine art of the oven. We even talked them out of a recipe or two, to add to your own party or family feast.

By DWAIN HEBDA

Sandy BRADLEY

Sherwood

The yeasts of Sandy Bradley’s lifelong passion for baking are many. There’s the Easy Bake Oven she got at age 4, with which she’d piddle through trying to make cornbread. There’s the first time she made dessert solo at Sunday dinner, a true rite of passage for any cook in her family. Even covid provided opportunities for Bradley to step up her game in the kitchen.

“During the pandemic something came up on Facebook, a cooking contest called The Greatest Baker,” she said. “Somebody sent it to me and said hey, you need to enter this. So, I entered and I’ll be doggoned if I didn’t win it. It was out of like 20,000 people; it was international. How this happened, I have no idea, but I won.”

Photo by Heather Baker.

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With those kinds of chops, it’s somewhat surprising Brandley not only doesn’t bake for a living, she also doesn’t accept money for the treats she bakes in her home kitchen, or for cooking and baking advice she hands out to all comers. And there have been lots of such requests through the years.

“In my younger days, I was the only one in my friend group who could cook, I was the go-to,” she said. “It was, ‘Let’s get Sandy to figure this out from start to finish,’ or ‘We love her cheesecake, so let’s make sure she brings the dessert or is in charge of what we’re eating.’ That’s always been my deal with all my friends, for the most part.

“During the pandemic, I would get a lot of calls in the evening or on weekends from people wanting advice. I’m the recipe therapist, I guess. It’s fun.”

A native of Valley View in northeast Arkansas, there’s almost nothing Bradley hasn’t tackled successfully in the kitchen. But even with this vast resume, one concoction stands, icing and layers, above the rest.

“Carrot cake, and I never give the recipe out because I change it,” she said. “It’s in my head on how to do it. It’s a three-day process that gives that cake time to prepare and age, or as I say, ripen.

“One of my best friends has a birthday on Christmas Eve and they’ve already said, ‘You’re bringing the carrot cake, right?’ I said, ‘I don’t even know why you ask. I’ve done it for the last ten years. I don’t know why you even think I wouldn’t.’”

HOLIDAY COCONUT CAKE

Cake Batter ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened 1 ¾ cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon coconut extract 5 egg whites, room temperature ¾ cup buttermilk 2 ½ cups cake flour, sifted 1 tablespoon baking powder ½ teaspoon salt

Filling 1 cup sour cream 1 cup granulated sugar 6 ounces frozen fresh coconut, thawed 1 teaspoon coconut extract

Frosting ½ cup reserved filling mix 8 ounces frozen extra creamy whipped topping, thawed 2 cups shredded, sweetened coconut Sandy Bradley. Photo courtesy of The Greatest Baker.

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, use a hand mixer to beat butter, sugar, vanilla and coconut extracts for 2-3 minutes on medium speed, scraping sides of the bowl as needed. Add egg whites and buttermilk and mix until combined. Slowly add in flour, baking powder and salt; mix on low speed until well blended.

Spray 2 eight-inch cake pans with baking spray. Pour equal amounts of batter into each pan. Bake for 26-28 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes before removing cake layers to wire rack to cool completely.

While the cakes are cooling, prepare the filling. In a medium bowl combine sour cream, sugar, thawed coconut and coconut extract. Mix well. Cover and place in refrigerator until ready to assemble the cake/make frosting.

To assemble cake, split each layer into two for a total of 4 cake layers. Reserve ½ cup of filling to be used in frosting. Place one layer onto cake plate and scoop ½ cup of remaining filling into the center of cake layer. Spread carefully to edges. Repeat process. Do not spread filling on cake top.

In a medium bowl, fold whipped topping and ½ cup filling mixture. Frost top and sides of cake. Sprinkle shredded coconut over top and gently press into sides.

Cook’s note: This cake is excellent to make ahead during the busy holiday season. I recommend you store in refrigerator for 2 to 3 days to allow flavors to blend before serving.

Optional garnish: frosted cranberries and rosemary.

Jason PALERMO

Cinnamon Crème Bakery, Little Rock

Cinnamon Crème Bakery’s online presence may look new school – deliciously so, as a matter of fact – but as Jason Palermo insists, there’s old-school skill going into every Instagram-ready creation.

“We bake everything fresh here,” he said. “It might sound cliché, but there’s a lot of people who come in for the first time and say, ‘Oh, I baked this with my grandma when I was a kid.’ Or they find something they haven’t been able to find anywhere for years and they’re excited.”

Palermo is the store’s general manager and while that might lead you to believe he’s more about bean-counting than eggcracking, once again, first impressions are misleading. Palermo’s magic touch in the kitchen finds its way into the store’s cinnamon rolls and cookies, two of Cinnamon Crème’s top sellers, and it’s not by accident.

“I’ve grown up around food my whole life,” he said. “My maternal grandfather came from a long line of chefs and his wife was the best cook out of all her sisters. My dad is an amazing cook as well, so’s my mom. It was good to be me when I was a kid.

“I don’t have formal training, I just learned from them. I’m pretty good with my hands and I can usually pick up things and figure them out. I enjoy making cinnamon rolls and just kind of ran with that. I developed my own process for doing them that makes them come out great every time.”

Palermo is right at home with Cinnamon Crème, which boats a much longer lineage than the five-year-old bakery might have you think. The roots of the business stretch back 25 years to the family bakery in Star City, which has infused the bustling Little Rock location with an old-school work ethic, not to mention offering baked goods that many newfangled bakeries don’t carry anymore, such as loaf cakes, pastries from cinnamon rolls to fruit rolls, donuts, fritters, kobasneks,

L to R: Olivia, Crystal, Truman, Celeste, Cooper cookies, cakes, pies and other treats. The variety and demand for goods keeps the 10-member staff jumping year around, but especially during the holiday season. “When the family gathers, it’s a time to celebrate,” he said. “One of the things that goes along with celebration is great food. You have a great time catching up with folks and there’s a sense of joy that accompanies that. Desserts, not to be cliché, are the icing on the cake.”

GRANDMOTHER’S CHERRY CREAM CHEESE PIE

By Truman Cooper 1 prepared graham cracker crust 1 (14 oz ) can sweetened condensed milk 1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese 1/3 cup lemon juice 1 can cherry pie filling

In medium mixing bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk and cream cheese with an electric until smooth. Add lemon juice and combine. Pour in prepared pie crust and top with cherry pie filling. Chill until ready to serve. Yield: 6-8 servings

Patti STOBAUGH

PattiCakes, Conway

As one of the most famous of Central Arkansas bakers – and founder of PattiCakes of Conway – Patti Stobaugh has earned the right, if not the ability, to slow down. Her seemingly insatiable work ethic ensures that, something she gained from Emma Gutschow, her maternal grandmother.

“In my formative years I spent a whole lot of time with my grandmother,” Stobaugh says. “I was the youngest of the grandchildren at that point. She had the patience of Job.”

Under Gutschow’s supervision, Stobaugh learned the fine art of baking along with a few tricks of the trade, some of which are still with her to this day.

“My grandmother was not a trained baker or cook or anything, she just came from a long line of people who knew how to do it,” Patti said. “I think it was probably from living through the Depression and do I have what I need? More than likely, it was ‘Let’s lay out what we do have and see what we can make with it.’ She was really good at that.’”

Stobaugh started out in a different element of food service – her husband is the man behind Stoby’s in Russellville and Conway – and it was at the Russellville location one morning that her future came calling.

“I’m looking out across the parking lot and there was, I wouldn’t even have called it a bakery, just a cake shop,” she said. “I saw the gal who owned it putting out a sign that says ‘Closing. Everything will be auctioned on Monday.’ So, I trotted myself over there, we talked money and shook on it.

“I called my husband and said, ‘You know what? I made this deal.’ And he was not thrilled about me opening a bakery initially, because he knew how hard the food service business is. Now, he’s my biggest supporter.”

Since then, PattiCakes has grown into a cornerstone of the Conway bakery community, a market that’s proliferated substantially. Despite being competitors, she’s a close friend to most of those who’ve followed in her entrepreneurial footsteps.

“Locally, there’s seven us who either have or still own bakeries,” she said. “We call ourselves a cake support group, or our wine and whine group, where we drink wine and whine about things. We get together once every other month because I’m really big on collaborating with other people. In my field, we are just stronger together.”

BLUEBERRY CREAM PIE

By Patti Stobaugh of PattiCakes Bakery in Conway 1 unbaked pie shell Cream together: ½ cup sour cream 4 oz cream cheese ¾ cup sugar Once smooth & fluffy, add: 1 egg 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon salt Mix well & then stir in 1 pint of fresh blueberries. Pour mixture into the unbaked pie shell. Bake in 350° oven for 25 minutes. While pie is baking, mix together with fork until crumbly: 6 tablespoons flour 6 tablespoons granola (or a crushed up granola bar) 4 tablespoons butter, salted Crumble over baked pie. Bake an additional 10 minutes. Cool before serving. Refrigerate.

Paula DEMPSEY

Dempsey Bakery, Little Rock

Being the successful pioneer in an industry often means copycats and imitators are sure to follow. But in the case of Dempsey Bakery, an 11-year-old Little Rock company that deals strictly in baked goods for people with food allergies, the opposite has been true.

“It is still amazing how few bakeries like ours are out there,” she said. “We ship to Houston, and we ship to Dallas; there’s no one in Oklahoma that we know of. At least, the customers we ship to say there’s not.”

Paula knows the struggle firsthand as it was out of an unsuccessful hunt for birthday cake safe for her children and grandchildren with allergies that inspired her to start the bakery. Today, the company supplies food service vendors that distribute her goods to restaurants, as well as baking for walk-in and online clients.

“The main change has been, we have expanded our repertoire,” he said. “When we started, we had maybe 15 products and now we probably have 30 or 40.”

In addition to the sweet stuff, most of which you couldn’t tell by taste from run-of-the-mill bakery fare, the company has also expanded into other packaged foods.

“We have a few meals, like lasagna and ready-made pizzas, which we do here in the bakery,” she said. “We even do dressing for the holidays.”

Dempsey employs an array of specialty flours, such as those from rice, beans or potatoes. Getting her hands on raw materials was one of the tougher things about the covid pandemic to work around.

“We were buying our flours from a wholesaler, and most of them came from Bob’s Red Mill,” she said. “They quit carrying several of our flours in bulk altogether, so we had to find a mill that was allergen-friendly of which there’s only two that we could find in the United States.”

Dempsey started baking with her grandmother from whom she gained baking knowledge and a particular attachment to cookies.

“We would paint these cookies and I was never very good at it,” she said. “And she wasn’t really very good at it, either, but we loved the iced cookies. That’s a big memory for me, growing up with the cookies and being with my grandmother to do it. So, when we started the bakery that was still one of the most important things to me. I want to have beautiful cookies here all the time.”

GLUTEN FREE ICED COOKIES

¾ lb butter or shortening 1 cup granulated sugar 1 egg 3 cups rice flour 1 tsp vanilla or lemon extract Mix all ingredients well, place in fridge for 30 minutes or so and then roll and cut out. Bake at 350° for approximately 12 minutes or until slightly brown on bottom. Frosting 1/3 cup soft butter 3 cups powdered sugar 1 ½ tsp vanilla 2 tbsp milk Blend butter and sugar, stir in vanilla and milk. Beat until smooth.

Julie GOODKNIGHT

Julie’s Sweet Shoppe & Bakery, Conway

Many accomplished bakers started out at the elbow of their parents or grandparents, but Julie Goodknight ups such influences a notch. Goodknight, owner of Julie’s Sweet Shoppe & Bakery in Conway, not only grew up under great bakers, but is the third generation in her family to make a living at it.

“I call myself a bakery girl,” she said. “My grandmother, Margie Bradley, started working at [Little Rock’s] Koehler’s Bakery at a young age; she mixed the icing colors and was more into the decorating. My dad, Ed, went to work for Koehler’s when he was 16 and learned the trade, then he came to Conway. He worked at Simon’s Bakery and then he opened Ed’s Bakery when I was 17.”

While it was probably inevitable that Goodknight would pick up the finer points of baking and decorating, other lessons were just as, if not more valuable.

“I learned the art of the customer relationship first,” she said. “I got so much advice from my dad concerning customers and how important it is to take care of people.”

Julie’s Sweet Shoppe & Bakery opened in 2013 and has since grown to a full stable of regulars who come to the store for a favorite treat or special occasion.

“Our best-selling cake is our regular vanilla cake,” she said. “We make 11 or 12 different cake flavors, but everybody loves vanilla.”

Asked what baking advice from her grandmother or father she still uses to this day, Goodknight said even the most complicated delicacy comes down to very simple components.

“First of all, use only the best ingredients,” she said. “Second, follow instructions. I’ve been known not to measure accurately; I’ve always been one to do my own thing and come up with different concoctions. But for beginners, read your recipe and follow it.”

Nowhere is the love for Julie’s Sweet Shoppe more conspicuous than during the store’s annual Veteran’s Day celebration, which packs the place from all over. The tables full of old sailors and old soldiers found here any day of the week also hints at how the bakery is seen as second home to many.

“I’ve lost all of my World War II veterans, now we’re down to our guys from Vietnam,” Julie said. “They look out for us and some of them don’t have any family in town, so we try to look out for them, too.”

NO-BAKE COOKIES

1 pound butter 8 cups sugar ½ cups cocoa 4 cups peanut butter (2.2 lbs) 4 T vanilla (4 capfuls) 12 cups of oats (2.5 liters) Bring butter, sugar, milk and cocoa to boil for 1 ½ minutes and remove. Immediately add peanut butter and vanilla and stir until peanut butter is dissolved. Add oats and stir in. Scoop onto pans.

HELLO DOLLIES SQUARES/ MAGIC COOKIE BARS

½ sheet pan lined with parchment paper 1 pound butter, melted 5 cups graham cracker crumbs 2 cans sweetened condensed milk 1 ½ cups chocolate chips 1 cup butterscotch chips ½ cup shredded coconut ½ cup pecans Mix graham cracker crumbs and melted butter and press onto pan. Pour ½ an of sweetened condensed milk onto crust. Combine chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, shredded coconut and pecans into a bowl. Then pour mixture onto the crust. Pour the remaining 1 ½ cans of sweetened condensed milk on top of the mixture. Bake on middle rack at 300° for 8 minutes. Rotate and bake for another 8 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.