5 Co-op Desserts You Simply Must Try (Trust Us)
Did you know that the St. Peter Food Co-op & Deli has an in-house bakery? We make delicious baked goods and desserts from scratch daily, with shoppers often calling the store to ask us if their favorite is in stock. We spoke to Bakery Manager Carmen about some of the most popular desserts made at the Co-op. Is yours on the list?
1. Tres Leches
Flavored with strawberries and a little bit of orange juice, this buttermilk sponge cake is drenched in three different milks: cream, condensed, and evaporated. Available in single serving portions or family-sized in our cooler.
2. Raspberry Chocolate Chip Cookie
These cookies are made with equal parts chocolate chips and raspberries, ensuring the perfect ratio for maximum mouth happiness. They’re our most popular cookies for a reason!
3. Vegan Oatmeal Sandwich Cookie
Cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla give this Co-op favorite a comforting bite. Made with vegan butter, vegan cream cheese, and soy milk, they’re the perfect cookies to have on hand for your vegan friend who wants to meet up for a socially-distanced picnic in the park. Even if you’re not vegan, these cream-filled cookies are mouth-wateringly good—if you see them in our Bakery, we highly recommend scooping up more than one.
4. Gluten-Free Lemon White Chocolate Mousse Pie
Shout out to all of the gluten-free folks! This sweet, lemony pie (a recipe developed by Carmen herself) will make you forget that wheat ever even existed. Made with almond flour and house-made candied lemon peel (um, yum), each slice is topped with impeccably shaved white chocolate curls.
5. Butterscotch Pudding
Lots of cream and brown sugar give this luscious dessert its signature taste, made with less than 10 ingredients. In individual 8oz cups, topped with a dollop of whipped cream, it makes the perfect single-serving treat for one of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days.
For me, the question of my favorite co-op dessert transcends purely gustatory considerations. Instead, it is more in the realm of memory and tradition. I ate my first Morning Glory Muffin two Co-op locations ago, at the no-longer-existent small building at the corner of Front and Broadway. I continued eating those muffins after the move to the former dairy office a block away, where Jake’s Pizza now is. And I continued eating them after the move to the current location, the former Nielsen Chevrolet dealership on Mulberry. To be clear, they really are quite good muffins on their own merits. But by now, it wouldn’t matter what other desserts you offer and how they compare. The Morning Glory is beyond replacement. As Ira Gerswhin wrote, “The memory of all that // No, no they can’t take that away from me.”